gas log effect fire vs heatpump
victoria24
25th July 2009, 08:46 PM
in our front room we have a heat pump and a gas powered log burner looking thingy. we just powered it up and there is a built in 2 speed fan. no idea what make it is but it is flued and the ignitor controls are made by mertik. my questions are: how cheap are these to run and 2) would you use this over a heatpump? why would you have both in 1 room?
YouMeAndThree
25th July 2009, 10:59 PM
why would you have both in 1 room?
Cause it can get cold.:D
Other than sarcasm, I have no idea.
Ngeru
25th July 2009, 11:19 PM
We had one of those gas heaters in an apartment we rented some time ago. They do soon warm the place up and I think people have them for the nice warm glowing effect, you just don't get from a heatpump.
I think gas is cheaper than electricity too. The heatpump can be used for cooling in the summer, so nice to have all options. :D
Tesall
26th July 2009, 12:13 AM
Interesting question!
We have a gas fluved heater and it costs us £105 per larger bottle, and we have used 2 up so far this winter. But we have a nicely insulated north facing house so dont need to much heating.
I was under the impression that heat pumps were cheaper?
I like our gas fire as I like to stand in front of it as it warms me up... not quite the same standing under a heat pump.
Angelonthemove
30th July 2009, 11:11 AM
We had gas fire in one of our rentals and ended up with $600 bill for ONE month. We have 2 heat pumps and our bills are $225 for a month for whole house being warm 24/7.
Check your meter for one hour with it on and work out how much it cost versus heat pump on for one hour.
cathgates
30th July 2009, 01:10 PM
We were chatting to Karls new boss yesterday when we went round - such nice people (I digress!!!) they were talking about heating as we are desperate to get our own place and move out of this motel!!!! They have a log burner to heat their home and there hot water is heated by gas. They also have some wall heaters in the bedrooms. They mentioned something which I think is important to remember here, and that is the powercuts. It was something I knew about but hadn't thought about when considering heating our new home. They said it is good to have some sort of heating that doesn't rely on electricity to run even if it's only as a back up. It is something we will seriously put in to place when we finally get our own place.
Cath XX
dharder
30th July 2009, 01:56 PM
in our front room we have a heat pump and a gas powered log burner looking thingy.
Don't know much about this pesonally, but my colleague just discovered the other day that what he thought was his heating (some gas fireplace thingy) wasn't for heating at all, and actually had a sticker on it saying 'for decorative purposes only', or something like that. They used quite a lot of gas with this, and have been 'heating' their house with this for a couple of years now before they discovered that.
But I couldn't tell you to tell a decorative gas fire from a proper heating system type fire.
Daniela
mylesdw
30th July 2009, 02:45 PM
In theory the heatpump should be much cheaper to run because heat pumping is efficient and because gas is imported and electricity isn't.
Chiba
30th July 2009, 03:53 PM
To me gas always seems miles cheaper. We have one of those blown air gas heaters and it doesn't use much gas at all. Electricity's expensive.
bobo
30th July 2009, 04:30 PM
In theory the heatpump should be much cheaper to run because heat pumping is efficient and because gas is imported and electricity isn't.
Not sur that all the gas is imported, think some comes form the Maui gas fields.
Some older heat pumps can struggle to heat a room if the temprature outside is very cold, so the gas fire could be used during these conditions.
dharder
30th July 2009, 04:52 PM
To me gas always seems miles cheaper. We have one of those blown air gas heaters and it doesn't use much gas at all. Electricity's expensive.
We have gas (for water and heating), and our bills are much lower than they were with only using electricity. That wasn't a heat pump though, but just two of those oil radiator plug in thingies.
When we got all the quotes in, gas worked out cheaper because we wanted to heat lots of rooms (we have ten radiators all in all). We would have had to get two heat pump units to heat the same number of rooms, but you could attach as many radiators as you wished to the gas system.
So I'd say it really depends on the individual circumstances (once again :)).
Daniela
Philip10
30th July 2009, 06:48 PM
Don't know much about this pesonally, but my colleague just discovered the other day that what he thought was his heating (some gas fireplace thingy) wasn't for heating at all, and actually had a sticker on it saying 'for decorative purposes only', or something like that. They used quite a lot of gas with this, and have been 'heating' their house with this for a couple of years now before they discovered that.
But I couldn't tell you to tell a decorative gas fire from a proper heating system type fire.
Daniela
That's completly mad, how much energy can that waste just to look nice :mad:
Ally Bally Bee
30th July 2009, 09:57 PM
We're looking for a house to buy in Rotorua and our main deal breaker is whether it has a real life fire. Heat pumps in Rotorua don't last too long apparently because of the sulphur in the air. And at least with a log fire you can cook/stay warm when there's a power cut.
The unit we're renting came with a gas heater but we have put that away as we don't want to use it (it's one of those portable ones) - we've read too much bad stuff about them (and they smell). We're using a little plug in fan heater which warms up the unit enough for us (we're used to the cold).
IanW99
30th July 2009, 11:53 PM
...
So I'd say it really depends on the individual circumstances (once again :)).
...
I've posted this previously, but thought it was good here as well, it shows the Fuel Prices compared (http://www.consumer.org.nz/reports/heating-options/fuel-prices-compared).
Certainly shows that Gas is better than Electric column type heaters, but not as cheap as wood burners or heat pumps to run.
Ian
bobo
31st July 2009, 12:36 PM
We're looking for a house to buy in Rotorua and our main deal breaker is whether it has a real life fire. Heat pumps in Rotorua don't last too long apparently because of the sulphur in the air. And at least with a log fire you can cook/stay warm when there's a power cut.
The unit we're renting came with a gas heater but we have put that away as we don't want to use it (it's one of those portable ones) - we've read too much bad stuff about them (and they smell). We're using a little plug in fan heater which warms up the unit enough for us (we're used to the cold).
When you say a real life fire do you mean open fire or log burner. Cannot speak for Rotorua but in Chch open fires are banned. Also don’t think it is that expensive to have a log burner fitted, and you may even get a grant from your local council.
As for cooking during a power cut, you will have a BBQ. If you don’t then you must go to a DIY asap and get one as you must have one before you can be fully assimilated. Also need a chainsaw.
