Question about central heating

chrissss · 9 May 2008 at 13:54

Hi, I live in a student house, and now that summer has arrived, we have some discussions.

Our central heating is annoying, there is no way to turn on the hot water without having to turn off the radiators. So either we have radiators on and hot water, or we have no hot water.

Obviously it hot, so we dont need the heating on.

But one flatmate still wants it on for the hot water to do washing up ( 1/2 plates a day)

we think its a bit silly because heating up 100 litres of water when you can just use a 2litre kettle is just stupid.

So my question

heating up water using gas, is it a lot cheaper than using a kettle? because as far as Iknow the faster water heats up, the better. not to mention the fact 100 litres vs 2 or 4 litres for washing up.

( ps out shower is electric, so we don't need hot water for that either)

Does anyone have some proof to backup that the kettle is the better option to save money?

Much appreciated.

( also, the flatmate who wants hot water is kinda rich, the other 5 are students who prefer to spend money on something useful rather than another 60pound bill for heating in summer)

helmet · 9 May 2008 at 13:57

Yes, I've got just the thing (and so have you). A fist.
Place the fist onto the nose of the flatmate using a forward motion of the arm.

http://www.ukpower.co.uk/running-costs-elec.asp

chrissss · 9 May 2008 at 14:17

problem is, the flatmate is gonna be a lawyer soon

so that won't work. It will just make me feel better. thats also the problem, he feel that he is superior to us, hence he doesn't listen to our advice.

Also, the cost calculator is good, but I cant find out how much the boiler uses. I know the kettle is 1200watts, so its easy to calculate how much it uses per litre. the boiler doesnt show this

Visage · 9 May 2008 at 14:19

Why not just get your boiler fixed?

I find it ridiculous that any reletively modern system wouldnt allow you to switch water and heating independently.

chrissss · 9 May 2008 at 16:30

Well the landlord doesn't really care about that. he just says, "use the kettle". getting the boiler fixed would cost hundreds of pounds.

meghatronic · 9 May 2008 at 16:33

chrissss said:
Well the landlord doesn't really care about that. he just says, "use the kettle". getting the boiler fixed would cost hundreds of pounds.

You do have rights as tenants you know! I'd refuse to pay rent until it was fixed....

Consider yourself lucky your housemates wash up. I spent a year being the house "*****" as I didn't want to live in a metre high mess. 1/2m is perfectly acceptable.