Our fake coal gas fire and chimney has been condemned and our landlord wants to replace it with an electric one as its much cheaper for him.
Electric fires used to be rubbish and cost a fortune to run, I was wondering if this is still the same.
Our tenancy is due for renewal early next year so this could be a deciding factor in whether we stay or not and if we should start looking for somewhere new.
problem with electric is that 1kw of heat = 1kw of power consumed...so still expensive.
Good for quick instant heat but not for long durations...
We have central heating but that's rubbish too.
The front of the house gets very little sun so never really warms up as such I'd guess we'd be using the fire for long durations through winter.
Its a lovely looking house but the landlord is loosing money on it as he bought it with a stupid high mortgage and so all his repairs are cheap ones.
agree with nasher, im a sparky and i always say if you have a combi boiler then have an electric fire for the effect (fake flames) but not for a heat source its cheaper to run your combi for a few hours than having the elec fire on. ive got a 2kw dimplex one and it has never been used with the heater as it will cost an arm and a leg to run we just stick the heating on. so id say try n get your landlord to sort out the flue and have a new gas one id even be tempted to pay some of the cost if your planning on staying there if you will be using it alot.
we did think about offering to chip in to get it fixed but the new gas fire & flue is around 1k where as the electric fire is a couple of hundred quid.
we cant see how (other than lower bills over a very long time) we'd get our money back as I doubt he'd be interested in a reduced rent or similar as he says he's loosing money on the house as it is.
Plus I'm not sure how I feel about loaning my landlord cash to improve / maintain / fix a house up that he should be maintaining to the same standard as was when we signed the contract.
Not keen on the fan heater type, but we have one with the two glowing bars as our combi boiler is so crap (shouldn't be as its not very old)
Chucks out a fair bit of heat and the fake coals are cheerful too, could also try one of the bottled gas heaters although they are probably quite expensive to run.
We also have one of the oil filled rads on wheels for my daughters room, again because of the boiler, that is very good and thermostat controlled so keeps costs down a tad
Bottled gas and portable radiators might be good but they aren't a suitable replacement for the gas fire.
electric will be several times as expensive for the same amount of heat. However you don't really have any grounds to make him put a gas heater in
we may not have grounds but if he expects us to sign for another year at the same rent for a downgraded house then he's a bigger fool than I thought.
How about one of the flueless gas or spirit fires? I don't know how good they are but just clicking on one at random said it has 2.7kw output at 8p an hour. Seems to be quite a range from £250-£500.
Think yourself lucky he is replacing it at all, you could just end with another bricked over fireplace 
Edit: actually, after a second look it seems the 8p an hour flueless gas fires are about £800, and the cheaper spirit/bio-ethanol fires are 20x the running cost and suitable for occasional heating/feature only.
Un sure if the Oiled filled electric radiators are better
if he wants to put in an electric fire you may as well tell him to save his money, like i say we have one but only for the flame effect as we didnt need a gas fire. any kind of electric heater/fire will cost you a hell of a lot to run and will be no were as good as a real flame flue less fires are good but you will need an air brick or two installing in the room which in turn makes the room colder and there not really mad to heat a room, if your looking for the same sort of heat as before then the only way is another gas fire or a log burner.
again, if he was to just brick it over or offer us radiators as an alternative then I don't think the house is worth what we're paying for it.
next-door is on the market at £100pcm less but has a bland characterless interior. the items in this house that add value are the ones that he's replacing with the cheapest he can find.
anyway, it seems from the useful replies on here that electric is still way more expensive than gas
edit... gibbo1985. thanks for the info.
or you could get him to pay yourleccy bill for you .lol
yeah, somehow I don't think his idea of saving money stretches to that
next-door is on the market at £100pcm less but has a bland characterless interior. the items in this house that add value are the ones that he's replacing with the cheapest he can find.
Explain this to the landlord; if this is what you think, then he may decide he will struggle to re-let the house at the current rate without the fire etc.
already slipped it into the conversation but he thinks that next-door is under priced.
probably won't think that when you move in there...
spooky_b329 - Member
next-door is on the market at £100pcm less but has a bland characterless interior. the items in this house that add value are the ones that he's replacing with the cheapest he can find.
Hello you are renting this not buying it ?
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