There are several ways that the modern home can be heated, between gas, oil burners, and electric systems, there are a ton of options, with the two foremost solutions being gas or electric heating and hot water supply. This article hopes to talk about both of these popular methods and compare them in as many ways as possible to help you clearly understand both in principle, as well as help guide you towards the most cost-efficient method available.

Gas Heating

Gas heating refers to the use of natural gas as a fuel source to generate heat for residential, commercial, or industrial buildings. Gas heating systems typically use furnaces, boilers, or space heaters to produce heat. Some benefits of a gas system are:

  • Cheaper per unit as it stands compared to electricity
  • Easy to use, established product sector so many wifi or app controls are available, heating engineers and plumbers are very familiar with the items
  • Modern Gas Boilers are in general far more efficient than older boilers regardless of the heating method

Electric Heating

Electric heating utilises you guessed it, electricity, to power your household hot water or central heating. It takes a kW demand from your household mains electricity and generates heat, rather than burning a fuel e.g. natural gases. Some of the benefits here are:

  • Environmentally much less impactful than burning natural gas
  • Can be used where gas outlets are unavailable such as in remote locations
  • Generally more efficient than even modern Gas boilers for your needs

Why Would I Choose Gas Over Electricity?

So there are definitely some reasons you might pick Gas over Electric heating. Off of the bat, as it stands in 2024 Gas is still cheaper per unit than electricity, making the month-to-month bills cheaper, even though we are heading to an electric future. Gas boilers might feel like they switch on or heat up quickly, even though this is only minor you might notice the heating turns on a little quicker with a Gas system. There's also the question of Electricity's actual environmental benefits:

"Unabated fossil fuels currently account for over 60% of total global electricity generation" - Electricity - Energy System - IEA

And Why Would I Choose Electric Over Gas?

Whilst it can be hard to conceptualise at the moment, there are some major benefits to switching to an electric water and heating system. Firstly, an Electric system ensures future-proofing, soon enough, Gas boilers will be phased out, with newly built homes being unable to install Gas boilers by 2025. Following this, the price per unit should dramatically shift, ensuring that Electric central heating systems become the preferred economical and environmental solution. In addition, Electric units are easier to maintain with the nature of the internal components being a bit more easily repairable than their Gas counterparts. Electricity can be drawn from various sources, with renewable means of creating electricity the amount of fossil fuels being burned will go down and hopefully continue to go down as time moves forward.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this article has helped shed some light on the real differences between the two most common heating methods currently used and being used in the UK. If you'd like any further information, or aim to switch to an Electric system, we are on hand to advise and assist further, just give us a call at 01934 253600. Many thanks for reading.