Gas or Electric Heating

[Midwest]

They can take our lives but never our wood burners....

I burnt mine

 

[Silly Sausage]

That’s ecology unsound, they’re gonna be banned soon too

Question, do I get rid of my woodburner, which I feed free renewable wood (pallets), or do I install electric heating @15p/kWh, which also contributes to global warming? I bet it's the energy companies lobbying to get woodburners banned.

 

[Midwest]

Question, do I get rid of my woodburner, which I feed free renewable wood (pallets), or do I install electric heating @15p/kWh, which also contributes to global warming? I bet it's the energy companies lobbying to get woodburners banned.

I had one in my old place, can’t have it in the new pad. We enjoyed it, although never had ‘free’ wood. Used to buy renewable source logs, cost about £160 per winter. But never had it burning every night. Don’t know if it really reduced on our gas bills, but it certainly made the downstairs warmer.

That’s the plus side. I don’t think you can argue about it’s particulate polluting effect. I know some of the latest ones are quite good, but just imagine what it would be like, if everyone had one.

Guy round the corner used to get tanalised wood off cuts for free and burn that!

 

[static zap]

If you can get the hamsters to be bitten by a radioactive spider, then you only need 4. They also don't need feeding.

That's why russia keeps spilling radio activity.
(nothing to do with their stealth sub)

 

[static zap]

...I bet it's the energy companies lobbying to get woodburners banned.

No just for clean air ,inland -so less die ,
(Early death wastes education + TAX money)

 

[telectrix]

No just for clean air ,inland -so less die ,
(Early death wastes education + TAX money)

but saves pension payments to us coffin dodgers when we croak.

 

[Bul]

I’m thinking of the lifetime cost gas central heating and electric heating. Boiler servicing adds to the lifetime costs. If you’re boiler system failed or needs upgrading would you consider electric heating as more cost effective option?
If it’s a newbuild would it be more cost effective over 25 years to go electric?

 

[Midwest]

I’m thinking of the lifetime cost gas central heating and electric heating. Boiler servicing adds to the lifetime costs. If you’re boiler system failed or needs upgrading would you consider electric heating as more cost effective option?
If it’s a newbuild would it be more cost effective over 25 years to go electric?

In my old pad of 30 years, we had two gas boilers. I feel a strange feeling of deja vu here.

 

[davesparks]

It depends on the system, if you're comparing a gas boiler to an electric boiler I think the gas boiler will always win.
If you're comparing a gas boiler to other forms of electric heating it may be a different story.
Also the method of heat delivery (radiators/wet underfloor) and the type of control will have a bearing on the efficiency and running cost of the system as a whole.

 

[pirate]

Imagine you had a bare shell of a house...
do you plumb in a combi, with gas pipes, water pipes, radiators etc...or do you make sure it is well insulated (fraction of the cost of the above) and install efficient electric radiators?
If the electricity fails, neither will work. However, if you have efficient electric radiators, the cost of keeping your house warm will be lower, over the 15 years lifetime of the gas boiler (assumed). Hot water is another thing altogether.
If you live in a rural location where woodburners are the thing, and you have a ready supply of cheap or free wood, then you are in a win situation, and the extra pollution is outweighed by the pollution caused by producing your energy from other means...and don't even think about telling me a giant wind-turbine is cheap to produce, because it isn't, and it involves smelting to get the aluminium, mining for the copper etc etc
My sister has her own small hydro plant, so electricity is free (it took only 7 years to recover the capital outlay) and she is fortunate in owning a few hundred hectares of woodland, so her woodburner is supplied from fallen timber, free of charge. It is all about looking at options, and trying to get off-grid at every opportunity. No chance for most of us in suburbia, but let's be happy for those who get energy for nothing, money for nothing...and chicks for free!