chunkyoldcortina wrote:
On 24/03/10 22:15, wrote:
On Wed, 24 Mar 2010 21:37:38 +0000 (UTC), Al
wrote:

I'm wondering whether I should fork out for gas central heating in my
new
house. However, I wonder if elctric heating will be cheaper than gas
heating after they build the new nuclear power stations. I think that's
what happened in France, isn't it?

Al

Not likely. Electric is 3x 4x as expensive and that gap will not be
closed for the lifetime of any current type of gas/electric system.

So why is it not economical to generate one's own domestic electrickery
from a small mains gas-fired generator.




If you use a heat pump, electricity is actually cheaper than gas or oil,
just about. its certainly in thee area where a blanket statement is not
true. The devil is in the details.

secondly, the efficiency you get from a petrol or diesel generator is
far less than you get from a properly constructed power station, and
you will almost certainly end up paying road fuel tax on the fuel. Even
if you don't, its very marginal. And you cant get a domestic nuclear
reactor, which is of course currently pipping the post as the cheapest
way to push electrons down wires.

you probably only get 20% eff. form a diesel generator, and that varies
with the load. A good power station averages the load of lots of people,
and achieves up to 60%. AND they can forward buy fuel in bulk.


You can get 80% eff* off a boiler heating water. Maybe more.

Compare that with 60% for the power station and 95% for the grid. No
point in direct electrical heating carbon wise unless you use nukes to
make it.

Finally, if nuclear power becomes widely adopted, and fossil fuel start
to get hard to extract, and or attracts a carbon tax, electricity will
in time be cheaper than fossil fuel.

*true thermal efficiency, not concocted figures by boiler manufacturers.