electric costs

[deuce22]

Hi.

Can someone give me an idea of how I can calculate electricity costs on varying products.

I'm thinking of installing underfloor heating and would like to know how much the running costs would be. I have read some info on the net and it is conflicting advice.

I am also looking to heat my dogs kennels and would like to know the running costs of it.

The info I had was, 100watts per hour = 0.1 units, so 1000watts per hour is 1 unit.

The heaters I was thinking of getting were 250 watts each and they would need to be on for roughly 8 hours a night in the colder months.

At 15p per unit this would cost around £18 per month, which I'm willing to pay, but it seemed expensive.

If I then do the calculations on the U/H it is as follows.

40m2 total area @ 100watts m2 = 4000watts.

Having it on for around 6 hours per day (which isn't that much considering that I would normally keep the heating on constant at a lower temp during cold months) would cost £3.60 per day/£108 per month, which seems ridiculously high.

Is this correct.

Thanks.

 

[Steve]

Yes its correct.

Electric UFH is ridiculously expensive to use to actually heat a room, regardless of what the manufacturers tell you.

So dont do it. And if you do, just use it to add a little bit of warmth to the tiles. Use a gas powered radiator to heat the room.

And forget heating kennels, unless they have insulation. And if you do heat them, you will need a bigger heater than 250 watts - this is like a big lightbulb!

Wet UFH is much more efficient as it runs off the gas boiler - gas is a fraction of the cost of electric per kwh.

 

[Adam_151]

The piece you are missing is that the heating element isn't going to be on constantly for 6 hours, it'll heat up and then it'll go on and off with the thermostat, how much it'll actually cost will depend on how cold your house is and what the insulation/draughtiness situation is like and also how well the mat is separated from the physical mass of the earth...

Similar situation with the dogs kennel, though in these I'd recommend a smaller rated tublar bar heater and plenty of thermal insulation, thermal insulation will pay for itself every quickly... espessily if its just off cuts of kingspan gathered from wherever and just destined for the skip otherise

 

[MalcofArabia]

I always worry about under floor heating, ok till it breaks down, must be a pig to dig up them tiles.

I know 2 people who fitted it and within 3 yrs they are back to cold tiles as the system failed.

 

[deuce22]

Thanks Guy's for the advice.

The kennels I have, state that they are made from excellent insulated materials.

They are plastic, so There is no way for me to add insulation to it.

http://www.leedspetshops.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=78_79

I have just bought plastic doors for them and was thinking of gluing some kind of extra thin material to it, like carpet, just for that extra insulation.

The heaters I were looking at were the tubular design and I would fix them to the top of the kennel.

I am going to speak with an electric U/F heating company tomorrow and get some advice from them.

I just wanted to clarify that the calculations were correct.

Many thanks.

 

[deuce22]

Hi Adam_151.

I understand what you are saying.

If I go overboard on the insulation then it will be cheaper to run.

Maybe for the first hour it will run at full power to get the temp up, but then me switch on and off constantly throughout the time it's on, but instead of using 1 unit per hour it could work out at 0.5 or something close to that.

I'm also going to be putting this under laminate floor not tiles. I've been told that U/F heating works better with tiles, but it can still be used under laminate.

Thanks.

 

[flameport]

Those kennels look to be just moulded plastic. This will not keep the heat in at all.

Tubular heaters get hot enough to burn skin, so a wire guard will be needed. They don't usually have thermostats built in either, so that type of heater probably isn't what you want.

If these kennels are not already inside, the better option will be to put these kennels inside a well insulated building (a shed for example) and heat the whole shed, rather than the individual kennels.

 

[deuce22]

Hi flameport.

They look to me as though they are jots moulded plastic as well.

They are outside, but in the winter it gets to cold for them.

I think that once the door is on and there is something inside just giving a bit of heat it will be OK for them.

I am just going to have to trial it and see how it goes.

Thanks.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Those kennels look to be just moulded plastic.

So does this:

This will not keep the heat in at all.

Depends what the construction is - if it's a double skinned foam sandwich....

 

[Taylortwocities]

There is a table of running costs for electric UFH here: http://www.warmup.co.uk/uk-running-costs.phtml

 

[1john]

I see no point in installing underfloor heating and then covering it with an insulator it will take ages to warm up. There is specific under floor heating available for laminate, available from tlc as well as other places though. You should also contact the kennel manufacturer and see if they reccomend fitting heaters inside their kennels, not a nice thought if something went wrong :S

 

[timtheenchanter]

not sure about a heater in one of those kennels, I have a small tubular heater in my loft, which gets hot enough to melt plastic close to it.

have you thought about investing in building a properly insulated kennel? would probably work out cheaper in the long run, most dogs are pretty hardy, so unless it gets to -5 again like last winter a good few rugs would be all they needed.

 

[Steve]

Please dont take advice from a company that supplies and installs EUFH. Because guess what they will say?

Its cheap.
Its efficient.
Its cheaper than gas.

All of which are wrong.

For example, warmup's website uses a unit price of 8p/kwh in its calculations. Which is wrong. I'm paying 20p/kwh, and 10p/kwh over 900 a year. But I wont get above 900 as I live alone.

So you tell me that warmup arent "swaying" their figures in their favour . . .

They also say installation of a gas system costs £500 a year. If a gas system lasts 15 years, this is an install cost of £7500.

Electric heating, whatever form, is always the same efficiency. So dont believe the hype. Gas is always more efficient and cheaper to run.

 

[big-all]

yes i agree iff you have a reasonably draughty house underfloor heating will struggle for hours to warm up when gas would warm it up in an hour
in areasonably well insulated house it will take around 2 hrs to warm to the temperature gas would take 30 mins to warm to

a kw off gas costs around 2 to 5p
a kw off electric costs between 8 and 25p a unit
in general the same amount off heat from electric will cost a minimum twice as much

underfloor heating is designed to be left on fairly perminantly so if your used to a quick burst twice a day then underfloor is no good unlessyou turn it on earlier costing you up to 3 times the price for the same level off heat when you want it

 

[deuce22]

Thanks Guy's.

I've listened to all of your advice and it has given me a lot to think about.

At the moment I do not have the funds to build or buy an insulated kennel, so I'll have to stick with what I've got.

Once I receive the doors I'm going to do what I said earlier, which will hopefully keep out a lot of the draft.

I'm not going to installing type of heater that could potentially cause serious problems.

My options are a square electric heat mat, that goes underneath the bedding and is specifically for kennels, a type of hot water bottle that you heat up in the microwave or I'm just going to buy them a fleece coat and put it on them when it gets very cold.

Thanks again.