Electric boilers - how is this going to work.

[Selfmade]

? Thinking ahead a wee bit here, it looks like lots of people will be switching from gas combi boilers to electric combi boilers over the coming years. Most of the electric boilers seem to be around 12kW, while most of the gas boilers I've seen even in flats and small houses seem to be 30kW plus. So my main question is, how is replacing a 30kW + boiler with a 12kW boiler going to be sufficient to heat the place?

Secondly, what to do about about max demand? Many old domestic properties have 60A or even lower cut-outs, so how does that work with a ~50A boiler? Do we have to get the DNO to upgrade (in my past experience they are very reluctant to do so). And what about other large loads like showers? Do we have to fit some kind of selector switch so only one can be used at a time?

 

[marconi]

I think we will see more ground and air heat pumps installed and instantaneous hot water systems in kitchens and toilets. Interesting thought about reservoirs of high potential electrons to cope with short term surges in demand. Or maybe families just pedal harder on their exercise bikes.

 

[Midwest]

Interest times ahead. We all tried electric heating in the 70's, and people started ripping them out in the 80's. My son lived in a brand new modern all insulated all electric 2 bed flat, recently. His fuel bills were higher than our 80's 4 bed place, and he only heated his bed & kitchen.

Ground,heat pumps will be fine for new builds, think there's some forthcoming building regs for that, but what will I do with my defunct gas boiler in 10-20 years time?

 

[Wilko]

We’ll re-jet them to work on methane

 

[snowhead]

but what will I do with my defunct gas boiler in 10-20 years time?

Replace it with another gas boiler.
They aren't going to disappear, it's just that in the future new builds won't have Gas.

Heat pumps still need boost heaters to get water to 60, so it's unlikely the existing DNO network would support a street full of them.

 

[ferg]

My understanding is the same as Snowheads.

It's only new builds and TBH they are so well insulated these days the heating load is much smaller anyway.

Also Electric boilers are rubbish from my experience but at least they are simple.

ASHP seems to be more common for new builds here.

This is of course based on my limited experience of them I don't do that many new builds.

 

[Leesparkykent]

I install lots of ASHP's on new builds already.

 

[Selfmade]

Interesting conversation! An electric boiler is probably not would I would choose for heating an all electric dwelling myself. Storage heaters would seem to make more sense with an increase in renewables as they lend themselves to demand-side balancing.

But, I've been working for a boiler dealer doing the wiring for mostly straight-swap gas boiler installations & heating controls, and he's asked me (I think hypothetically) about replacing a gas combi-boiler with an electric, hence my question. So is the consensus that this will not work? That electric boilers are only suitable for highly-insulated modern buildings? In the short term at least this would just be a house here and a flat there so not likely to have a big impact on the DNO network, but for the individual supply and installation it might be more of a problem.

Marconi, when you say 'reservoirs of high potential electrons', in practice does that mean capacitors? Is such a thing available to buy for this purpose (can't say I've seen one in the Screwfix catalogue!).

 

[Bellendian]

Generally the combis are 30+ kW in order to give decent hw flow rate. Electric boilers will most likely require a return to immersion tanks to even out electrical demand for hot water heating. A reservoir of high energy molecules...
Quite common to find system boilers in 12 to 18kW band.

 

[Pete999]

We’ll re-jet them to work on methane

Or BS

 

[Midwest]

Replace it with another gas boiler.
They aren't going to disappear, it's just that in the future new builds won't have Gas.

Heat pumps still need boost heaters to get water to 60, so it's unlikely the existing DNO network would support a street full of them.

Hmmmas Murdoch would say, not convinced thats going to happen

 

[Selfmade]

Generally the combis are 30+ kW in order to give decent hw flow rate. Electric boilers will most likely require a return to immersion tanks to even out electrical demand for hot water heating.

Starts to make sense. I mean, you'd never get close to 30kW with instantaneous electric heaters even with them all actually running and drawing current at the same time, except maybe in a mansion. So it seems like a system boiler and cylinder might be the way to go where an electric boiler is desired. The hot water could be set to run on low rate (night-time or when the wind blows/sun shines), while heating would be more on demand.

A reservoir of high energy molecules...

Think he's pulling our legs?

Quite common to find system boilers in 12 to 18kW band.

 

[Selfmade]

Hmmmas Murdoch would say, not convinced thats going to happen

If they all had solar panels and storage batteries, that would surely help with the extra load...

 

[PEG]

If they all had solar panels and storage batteries, that would surely help with the extra load...

....Spoken like a true pal of Jeremy...

 

[remedial]

its a similar situation to using a 10kw electric shower. its just not the same as gas boiler driven hot water system