DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

We are moving to a house that has electric storage heaters {approx 10 years old}at present , can anyone let us know if they are more costly to run than a new Gas central heating system would be barring obviously the cost of fitting the system. We tend to run 4 baths a day alsoWould we be better going for the Gas central heating. Thanks in advance.

How is the water heated ?

Running 4 bath's a day, relying on an immersion will be costly and will take abit of time to heat up between bath's.

A combi boiler, will provide as much hot water as you need. You could have 4 bath's in a row - no bother.

As for the costs of running - i don't know. You'll need to find out the manufacturer and get technical info like KW. Same with a gas boiler, it depends on the size of the boiler you'd need - as to how much it will cost to run.

I'd go for gas, I'm not just saying it because that's my trade. Electric heaters look horrible - normally bulky. Radiators don't.

htg

Unless you intend to use renewable energy I can see no point in electric heating. And if electric was used a heat store rather than storage radiators would be required as storage radiators never seem to turn off. Gas is far better system. And I am an electrician. As to which Gas well I have a system similar to a combi boiler that works but slow filling bath and limited to one shower. Using a heat store will allow pumped showers and multi showers and fill a bath quicker. There are two methods one where central heating water goes through the coil and the other where domestic water goes through coil the latter can be of open vent type so does not need annual survey and with heat store solar power can be added. But heat stores are more expensive than combi boilers. The new heat stores have much better heat exchangers than the old copper cisterns and can transfer the full output of the boiler into the domestic water they often run very hot and have a special mixer unit to add cold water so as not to cause danger.
The Combi boiler as name suggests combines all functions in one case they are bigger than normal condensation boiler but tend to have features like anti-cycling built in and a lot cheaper to fit and will give constant hot water but at a reduced flow rate and they are cheap. You get what you pay for.
Eric