New Installation - Gas or Electric, that is the question!

[eyeofthebeholder]

Hi,

I apologise in advanced for the length of the post!

I am currently planning for a rewiring projector, but as I have all the floorboards we want to replace and update the heating and hot water systems. Thinking this was an easy addition to the project has now opened my eyes to alternatives to the standard installation.

Let me first describe my current system. I think it is called an ‘open system’. I have a cold water tank in the loft feeding the immersion heater. We have a floor-standing boiler on the ground floor feeding the radiators and the immersion heater. There is another tank in the loft for the radiator overflow. We also have a power shower being feed from the coldwater tank in the loft and the immersion tank.

I had originally specified a standard boiler (Valiant ecoTEC system plus 615) to effectively keep the same setup we currently have (apart from the overflow tank being removed as it is a pressure system). Hearing about the gas situation at the moment regarding the gas prices and also the potential supply problems, I started to investigate electric boilers (my thoughts being that there are more sources of electric power than gas).

I have been looking at these Heatrae Amptec Electric Boilers (http://www.inspiredheating.co.uk/acatalog/Electroheat_Electric_Boilers.html). Their documentation states that it can be used as a replacement to gas boilers for houses that do not have gas supply. The advantages being they do not need a flue, they do not need yearly servicing, they are 1mx3”x3” and according to them, they are almost 100% efficient. I am hoping to directly replace the gas boiler with this and install a pump and switch (for the immersion/radiators feeds).

Due to environment concerns and attempting to keep running costs down, I also want to fit a solar water heater on the roof to heat a dual-coil immersion heater.

Would it be possible to have your comments on electric boilers in the installation as described above? Is there anything to be aware of etc.?
Thanks for all your comments

Best Regards

Adam.

 

[Rob]

Done a gas safety (hob only) on a 1 bed flat that had one of these and HW off the immersion. Tenant was complaining that the electric bill was over £500! and gas was practically nothing.

 

[eyeofthebeholder]

The Immersion heater is different to an electric boiler.

The Immersion heater is 'on' 24/7 and everytime the water 'dips' below a configured temperature it heater the water up again.

The electric boiler will switch on when it detects water flow. So you use a control panel (as in normal gas boilers) to configure when you want to have the central heating and hot water to come on and for what time period - for example 1 hours in the morning and 1 hours and night.

Also, with the addition of the solar water heater, the cost of the eletric will be lower anyway.

Thanks

Adam.

 

[gas4you]

Done a gas safety (hob only) on a 1 bed flat that had one of these and HW off the immersion. Tenant was complaining that the electric bill was over £500! and gas was practically nothing.

Agree totally with rob. I am in fact in the middle of a court case, originally acting as a witness for the client who also had £500 plus quarterly bills and is now sueing local council for fitting an electric boiler that she cannot afford to run

Electric is only ok if you can run on cheap rate