Electricity Bills Information

Turning the electricity on for 15 minutes or running the oil for an hour?

going by my old ’selectos burner’if i run it for one hour it will heat 30 gallon of water and heat four rads for 1/4 of a gallon of oil,cost about 50 pence,….if you run a electric shower for 15 minutes burning say 8 k.w at 12 pence = cost is 24 pence approx,but no more hot water.

Turning the electricity on for 15 minutes or running the oil for an hour?

going by my old ’selectos burner’if i run it for one hour it will heat 30 gallon of water and heat four rads for 1/4 of a gallon of oil,cost about 50 pence,….if you run a electric shower for 15 minutes burning say 8 k.w at 12 pence = cost is 24 pence approx,but no more hot water.

Because our electricity is by the unit I only put the immersion on in the evening for showers, Will it be cheeper per day if I leave it on all day? My firends say it takes more energy to heat from cold that top up as required when its on all day?

It will be cheaper to heat up what you need, when you need it, if it is left on 24 hours you have the convenience of having hot water on demand, but energy is wasted simply because of heat losses which you will get to varying degrees depending on levels of insulation.

Think of it like a kettle, if you are out all day, and only have a cup of coffee when you come home at night, which is going to be cheaper?

A) boiling a cupful of water when you come in.

or

B) trying to keep the kettle boiling all day so it is ready for your cuppa when you need it.

Answers on a postcard!

coal, natural gas, or biosmass fuel?

coal is much cheaper than natural gas but im not too sure about the costs of biomass fuel.

thnx

Naresh is correct in pointing out that water is the cheapest "fuel" consumed to generate electricity but not necessarily correct in stating that this provides the cheapest power. Hydro plants are often very expensive to build.

Anyhow your question is confined to coal, gas and biomass. As you point out thermal coal will normally be cheapest although not for example in Saudi Arabia. In most locations gas is the most expensive but it can be used in combined cycle plants which are near to twice as efficient as the steam plants using coal.

Biomass is more difficult to assess as there are very many types which throw up a wide spectrum of problems. Essentially it should of course be cheaper but sellers know the value of what they have. Some types for example cause problems (and extra maintenance) in boilers and can perhaps only be used together with a large fraction of coal. Then there are quality problems with stones, sand, water content and so on. Difficult to make a single blanket cost statement that would be accurate.