Sooner or later, everybody will need to switch from gas to electric heating. From an environmental perspective, the sooner people make the switch the better it will be for the planet. From an everyday perspective, switching to electricity as soon as possible brings a lot of practical benefits.
Electricity offers security
Right now, probably the single most compelling argument for switching to electric heating is the security it offers. In comparison with other countries, the UK has a fairly reliable supply of gas. It is, however, very reliant on imports from Norway.
These are based on long-term contracts. This means that, in principle, they should be secure for the immediate future. In practice, whenever goods need to be transported, their supply is vulnerable to disruptions in the transport system.
Furthermore, the contracts will need to be renegotiated at some point. There is no guarantee that the UK will be able to secure an extension to them. Even if it does, the terms may change significantly.
Electricity has become much more affordable
Dave Tyrer, Director of Rio Heating commented, “Up until relatively recently, gas was indisputably the most economical way to heat a home. Now, electricity has not just caught with gas but is starting to surpass it. Part of this is due to factors that may (or may not) be temporary. Part of it, however, is due to the different mechanics behind gas and electric heating.”
Electric heating converts all energy into heating
With gas heating, the gas heats water and water heat the home. With electric heating, the electricity is converted into heat without any intermediary. This in itself is an efficiency gain. The real benefit of it, however, is that it allows for electric heating to be very precisely controlled.
In particular, electric heating can be combined with smart thermostats to create smart heating systems. These offer numerous, significant benefits over traditional heating systems.
One of them is the ability to define what a room’s temperature should be in any given set of circumstances (e.g., day of the week and time). Smart heating systems use the exact amount of energy necessary to maintain that temperature. This can massively reduce heating bills.
What’s more, you can take this further by using multiple thermostats to create subzones in your home. This allows you to control the energy use in your home even more precisely. Unlike gas radiators, electric radiators can easily be controlled individually. You can adjust them using a remote control (like an app) instead of having to do it manually.
Electric heating has lower maintenance costs
If you already have gas central heating installed, then there will probably be a cost to having it decommissioned. This cost will, however, need to be addressed at some point. The good news is that the costs of installing and maintaining electric heating are much lower. This is mainly because it doesn’t need piping, just wires.
The fact that electric heating doesn’t need piping means that there will never be any issues with leaks. On a similar note, it will never emit carbon dioxide or create a naked flame. This means that it’s much safer. Electric heating does, of course, still need periodic safety checks but the overall hazard is much lower.
As a bonus, if electric heating does need to be repaired, the process is much simpler. Again, this is mostly due to the fact that it uses wires rather than pipes. Firstly, wires are more straightforward to manage. Secondly, they can be run around a room rather than having to go under floorboards.
You will also generally have the use of most of your heating while the repair work is in progress. It’s highly unusual for the entirety of an electric heating system to fail the way gas central heating can.
David Tyrer is the Director of Rio Heating and has over 30 years’ experience in creating smart heating & technology, designed to be enjoyed with smart home devices.
