Gas Vs Electric Heater, What Is Cheaper to Run?

curious101 on 10/11/2018 - 14:01
Last edited 10/11/2018 - 14:01

Hi All

I am building a new house and I was told that to install a Gas Water system will be $1300 extra + 10% builders margin. However, my builder mentions that gas systems are expensive to install and and the eventual costs of running them, are probably around the same.

Does anyone have any experience with this ? Electricity charges are 32.7c per unit in my area, while the bunnings 8.5kg cylinder sells for $26.95. I am not looking at gas connection (only planning to use cylinders) , as it costs $58 a month in line rental, and thought cylinders are cheaper, but if you have any additional information about this, would be very much appreciated.

Thanks for taking out time.

Electrical & Electronics

Comments

  • bazingaa on 10/11/2018 - 14:17

    What about solar heaters ? :)

    • curious101 on 10/11/2018 - 14:35

      I will surely have large solar panel sometime down the line, in a couple of months, I wasn't thinking about it right now as builder is charging 10-20% margin on everything. So perhaps electic ones would be better, if I plan to install solar panels down the line ?

      Thanks

  • JIMB0 on 10/11/2018 - 14:39
    +1

    Gas from bottles would be marginally cheaper. However the added hassle of changing them over (buying, transporting, connecting) would not be worth it. Why not invest the extra cost into some sort of solar system. This would probably make the running cost around the same and without the hassles of gas bottles.

  • Richardc on 10/11/2018 - 15:13

    Electric hot water with storage, heat it up with solar or off peak electric.

  • pao2x on 10/11/2018 - 15:41
    +4

    Do you already have gas?

    Because cooking with gas is heaps better. One of the added perks of going gas.

    • curious101 on 10/11/2018 - 16:24

      I will surely be getting gas bottles for the cooking.House is under construction.

  • Hiroko on 10/11/2018 - 18:56
    +1

    gas is definately cheaper.
    we moved to our new home (all electric) about a year ago.
    we are paying almost twice as much for one electricity bill vs combined gas/electricity.

    • curious101 on 10/11/2018 - 19:44
      +1

      Thanks bud

    • loropy9 on 10/11/2018 - 21:13
      +1

      The double cost is mostly due to double bills, not entirely because of the double cost of the electricity. People think gas is cheap and they will be saving while having it alongside electricity, but it often ends up adding to the costs of living due to the daily supply charges for the gas connection.

      • MikeKulls on 11/11/2018 - 09:54

        So your elec bill is double the your gas bill and you conclude gas is cheaper? Did you think to compare usage?

        • Hiroko on 11/11/2018 - 10:54

          as mentioned, this is what we have observed in the last year living on entirely electric.
          same rates, same pay on time discounts.

          • MikeKulls on 12/11/2018 - 08:46

            @Hiroko: My point is it is far from a scientific comparison. It's a different house with different appliances

            • Hiroko on 12/11/2018 - 09:50

              @MikeKulls: i did not claim it as a scientific comparison. it was a personal observation moving from one house with gas to a house with no gas.
              different appliances or not it all comes down to the same basic cooling, heating, hot water, cooking.

              • MikeKulls on 12/11/2018 - 13:41

                @Hiroko: Gas is around 7c per kwh. Electricity is 12 to 19c in my area. Looks a lot cheaper but if you have the right appliances then you get 3x the heat out of electricity. So gas will come out as more expensive. All you've done is compare efficient appliances with inefficient appliances. Basically compared your specific situation, not compared gas to elec.

                • Hiroko on 12/11/2018 - 15:01

                  @MikeKulls: too many variables in play to draw any conclusion. what you pay in your area could be significantly different from what others pay. OP pays 32c/kw (double yours)
                  your initial cost and long term running costs of certain appliances could be significantly different.
                  OP will have to compare his circumstances with other examples provided and decide what will work best for him with what is available to him.

                  • MikeKulls on 13/11/2018 - 08:03

                    @Hiroko: That was my point!! Yes too many variables in your example to make a valid comparison. Gas you can't bolt on solar panels and get for free.

      • Hiroko on 11/11/2018 - 10:46
        +1

        not sure if my original message was conveyed correctly.
        but my electricity bill for one average quarter now is higher than the average quarter of my previous combined elec & gas.
        i was only sharing some insight from first hand experience.
        if i was to build a house today (where gas is available), i would go with a continuous flow gas heater for hot water, gas heating for winter, gas cooking, and solar panels to offset the rest.

  • Stimps on 10/11/2018 - 19:25
    +2

    Heat pump hot water storage if you have solar.

  • atris17 on 10/11/2018 - 20:32
    +1

    I was renovating my whole house, and had no gas in my area.
    So I was force to used Electric Hot Water Tank
    So this is what I did

    Electric Hot Water tank + Solar Panels +[Paladin Solar Power Diverter]! = Decrease Utility Bill

    Speak to Matt from Paladin, i deal with him when he came to my house
    Very Friendly, easy to talk too
    He is base in Brisbane too
    Save loads on the Utility Bill

    Refer my name - MarK

    • curious101 on 10/11/2018 - 22:11

      Thanks a ton Mark, excellent idea.

