heating

[kazmcl]

is central heating cheaper to run rather than a gas fire?

[Ethel]

It is cheaper to run one gas fire for one hour than put the central heating on.

But if you need hot water as well - central heating. And it heats the whole house.

[tali1]

when i put c/heating on it def makes for far more expensive bills

[BillyBB]

Also note that 'Living Flame' style fires are far more expensive to run that traditional radiant fires.

[buildersmate]

This really is a 'how long is a piece of string' question.
If you are trying to keep the whole house warm, and you are comparing gas CH with gas fires, then answer as per Ethel.
As Tali say, if you are just heating one room, a single gas fire does the job.
In general, mains gas gives out most heat (for the same money), then oil, then off-peak electricity, then bottled gas, then normal electricity.

[learntojive]

sorry to but in on your thread, but on the same line, is it cheaper to put the heating on for a couple of hours or have the tumble dryer on for a few loads? - I'm paranoid about using the dryer after reports of how much electric they consume so I tend to put the heating on and dry my washing on the radiators. My husband says I'd be better putting it in the dryer, it's a real problem in winter when I can't hang it out.

[Toureman]

The biggest problem with using radiators to dry clothes is you should use a dehumidifier at the same time, the water from the things being dried does not just dissapear it finishes up being dispersed around your house.

[Pragmatist]

I may get a kicking for this one. My ex who was a heating engineer constantly used the expression there is no such thing as shared heat. Central heating is total - a fire is isolated - if you use only one room in the house you heat that - with appropiate ventilation ( to prevent condensation). If you use the whole house you heat that. Hot water is a by product, central heating - hot water, fire - Immersion heater. To put clothing on radiatiors you are displacing the heat from the room to the clothes and you can not have both! Much as it doesn't look good (but does clothes all over radiators look any better) having a horse with clothes on allows them to dry and the heat into that room!