Electric Boilers Explained

What happens when you put two energy experts in a room and ask them about electric boilers? We’re answering all your burning electric boiler questions. Are gas boilers still legal? Are electric boilers better for the environment? Is an electric boiler more expensive than gas? Should I swap my central heating for an electric boiler?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

HOW DO ELECTRIC BOILERS DIFFER FROM GAS ONES?

The short answer to this is that they use different methods of heating water.

A gas boiler takes in gas from the national network supply and burns it to produce heat. This then goes through a heat exchanger, which heats the water used for both your central heating and hot water. With an electric boiler, it’s a similar process but instead of burning natural gas to create heat, an electric boiler heats the water using power directly from an electricity source (almost always the national grid). It works a lot like a kettle.

This means that electric boilers are actually significantly more efficient than their gas counterparts. Modern gas boilers can reach as high as 95% efficiency (or even higher), but electric boilers can reach 100% efficiency.

However there are a lot of issues with electric boilers that don’t come up with gas boilers. In this podcast, we explain the benefits and drawback or electric boilers, and discuss the governments move towards this type of water and space heating.

 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Read More:

The Green Age: Electric Boilers - https://www.thegreenage.co.uk/tech/electric-boilers/

The Best Electric Boilers 2020 - https://www.boilerguide.co.uk/articles/best-electric-boilers

Gas boilers could be banned from all homes by 2050 - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/02/08/homeowners-could-forced-replace-gas-boilers-ensure-uk-meets/