Electric boilers?

[Quattr04.]

Looking at a new house which has no gas connection

It’s a refurbished barn, 2 bed, EPC rating of B, refurbished to current regs, so plenty of insulation, underfloor heating on ground floor, rads upstairs, 1 shower

It’s got an electric boiler that then fills a water tank and the tank keeps the water hot, I’ve never seen one of these before and have no idea of the running costs?

There’s 2 of us in the house,

Currently spend about £70 on gas and £60 on electric each month in our new build house

[caziques]

A heat pump will probably be the answer.

[Rough101]

The running cost of an electric resistance boiler is 2 to 3 times that of a gas condensing boiler.

As per above, you need a heat pump to get into the same cost ball park as gas.

[Chris Stott]

I’m based in Spain. Electric water heaters are pretty much standard here. They don’t seem that expensive to run… my electricity bill is around €70/month for the 7-8 months of the year I don’t need heating or AC.

[Quattr04.]

caziques said:

A heat pump will probably be the answer.

No choice, the place is finished and we are just renting it for a couple of years

[Tisy]

Quattr04. said:

Looking at a new house which has no gas connection

It’s a refurbished barn, 2 bed, EPC rating of B, refurbished to current regs, so plenty of insulation, underfloor heating on ground floor, rads upstairs, 1 shower

It’s got an electric boiler that then fills a water tank and the tank keeps the water hot, I’ve never seen one of these before and have no idea of the running costs?

There’s 2 of us in the house,

Currently spend about £70 on gas and £60 on electric each month in our new build house

Put most of your wage aside for the monthly electric bills from September to June if you like it a comfy 20C and don't want to wear 10 layers.

[Jeremy-75qq8]

Friend has one. As above big bills.

[OutInTheShed]

Quattr04. said:

Looking at a new house which has no gas connection

It’s a refurbished barn, 2 bed, EPC rating of B, refurbished to current regs, so plenty of insulation, underfloor heating on ground floor, rads upstairs, 1 shower

It’s got an electric boiler that then fills a water tank and the tank keeps the water hot, I’ve never seen one of these before and have no idea of the running costs?

There’s 2 of us in the house,

Currently spend about £70 on gas and £60 on electric each month in our new build house

Electric boiler for HW need not cost much, depends how 'generous' your showers are.

If it's really mega-insulated, towards passivhaus levels, then it MIGHT be a lot better than people are thinking.
There comes a point with OTT insulation where the heat demand is so small that the capital outlay of ASHP isn't justified.

However that's mostly about buildings converted by eco-loons for themselves.
Barn conversions by builders often seem to be a matter of throwing in enough insulation to meet building regs rather than actually caring about creating an insulated building.

If you can dial in some batteries, then cheap elec overnight isn't so wildly dearer than gas.
If you consider reversible aircon, maybe it's viable?

Maybe heating the floor slab overnight on E7 will keep it going through the day?

I find myself looking at houses to live in for the next 20 years.
There is £200k variation in the house price and who knows what variation in heating bills, over the range of variously modernised buildings with heating ranging from GCH to Agas via GSHP.
If the house is £100k cheaper, I can afford to heat it for the next 20 years....

I'd probably run away from it but the situation can be a little more nuanced than most of the replies in this thread.