Fed up of boiler problems and leaking radiator plumbing, want to move to electric heating - what are the best options?

[dragonfly101]

I've had too many problems with my boiler and leaking pipes, and during the last problem I found that my house was fine with just plugin 3Kw convection heaters in the rooms that needed heating. Could I just wallmount these myself and have them plugged into the normal wall socket? Or should I be getting special wiring done by an electrician? Worth getting more sophisticated heaters with timers on the thermostats that can be managed centrally? What about hot water? Immersion tank, or can I get an electric heater that will heat the supply to all hot taps and shower?

 

[EFLImpudence]

Find a decent plumber - heating engineer.

 

[chivers67]

I agree with EFLI - if you have Gas get a decent plumber in to sort out your Hot water Heating system - be far more efficient that electric heating. Even plastic pipes and fittings are easy enough to install these days.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Find a decent plumber - heating engineer.

I agree. Get it fixed. Gas is way cheaper than electricity (at the moment!).

 

[ericmark]

Even with an electric system, heat transfer is normally using water, oil, or gas, so it will not help going electric.

My first house had hot air central heating, to be fair it heated the house very well, gas fired, but to install the ducts as a retro fit is not really an option, and it was expensive to run.

 

[crystal ball]

My central heating has never been great, this summer I am re piping it & replacing the old rads & adding a couple more, all in plastic, its not rocket science

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Some people do seem to have an awful lot of trouble with their central heating and hot water systems and I do wonder whether it is a result of a poor install, poor maintenance, or some other reason? My original system was fitted 40 years ago, and other than a bit of minor, but regular maintenance, and upgraded controls - has had nothing much done to it. It's now on it's third boiler - the first was boringly reliable, just replaced for a more efficient one. The 'more efficient one' proved to be very unreliable, and was replaced with a new one a couple of years ago.

The most troublesome part, has always been the spring return 3-port valve actuator, which I swapped to a MOMO type, at the last boiler swap. In those 40 years, we have been without CH just a few hours, not even long enough for the house to cool down, before it was fixed - except for the one occasion when boiler #2 failed, and I decided to replace.

 

[crystal ball]

Some people do seem to have an awful lot of trouble with their central heating and hot water systems and I do wonder whether it is a result of a poor install, poor maintenance, or some other reason? My original system was fitted 40 years ago, and other than a bit of minor, but regular maintenance, and upgraded controls - has had nothing much done to it. It's now on it's third boiler - the first was boringly reliable, just replaced for a more efficient one. The 'more efficient one' proved to be very unreliable, and was replaced with a new one a couple of years ago.

The most troublesome part, has always been the spring return 3-port valve actuator, which I swapped to a MOMO type, at the last boiler swap. In those 40 years, we have been without CH just a few hours, not even long enough for the house to cool down, before it was fixed - except for the one occasion when boiler #2 failed, and I decided to replace.

Mine is of a similar vintage, but I don't think it was installed correctly and I have always been too busy to sort it, but with plastic pipe & push fittings it should be straightforward

 

[stem]

Electricity is more efficient than gas, in that basic electric heating is pretty much 100% efficient, and there are claims in excess of 300% efficiency with a heat pump operating under perfect conditions. Gas is closer to 80 to 90% efficient, because even with a condensing boiler some heat goes out of the flue.

The problem is the running cost. Electricity although more efficient normally costs 3 times that of gas for the same amount of heat. Heat pumps can be good for extremely well insulated properties but the initial price to install one can be eyewatering, and if they are connected to existing plumbing and radiators any existing problems will remain as well, plus maybe some new ones as well....

 

[dragonfly101]

Thanks all, the consensus seems to be that I've been unlucky with my gas central heating. I'll have to see what my latest problem with the boiler is (waiting for engineer today actually), and decide from there. I do like the idea of electric heating (convection heaters on each wall), as they are clean, silent, heat the room up quickly, and there's nothing that can go wrong with them that could require redecorating a wall, replacing a carpet, or replastering a ceiling.

 

[SUNRAY]

Some people do seem to have an awful lot of trouble with their central heating and hot water systems and I do wonder whether it is a result of a poor install, poor maintenance, or some other reason? My original system was fitted 40 years ago, and other than a bit of minor, but regular maintenance, and upgraded controls - has had nothing much done to it. It's now on it's third boiler - the first was boringly reliable, just replaced for a more efficient one. The 'more efficient one' proved to be very unreliable, and was replaced with a new one a couple of years ago.

The most troublesome part, has always been the spring return 3-port valve actuator, which I swapped to a MOMO type, at the last boiler swap. In those 40 years, we have been without CH just a few hours, not even long enough for the house to cool down, before it was fixed - except for the one occasion when boiler #2 failed, and I decided to replace.

My word almost perfectly match those.

Original boiler had gas conversion details affixed so predated 1985 (we suspect original fit of 1965).
We moved in here 1994 and every year or so it was checked over/brushed out. Only repairs for 20 years were the 3 port diverter valve (replaced twice), one header tank ball valve, one drain point leaked after use and one leaking rad valve. I don't think that's excessive for a system that was potentially 50 years old.

Then boiler cast iron heat exchanger developed a leak so major building works required to site a condensing boiler. The only part I've not done myself is the boiler replacement, (at the same time had HW cylinder and 3 port valve replaced with 2x 2port valves) and subsequent annualish servicing. Only repair since then has been a sticking header ball valve through lack of movement resulting in boiler locking out at the beginning of winter.

 

[SUNRAY]

I do like the idea of electric heating (convection heaters on each wall), as they are clean, silent, heat the room up quickly, and there's nothing that can go wrong with them that could require redecorating a wall, replacing a carpet, or replastering a ceiling.

Don't be so sure!

 

[stem]

Control can be tricky too. Gas central heating has nice erm..... centralised controls too. If the convector heaters have built in time controls they would need to be adjusted individually.

Also, thermostats that are 'built in' with the heater tend not to be as accurate as a room thermostat due to them being an integral part of the heater.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Prepare yourselves for a 10,000 word essay on Open Therm.

 

[ericmark]

Yes Open Therm is anaguloge and claimed to be better, but the main point is a boiler as a maxium output, be it 12 kW or 36 kW it has a maxium demand of gas, oil, solid fuel or electric.

But my house has 60 amp electric supply, or 13.8 kW and as it stands biggest draw is the shower or cooker, that's around 7 kW, so I have around 7 kW to play with.

This equates to maybe 4 electric fires at 2 kW, and house has 14 heated areas, so to move to electric I will have 10 cold rooms.

Only way is a central heater, with a limited power draw, heating rooms in turn. So seems no way to get away from circulated liquid to heat the home.

My boiler is 19 kW and only just enough to heat all rooms, so for me the TRV is important so rooms can be prioritised as to which is heated first.