Gas or electric heating for apartment?

chefacasa

My family own an apartment which until now has been communal oil fired heating.

This is now being changed and the options are electric or gas.

The apartment has always been warm, I lived there for many years and would often turn off the radiators because it was too hot.

It's an old apartment on the middle floor, south facing.

I'm putting in new double glazed windows anyway.

I'm personally in favour of electric. My reasons are that it has a fuel mix not tied to any one source. I see CO2 emissions from electricity, while still higher than gas, have almost halved in the last 20 years. The space is quite small. Each room is about 15sqm. The electric is cheaper to install and has more control I believe but longer term what's the best solution?

A friend has a house which has electric heating and he is happy with it...

I hate having to make this decision

What to do, what to do!?

Paulw

Gas tends to be quicker and give better heat. I definitely prefer my gas central heating system.

Moonbeam

Electric heaters can be incredibly expensive to run but electric underfloor heating can be very economical.
Gas is cheaper then the immersion for heating water too.
So it probably depends on the type of electric heating.

odds_on

I use electric infra-red panel screwed to the ceiling - 1Kw for the bedroom. 1 Kw for the bathroom and a 1Kw plus a 0.5 Kw heats the living cum kitchen. The are attached to thermostats in each room.

They are much better and cheaper than the storage heaters (Living room has a 4.5 Kw heater and the bedroom a 2 Kw heater) which I don't use.

ted1

A kwh of gas is about a third of kwh of electricity. Modern boilers are about 90+% efficent. Electrics about 100%.

So like for like gas is much cheaper to run. But it depends on the set up.

Victor

Has a structural engineer approved the building to have gas retro-fitted.

https://www.google.ie/search?q=gas+explosion+apartment&client=firefox-a&hs=enj&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&channel=sb&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=Gn8KU4X0AeWN7Abt5IGwAg&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=729&bih=317#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=wCFmp-lhyPaGEM%253A%3BcfiKSl9qA5CmSM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.constructionknowledge.net%252Fblog%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2012%252F11%252FBoom.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.constructionknowledge.net%252Fblog%252F%253Ftag%253Dnatural-gas-safety%3B2554%3B1562

chefacasa

I believe one has been engaged but no report has been completed

chefacasa

What kind of setup makes a difference? Any tradespeople I've spoken with suggest thermostat convection panels with 15 minute timer control setup

chefacasa

"Depends on the setup" - what does that mean? What would be the best setup?

chefacasa

The floors are solid concrete slabs and the surface is carpet with underlay. The floors are never cold. Will underfloor be disruptive? Is underfloor much more expensive to install?

Idbatterim

advantage with electric is, it will be far to install and no annual servicing required, also as you already have Electric, you wont have to pay gas standing charge. I think it is more flexible also, i.e if you just want to heat one room, you can do that. (Of course you can do this too, if you turn off all other rads, but you are also heating water in pipes) Also you can use it on a night meter...

One good thing about the gas though, is that you can use it to also heat water instantly, no need for bloody immersion..

If you are on a limited budget, you could spend the initial few k saving on electric v gas, on insulation (if you are gutting the place)...

Victor

chefacasa wrote: »

The electric is cheaper to install

Are you certain of this? I'm wondering if the existing radiators and piping can be re-used.

chefacasa

Victor wrote: »

Are you certain of this? I'm wondering if the existing radiators and piping can be re-used.

No the existing system will be redundant and will be removed

chefacasa

Victor wrote: »

Are you certain of this? I'm wondering if the existing radiators and piping can be re-used.

The radiators are from the 1970s. They cannot be compatible with any new system I am told.

L1011

chefacasa wrote: »

The radiators are from the 1970s. They cannot be compatible with any new system I am told.

They could very easily be compatible; the worst difference is an easily overcome slight difference between imperial and the kinda-imperial new pipe sizes - they, however, will be nowhere near as efficient as modern radiators so it could be a false economy.

People would install new boilers on to their existing, often much older, radiators very frequently due to boiler failures etc.