  • p1 ama on 10/11/2018 - 23:08
    +1

    You don't have where you're from in your description, but another important consideration is heating. Gas heating is far cheaper than electric heating. Obviously this is an issue if you're in Melbourne, less of an issue if you're in Sydney, and probably not an issue if you're in Brisbane.

    Basically, anything where you have to generate heat is very expensive with electricity. The efficiency of converting hydrocarbons to electricity is dismal. You might as well burn the stuff directly (i.e. gas hot water and heating).

    For hot water, it's probably not a big deal. You're most likely right in saying that it works out largely the same. But if you're also doing heating, then I'd say most definitely go with gas.

    • curious101 on 11/11/2018 - 02:18

      Thanks bud, I am in Brisbane.

      • mysterytal on 11/11/2018 - 10:19
        +2

        In that case I'd just go with electricity.

        It's much cheaper to maintain an electric heating element.

        There is a calculation you can use to estimate running costs.

        It's… litres used per day (about 45 with a 9 litre water saving shower head-but you might have a daily bath or multiple or longer daily showers so use your own figure) multiplied by the temperature increase in Celsius (usually about 30 depending on where you live exactly and how hot you like your showers) multiplied by 4.186 to get kJ (use this figure for gas) then divide by 3600 to get kWh then multiply by 7 (days in the week) then multiply by your unit rate (0.327)and it's something like $3-$4 per person per week. With gas you will have efficiency losses you need to take into account and also there are storage losses if you don't have an instantaneous heater.

        Washing machines and dishwashers are cold fill and use electricity to heat water as it's more efficient than using stored hot water even if that stored hot water is heated by natural gas in a cheap area such as Melbourne in Victoria. I live in Melbourne and piped natural gas is very cheap but I would not consider using bottled gas to heat water.

        • curious101 on 12/11/2018 - 02:26

          thanks bud

        • MikeKulls on 13/11/2018 - 08:06

          I would not go with old fashioned heating element hot water for a new install. We have one and it uses one third of our total consumption. Reverse cycle hot water or solar boosted is the way to go.

    • Stimps on 11/11/2018 - 08:18
      +1

      Reverse cycle electric heating is very efficient, 1kw electricity for 3kw heat energy.

  • [Deactivated] on 11/11/2018 - 00:02
    +1

    There is a lot of information on this available online

    https://renew.org.au/renew-magazine/efficient-homes/gas-vers…
    https://www.canstarblue.com.au/electricity/whats-cheaper-ele…

    • curious101 on 11/11/2018 - 02:18

      Very helpful, thanks a lot.

  • MikeKulls on 11/11/2018 - 09:57
    +1

    You will definitely want to go electric over bottled gas. Bottled gas is expensive. Electricity you can add solar panels. Go with a reverse cycle hot water and house heater. Or other solar hot water.

  • MikeKulls on 11/11/2018 - 10:14
    +1

    In the long run gas is not a renewable resource. Electricity is the future. It is a universal method of energy transport. Any renewable technology in the future will likely output electricity.

  • MikeKulls on 11/11/2018 - 10:15

    Have you had the electricity connected yet? It would be worth going 3 phase or at least 2 phase so you can exceed 5kW feed in (single phase limit).

    • curious101 on 12/11/2018 - 02:29

      Apologies for the dumb question, could you please explain a bit more about the reason for going for 3 phase power. Who would I need more than 5kW feed in ? Will also call the builder to check this up.

      Thanks a ton

      • MikeKulls on 12/11/2018 - 08:42
        +1

        There is a limit of 5kw per phase that you can feed in. With the price of solar installs these days, and running everything on electricity you would be want to get a 10kw solar system, possibly more. There's nothing stopping you doing that with a single phase but you can only feed back 5kw. So the rest can go to waste.

        As an example, I have 8.2kw solar on a single phase but can only feed back 5kw. So on some day the 3.2kw goes to waste.

        • curious101 on 12/11/2018 - 11:03

          Excellent to know, thanks a bunch.

  • moar bargains on 11/11/2018 - 14:40
    +1

    In terms of running cost (ignoring upfront capital cost) heat pump on solar diverter is most likely going to be cheapest to run, probably followed by regular solar hot water.

    Here's a couple of online calculators which may help you work it out. The first one is by the SA government, so uses average SA rates, which are obviously different than yours, but may give you an indication and is more fully featured: https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/energy-and-environment/using-sa…

    This second one allows you to compare two options for your state, but has limited configuration options: http://www.rheem.com.au/RunningCostCalculator

    Hope that helps.

    • curious101 on 12/11/2018 - 02:14
      +1

      This is what I was looking for man. Thanks a million, I am extremely grateful.

      • moar bargains on 12/11/2018 - 19:18

        No problem, glad to help :) I stumbled across them about 6 months ago when I was considering the same question.

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