Electricity vs Oil prices

barnettgs

barnettgs

barnettgs

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Joined
22 Jan 2005
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N Ireland
There were some big raises in oil price especially after the summer of 2007 but the cost of electricity seemed to have raised a little, very little I think!

I think that since the oil price has raised so much, electricity could become a cheaper alternate to oil or gas for the central heating.

For example, for oil heating we spend at least £100-£130 every month whereas with electricity we use only for lighting, cooking etc, we pay just £100 every 3 months!

It works out around £400 for oil every 3 months in comparison with £100 for electricity.

My question: Would the cost of electricity still be cheaper than oil if we decided to go for electricity as the only source for central heating?

It's not that we want to switch but as things have changed so much, I'm just curious to know. :)
 
Well it might be worth looking into an Economy 7 meter and storage heaters but I found it was a very expensive inefficient way to heat a domestic house and the rest of the electricity was horrifically more expensive than normal, about triple the price. So I don't know if it would get you anywhere or not.
 
Electric central heating is insanely expensive, both to install and to run. Modern boilers run at ~20-30kw and the gas starts heating the water instantly. To get the same instant heat effect from an electric boiler you'd need a moohassive power output.
 
Cyanide said:
Electric central heating is insanely expensive, both to install and to run. Modern boilers run at ~20-30kw and the gas starts heating the water instantly. To get the same instant heat effect from an electric boiler you'd need a moohassive power output.
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Thanks, I didn't realise it needs that much power to heat!

Stick with oil then. :)
 
Electric heating is also worse for the environment, the process of electricity generation is pretty inefficent... something like 40%, and while there are very few further loses in the conversion of electrical energy into heat at your home, I have no idea if the 40% includes transmission loses. A modern boiler is 80% + efficent.

Heat exchanger heating systems are much better, since they don't convert the electricity into heat, but rather the use the electricty to move heat about, the efficent varies with the outside temperature though

Storage heaters are a slightly different situation, they use power at night when grid demand is lower, generating stations (particualy) nuclear are not particualy easy to shut down, so the electricity is sold at a lower price to encourage more people to buy it at night.
 
How much do those US style instant boilers cost to run?

(the ones with no tank ad fire up only when needed)
 
"Economy" 7... isn't.

Learned this the hard way when renting. Sheer madness. They might as well beat you over the head and take your wallet.
 
Adam_151 said:
Electric heating is also worse for the environment, the process of electricity generation is pretty inefficent... something like 40%, and while there are very few further loses in the conversion of electrical energy into heat at your home, I have no idea if the 40% includes transmission loses. A modern boiler is 80% + efficent.
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Interesting but how come the cost of electricity doesn't go up with the fuel they are using for generator?
 
ste_bla said:
How much do those US style instant boilers cost to run?

(the ones with no tank ad fire up only when needed)
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Combi-boiler? The ones that have been around in the uk for the last 10 years or so? :p

They're very cheap to run as there's no wasting heat through stored water - they only heat what you need. You're beggered if you try running 2 taps at once though :D
 
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