On 20 Nov 2017 20:07:18 GMT, David wrote:



Back in the day IIRC the cost for energy used to be (cheapest first):

Mains gas.

Mains electric.

Bulk gas or oil or solid fuel.

Bottled gas.

Wood is a bit of a funny one because it used to be dirt cheap but with
all the trendy wood burners it is now very expensive in most areas.

If the list above is reasonably accurate then electric heating (of
almost any sort) would be cheaper than bottled gas.

I think you have oil in the wrong place

no-one would ever install an oil CH system if electric were cheaper

what would be the point?

tim

Just fond this!
https://www.confusedaboutenergy.co.u...ic-fuels/fuel-
prices
my answer now is get a multi-fuel grate for the wood burner and burn coal
- by far the cheapest fuel.



Even burning an anthracite based smokeless fuel that is more expensive
than plain coal we find it is much cheaper than electric and our
Winter electric bill is considerably less than the summer one.
The stove heats the domestic water during the winter months where as
in the warmer months it is an immersion heater is used.
And often a stew or other meal is cooked on it and a kettle is kept
warm at the side ready to be heated up to temperature on the top so
that is some more electric not used.
No mains gas here so changing to oil or stored gas would involve a
reasonably outlay.
I also like the simplicity of the gravity HW system and dump radiator
as if the electric fails it still works.
Always buy the solid fuel ahead in the middle of Summer as our coal
merchant discounts quite considerably.
Did try some plain Kellingly coal a couple of years back delivered on
a pallet from a merchant near the colliery but although we are far
from smokeless zones it did stink outside a bit much to be acceptable
and the ash disposal was a lot greater.

For the odd fire on a cool "summer" evening free wood gathered around
while out walking is used, tend to have enough that it is seasoned
for a least 2 years before use . The pile had got large enough that we
did not start on the purchased solid fuel till about a week ago.

G.Harman