Owning your own home

Converting from gas to electric centre heating, yay or nay?

My girlfriend seemed to be dead against electric, thinking they’re ineffective and said it will decrease the house value.

I’m aware it’s not 100% green depending on power station, it be nice to have a concrete plan as we are to rip the floorboard out of our 2 bed ground floor late Victorian terrace to insulate it, so might as well look into heating while we’re at it and decommissioned the old gas system.

Last time I looked, most estimates put the running cost of electric heating at roughly double that of gas. I don't think electric heating really solves the green issue, I would be looking into air source or ground source (unlikely I guess), if you really wanted to up green credentials.

It’s more that gas isn’t a long term solution, and running cost isn’t that much especially when it’s 100% effective (no need to heat the whole flat up, just selected room).

I guess my point is that electric in isolation also isn't a long term solution, I guess it depends on how long you are looking, over the next 5 years then electric is maybe the solution, but if you can hold off then more green solutions will only come down in price.

Converting from gas to electric centre heating, yay or nay?

No, but then I probably wouldn't insulate under the floor in that type of building, either.

If you take the existing hot water heating system out, it might then become more costly to fit an air source later. And you'll be relying on electric to heat your water which is a bit of a ball ache.

I'd leave it, and in five years revisit and see if there was mileage in getting an airsource put in alongside other measures (like more insulation but designed to work with / for the air source).

I'm not totally clear, are you thinking about replacing your gas boiler with an electric one, or are you thinkingi about replacing your radiators with electric heaters?

Converting to electric centre heating from gas centre heating.

Best to leave it now then, we’ll try and insulate the floor without causing further damp.

I'm also planning on insulating under the ground floor but not going to change the gas central heating. Long term plan is to get the fabric of the house up to spec (insulation and air tightness) then eventually look into MVHR system, potentially air source heat pump.

Thanks! Aiming to complete by the end of October which I'm sure is gonna be intense. But the fear is subsiding and is being replaced by excitement, which is nice.

If you want to make it more efficient add some TRVs (maybe smart ones if you think they're worth the cost). Gas will still be a solution for quite a while, particularly in places like flats converted from houses.

I definitely wouldn't be ripping out gas heating unless it was for other reasons (e.g. aesthetics).

Personally I'd value a place with electric heating lower than somewhere with gas. I don't know if things have moved on in the past 10 years but previous places with electric heating have been a hassle.

When there's a short gap between exchange and completion the deposit is 'held to order' of the solicitor (i.e. the one acting for the seller) - no real point in sending it as that just duplicates the work & admin involved for solicitors and banks...

Holding to order means the other solicitor can demand it if / when they need to, and the party holding it has to send it.

If there's a longer (few weeks / months) gap between exchange & completion then the deposit normally will be sent up the chain.

Thanks all, sticking with gas and spend more times on structure/insulation

I'm also planning on insulating under the ground floor but not going to change the gas central heating.

We have to do some damp proofing, and plan to unblock the vent from the outside as well as sorting out the guttering to ensure the likelihood of damp being a lots lower so we won’t have to worry about damp under the floorboard when insulated.

Underfloor ventilation and fixing guttering/downpipes and general drainage is good, but I'm wary of damp proofing in Victorian building. Are you sure you need it?

Air source is costly to run on electricity too but they haven’t really said much yet not to mention it’s very expensive to install

Yes, it is the installation cost that makes it prohibitive for me. Running costs are less than pure electric though I guess? I looked into combining air source with solar panels & batteries, that seemed to be the most green solution currently, but much £££

About 15k they are saying, quite a bit more than even getting your entire system replaced. Not sure how they are gonna get this to catch on, as it’s nothing short of a farce.

Yeah, it is crazy money.

I need to have a bore hole installed at some point in the nearish future, so looked into combining that with a vertical ground source, but that was also brutal money.

This is the issue with the green tax, it’s highly costly and people I just don’t think have the money to upgrade everything. Air source isn’t just a swap from a boiler to it, you’ll have to upgrade your water and radiators as everything runs on lower temps so you’ll need to accommodate for that.

Yes, I can only see this working for new builds, or complete renovations. We have wet UFH downstairs so would be on the easier end of a conversion, but would need to change all rads on the upstairs.

Yeah your half way there for sure, if they want people to adopt them, they are gonna need to come down massively just like the electric cars are gonna have too.

Yep. Hopefully increased adoption leads to reduced costs. Else people are going to do the calculation of how many years it will take them to get the initial investment back from the upfront cost and never bother.

Surveyor and previous damp work been done, I suspect those are remedied by fixing guttering, unblocking the ventilation, chimneys.

The damp proofing had been done and cover under guarantee (luckily free as it’s a 20 years guarantee from 2008 and 2014), so It good to get it done on top of doing the test to make it way less likely for it to happen again.

It’s the very late Victorian maisonette build in 1901 so not too bad.

They are talking about 600k a year adoption which I really will find hard to believe considering the costs even with the government grants it’s still 3x the price of a new combo upgrade. Most of the boilers rn coming out and ready to go with a bit of tweaking for a hydrogen blend and I think they are saying a ban from 2030

Cool underground bunker bro
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Well that's one thing to consider