Electric Boiler

[Martin1601]

Hi

I am getting an electric boiler installed in my new house - no mains gas and did not want LPG or oil. Its 5 bedrooms and my concern is will a 9Kw boiler heat the house and water efficiently. I know very little about plumbing and though a standard shower was 9.5kw.

Thoughts please and help me out on this one with some clarity.

 

[electronicsuk]

Hi

I am getting an electric boiler installed in my new house - no mains gas and did not want LPG or oil. Its 5 bedrooms and my concern is will a 9Kw boiler heat the house and water efficiently. I know very little about plumbing and though a standard shower was 9.5kw.

Thoughts please and help me out on this one with some clarity.

As you say, it's very unlikely to be powerful enough, and would probably end up running flat out all the time and costing you an absolute fortune. Either consider a heat pump, or go with oil/bottled gas. Bear in mind that electricity is about 13p/kWh.

Unless your house is a new build and incredibly well insulated, I'd put money on it that you will regret going electric.

 

[Martin1601]

Don't know too much about heat pumps. How does this work?

 

[tamz]

Nev build houses are well insulated and are not hard to heat. Heat loss calcs should be done by your installer or the architect.
A shower is around 9kw too but electric boilers work on a different principle, more like a thermal store.

Consider one of these, they do up to 12kw. The bigger the better. There is a lot of reading here that may be of interest.

http://www.thermaflowheating.co.uk/technical_downloads.htm

 

[Martin1601]

OK thanks for that and as you say loads to read. Would I be better off looking in to LPG. What sort of costs are involved compared to electric boiler

 

[tamz]

Electric or LPG choice will be a personal one depending on what you fancy.
Installation costs slightly cheaper with LPG. Service and breakdown costs will be more expensive with gas.
Running costs, LPG about on par with off peak electric. Ask your electric supplier for their off peak rates and a gas supplier for a cost of bulk LPG. They, or the manufacturers will be able to give you an approx running cost for whatever size appliances.

A 30kw boiler could comsume approx 1.14m3/hr (or 2.19kg/hr) of propane if burning at full rate for the hour (which it won't be).