# gas v electric for water



## noserhodes (Sep 13, 2011)

hi all i expect pros and cons for both gas and electric in terms of heating water, at the moment we are on electric, so disregarding running costs,which method will give me a bigger output on hot water?.
i currently run on electric but in my opinion it certainly doesnt provide enough hot water to be able to get a decent hot bath,which i prefer in winter over a shower.
but before i go out and purchase a gas heater i need to know if it will give me a better output of hot water, ie dont want to outlay the cost if no improvement.
thoughts opinions please?.
thanks


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## Guest (Dec 31, 2012)

Hi,

May I presume you have a hot water tank with an electric immersion heater so the maximum amount of hot water is one tank full? But you are considering a gas fired hot water boiler which will heat the incoming cold water so all the time the hot tap is on it will be producing hot water, in which case you can have an endless supply till your gas runs out. The gas is being used only when hot water is produced so, unlike the electric heated tank, it only produces hot water when you turn on the hot tap.

There are other versions of gas water heating where a tank of water is heated same as the electric hot water tank.


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## noserhodes (Sep 13, 2011)

yes gas fired boiler type, but does it reach a high enough temp to run a bath full of water?


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## Guest (Dec 31, 2012)

Hi, Yes Usually it's set to a maximum temperature to prevent scolding and there's a but of juggling with the water flow so if the water is not quite hot enough then the close the tap a bit to reduce the flow and the water will get hotter. It still fills a bath with water too hot to get into but may take an extra minute.


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

The trick with a gas boiler is to ensure it's flue is vented correctly & assuming it is, it'll pump out as much really hot water as it has gas for. 

If it's not vented correctly, it'll run cold every few minutes & will drive you crazy.


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

Instant gas water heaters never that efficient here especially if you have any sort of a run to bath or shower nor is gas cheap anymore.

Go for solar far better and a long term cheaper option.
Ideally use solar heated product to secondary coils of a insulated storage tank with option of adding other heat sources if you have a back boiler fire, diesel boiler etc


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

It took me a while to get mine vented & working properly but now it is, it runs absolutely perfectly and is more than hot enough for us & FWIW, our running costs are about E26.50 per bottle & a bottle lasts for between 3 - 4 weeks.

I looked very hard at solar & would love to use it but for me it has to somewhere near cost effective & even at a total purchase & installation cost of E2500, it'd take a considerable number of years before I'd start getting my money back.

I'm not suggesting it's not any good or people are wrong to install it just that it'd need to come down in price considerably before I'd consider buying it for myself.


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

If you've to install a gas/electric heater anyway then it would reduce cost, we further reduced cost by bringing tubes in from UK, gas has over doubled in price since we came and little indication that it won't continue to rise, we also have a gas option but find our diesel boiler cheaper to supply instant hot water but have looked at the whole house heating/water needs so have opted for solar as primary supply of hot water, diesel and wood back boiler as secondary, not a full year running all 3 together but our diesel consumption has already dropped.

Unfortunately the tax concession on solar has stopped.


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## Guest (Jan 1, 2013)

Just to confuse everything lets run some maths by you based on UK numbers using a stand alone butane water heater.

Bath 150 x 40 x 30 cm is 150 litres

Cold water 10C heated to 50C (bit too hot for comfort)

Total, energy needed 150 x 40 = 6000 kcal.


Burning Butane C4H10 (in UK min efficiency of LPG boiler 90%) 

1gm Butane gives 11.8 kcal so at 90% gives 10.6 kcal


6000 / 10.6 is about 600 gm of butane for a full, too hot to use bath.

Local supplier charges £54 for 47kg butane also at the mo £1 is at 1.23euro so that’s 

About 0.84 euro for a bath.


You may need to adjust the numbers for your situation but these’ll give you an idea. I'm trying to find relevant data on other forms of heating for our place.


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

Travelling mans paying 1.84 € a kg, pretty standard price for Portugal


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## BJBaker (Apr 28, 2009)

We've found the "on demand" gas boiler to be very effective and cheap. Continuous HW for one shower at a time, no problem for us, plenty hot enough for baths and washing up. Two of us only and is cost about €12 per month.


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## Guest (Jan 22, 2013)

Got any details?


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## BJBaker (Apr 28, 2009)

Yup, the make is Junkers, if you google this you can find all the info you need. We're in the Algarve and there are plenty of installers locally. Ours has a conventional flue but I expect you can get a balanced flue model but it would need to be fitted to an outside wall.


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