Replace gas boiler with electric?

smullo

Hi,

Does anyone know if it is easy and financially sane to use an electric boiler in place of my Gas boiler? I would like to minimise the costs by keeping the radiators and piping etc. So my thinking is if I can just replace the gas boiler with an ESB one, that should be it. What are the approx. costs to replace the boiler and then the difference in monthly bills?

Cheers

Pete67

I'm not aware of such a device and even if it exists the running costs would be astronomical. You could not even take advantage of lower cost night rate electricity. If you are already served by a natural gas supply connection, then this is likely to be the most economical means of heating your home. If your gas boiler is beyond economic repair, or is just hopelessly inefficient then it would still make more sense to replace the boiler with a modern high efficiency (condensing) one and upgrade the heating controls.

smullo

Thanks Pete. I guessed that to be the case as everyone uses gas where they can. Just having problems with a new boiler and spent a cold Christmas as a result. I guess I'll just get the gas man to fix or replace the issue and stick with the gas so.

Cheers

MiniGolf

Pete67 wrote: »

I'm not aware of such a device and even if it exists the running costs would be astronomical. You could not even take advantage of lower cost night rate electricity. If you are already served by a natural gas supply connection, then this is likely to be the most economical means of heating your home. If your gas boiler is beyond economic repair, or is just hopelessly inefficient then it would still make more sense to replace the boiler with a modern high efficiency (condensing) one and upgrade the heating controls.

Just for your information...... there IS such an item available... I have fitted one in an apartment where gas was not allowed. Max rating... 9kw... reliable but not very efficient. I would stick with the gas.... better by far!

You can buy electric heaters for a heating system but as Pete posted the costs would be crazy, what problems are you having, Gary.

antoinolachtnai

Interestingly, the ESB fitted some houses in ballyfermot with a system like this in the seventies as a test. I don't know where they got the idea that this might be worthwhile. The houses weren't even well insulated.

You cannot resolve the problem of cost by making an electric heater more efficient. Electric heaters are already more or less 100 percent efficient. The problem is that the cost per unit of energy is just much higher than gas.

One argument (possibly) not to use gas is to avoid the gas standing charge. This argument only makes sense if your usage is very low. Well-designed, insulated apartments could well fall into this category. However, even in this case, it would almost certainly make sense to have some sort of storage heating.

Deoir

I am also considering an electric boiler, we are looking at at least two ways of producing electricity on site also.

Any idea on the kW that would be needed to heat a 2000 sq foot house with underfloor heating?

(complete renovation of an old house with no current heating system)

Pete67

Depends on how well it's insulated. At a pure guess 10kW if the insulation is very good, 20 if it's average, and 30+ if it's poor.

Joey the lips

Potterton myson do an electric boiler. I am lost to the name at the moment I will try and google it and add link. I cannot remember the sizes but I think there was 2 orig. They will have all the information on them.

The plus and minus to them is

Plus. Only one bill, can be used on night rate. Easier to maintain,no flu

Minus. This is a grey area, but my opinion and most that used them is that they do not heat as quick as gas, But they do give stable heat once heated up.

Tbh my opinion would be if there is not much on them they are not successful. They are out 5 years now.



http://www.heatraesadia.com/376.htm

Ther company is heatraesadia.co.uk the agents in ireland are potterton myson.

steamengine

smullo wrote: »

Thanks Pete. I guessed that to be the case as everyone uses gas where they can. Just having problems with a new boiler and spent a cold Christmas as a result. I guess I'll just get the gas man to fix or replace the issue and stick with the gas so.

Cheers

I would suggest its a good idea to have a few electric fan heaters to hand just so you're not completely caught out when the gas system breaks down. I bought a few 2 KW thermostatically controlled ones in the new year and re-instated the electric immersion and now have my eggs in two baskets - so to speak.

Out of curiosity I've been running them instead of the gas for the last few days when and where required, and, have taken meter readings which show, with careful use, there will be only a marginal difference over the gas price.

I am not advocating that this is a superior system to gas central heating but it certainly will take the pressure off when a single gas or oil system breaks down.

volvo 240

Trianco in the UK make electric central heating boilers too. See
http://www.trianco.co.uk/aztec_classic.cfm

I think you would have much cheaper bills with gas!! I think the electric central heating boiler would be allright cost wise if you had a seriously insulated eco house that needed virtually no heat. James.

yoshytoshy

Boilers are actually going to be generating electricity in the next few years.
Theres gas boilers new on the market ,that generate 1kw of electricity with a tiny amount of gas.