Electric Water Heating Boilers in the UK So have been and always am looking at eventually replacing our Gas Boiler when I get our kitchen refitted in a couple of years time, I noticed the other day...

[UK Sentinel]

So have been and always am looking at eventually replacing our Gas Boiler when I get our kitchen refitted in a couple of years time, I noticed the other day an option for Electric Boilers ….

Seems If you are used to a gas central heating boiler, switching to an electric boiler is a quick and easy process. An electric boiler receives cold water from your mains water supply and when you need hot water for central heating or your taps, the cold water then passes through an electric heating element to warm it. This warm water is then pumped to your radiators and/or taps whenever you need it.

I am still looking into this option, but am interested to understand Electric prices for operation, compared to say a typical / traditional Gas boiler, especially if you combine this with Solar panels and compare this against other heating options such as Microwave boilers.

 

 

 

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[UK Sentinel]

So it seems from first impression, an Electric Hot Water heater to replace an existing Gas Condensing or non-Condensing boiler is not effective from a cost perspective. but from an environmental perspective is a good option especially if you live in a smaller property and/or flat that currently has a Gas boiler producing 15 kWh, then an electrical boiler can be used to replace existing Gas boiler easily.

Another main area of concern with Electric hot water boilers is that the installation may require your house to be switched from a single phase to 3 phased electrical feed to support running the electric boiler, so a cost to consider.

Running Cost.

Currently my Gas and Electric unit costs are (Octopus Energy)

Gas:        4.49p/kWh

Electric:  19.64p/kWh

So from above Gas and Electric unit costs, it is clear that Electric price is 4 times greater than Gas, so based on a 20 kWh Gas or Electric boiler output, to run each boiler for an hour would cost approximately …

Gas:        4.49 x 20 x 1   = 89.8 =  £0.90  per hour

Electric:   19.64 x 20 x 1  =  392.8  =  £3.93 per hour

Note: It must be noted that even though gas boiler are not 100% efficient, Traditional gas boilers are around 60-70% efficient and Gas Condensing boilers are around 90% efficient.

This still show that running/heating cost of a Gas boiler compared to an Electric boiler is still considerable cheaper even with a less efficient gas boiler.

This must explain why Electric boilers for domestic usage is not popular in the UK and why Heat pumps are the only real Green alternative to Gas for a heating and supplying a home with heated water in the UK.

 

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[UK Sentinel]

As a side note, adding solar panels to your property can help offset running costs, but they are neither free or suitable for all properties. Role on the day when Green Electricity is the same price as Gas per Unit price and we no longer have to keep making life more complicated than it really needs to be 

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