Anyone had any experience and recommendations for electric combi- boilers? I’m thinking it is going to be more expensive than their gas equivalent, but is the perfomance versus that of storage and immersion tank worth the extra cost?

Short answer: don’t.

Long answer: we had one in a rented flat. At the time there were two providers, Scottish Power (useless ****) and EON ( considerably less useless but more expensive in our market) who did the required Economy 11 package. Most muppets in the call centres dont know it exists and try to sell you Economy 7 which you WILL end up with despite repeated emphasis on the 11. Once all thats ironed out and your bills return to “normal” you will be ready to rip it all out and cut your losses following what can only be described as a violation by even terrorist standards when winter visits.

The equivalent gas system would be cheaper and the performance should be identical in terms of insulation. Its a no brainer until such times as gas becomes more expensive than electricity. Long way to go yet, even hydrogen would be cheaper to pump into the grid.

We had same terryfying experience of economy 11/Total Control Total Heating as squirrelking. No, the companies own call centre has not heard of it. Yes the company choose when your heating operates, and how much energy you use. Yes, you get done over in the bill department. £250 a month for a four bed house.

What squirrelking said. Elderly parents had one installed on the promise of cheaper heating. Having been on the wrong tariffs since day one, annual bills into the thousands – about triple what they were told by the installer, finally contacted the manufacturer who confirmed that it would never deliver the heating promised. Whole thing ripped out now and a mains gas connection booked.

Seriously, don’t.

Quite a few flats ive worked in had the system, usually timber framed homes, they seem to not want freewater from radiators running loose.A huge tank lots of pipes, high bills and a maintance nightmare after a few years as stuff breaks down and faults.

But you dont get gas plumes, condensate pipes freezing etc.

It takes the same amount of energy to heat your home, regardless of the source.

Gas – 4p per unit, leccy – 12p on a cheap tariff.

Do the maths!

Prices rounded for ease of maths. Heat loss from a domestic cylinder is about 3kwh/24hr. So 12p per day standing losses.

thanks for sharing. I might need to stick with the storage heaters unless I can get a gas supply in.

Air/air heat pump? In the temperature range you’ll be using it most of the time it’ll be around 3 times as efficient as an electric radiator which makes running it only slightly more expensive than gas. You can also buy immersion heaters with a small heat pump rather than a heating element.

Water heater

Random example of a heat pump.