Electric Boilers
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Simple to installElectric boilers can usually fit where your existing oil or gas boiler is fitted, and you can keep most existing radiator and wet underfloor heating systems.
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100% EfficientWatch the videoThis means every £1 you spend on electricity will give you £1 worth of heat for your home. A new gas or oil boiler will always be less than 100% efficient and will become even less efficient as they age.
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Zero harmful emissionsMeaning the air both inside and outside of your home is cleaner. And as over 90% of Guernsey’s electricity is imported renewable energy, it is more environmentally friendly from start to finish.
This will help save costs by not having to replace these items unless you’re looking for a more modern look and feel.
Electric boilers heat the water directly without burning any flammable fuel in your home. This is why they you don't need a property flue as they don’t produce any exhaust gases. The lack of any flames and potentially dangerous also means there are fewer building regulations to comply with which can save time as well as space.
Many home electric heating systems can also easy to manage using smart controllers that allow you to decide when exactly you want to switch the heating on. This helps reduce wasted heat, your running costs, and increases efficiency.
Electric boilers heat water for your heating system and also for cooking and washing. The fuel needed arrives at your door, on-demand meaning no fossil fuels need to be burnt in your home to produce heat.
Often an electric boiler can directly replace a gas or oil boiler and you can usually keep all the existing pipework, radiators and hardware.
You may need a smaller electric boiler than your current oil or gas boiler.
You will only ever need to replace the actual heat that your property loses. A heat loss calculation will tell your installer how large the boiler for your property needs to be. It might be that you have a well-insulated home that doesn’t need to replace as much heat as another property of similar size.
A larger boiler will not benefit you in any way, and could even make your heating system less efficient.
Don’t wait for your boiler to break midwinter to make the change.
Spring and Summer are the best time to make the switch. As with a house extension or roof replacement, it takes time but is worthwhile.
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Fusion Comet BoilerThis flow boiler will heat water to run a traditional wet radiator system and/or an underfloor heating system. At the same time, it can provide a home’s hot water needs when used alongside a hot water storage cylinder. -
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Fusion Astro Combi BoilerBest for smaller properties, this combination boiler provides both heat and hot water
Frequently asked questions
Making the switch to electric heating is a fantastic investment for your property. Like any property upgrade, the installation will take time to complete and we want to help answer your questions before you make the decision to change.
Switching to an electric system is a positive development for your property and similar to other property improvements such as extensions and roof renovations, it will take time to complete.
Lead times will vary depending on workload and availability, and it is worth preparing for your switch to electric in advance.
We also recommend switching during the spring and summer months when possible so the work can be carried out when you do not need to use the heating. Depending on the work required, it may take several weeks from start to finish.
We recommend checking current prices and tariffs online first. Insulating a property is the most effective way to reduce the running costs of any heating system.
Electric Boilers
An electric boiler will cost the average customer in Guernsey roughly 30% less to run than a gas boiler.
Oil is one of the most cheapest commodities and although heating oil may initially have a lower running cost when new at around 91% efficiency, over time the cost to run oil heating will increase as the efficiency decreases.
Some customers have replaced oil boilers working at less than 70% efficiency, meaning over 30% of their bill was used to pay for waste greenhouse gas emissions rather than valuable heat for their home.
Air Source Heat Pumps
This is the cheapest way to heat your home as you pay for 1kW of electricity to provide 3kW of heat. For example if you paid £100 to heat your home using a traditional electric heating system on the Superheat tariff, this could now cost you £33 to heat the same room (depending on your property insulation).
As gas costs roughly 30% more than traditional electric heating, heat pumps are far cheaper to run. And they even cost less to run than oil heating systems.
Storage Heaters
These systems run overnight on a customer's off-peak Economy 12 tariff and are the cheapest way to run a traditional electric heating system
If you’d like to make the switch to a electric heating but are unsure about the upfront cost, we can help spread the cost of your home heating affordably – just complete a short form and we’ll do the rest.
Some customers have paid as little as £46 a month for their new electric heating system.
We’re able to offer a generous solution through our finance partner Cherry Godfrey Finance Limited. Depending on the size and type of heating solution you choose, this may include a subsidy from Guernsey Electricity.
A header tank is used to supply water to the central heating system. It will maintain the level of water needed as the water expands when heated.
A new electric boiler is a pressurised system that doesn’t need a header tank. If you have an existing gravity-fed immersion heater, this can be changed to a pressurised system and mean you no longer need a header tank.
Replacing your gas or oil boiler is the quickest and most simple option and is known as a ‘wet system’ as it relies on water heated by electricity to be pumped around the system.
Moving to electric radiators is known as a ‘dry’ system.
This doesn’t need a boiler and all existing radiators linked by pipework can be removed. Electric radiators are then installed throughout the home with a cable supplying each radiator to power it individually. This means each radiator is powered independently and has its own programmer and thermostat.
We recommend your electric hot water cylinder is installed with a timer to take advantage of your low-rate Economy 12 electricity tariff.
If you heat up during your low-rate time bands, this will cost you over 50% less. And if you heat your water between 23:00 and 05:00, you will also be using 100% renewable electricity as the power station is not required as a top up during this off-peak period.
Using the immersion element in a water cylinder, the water is heated up in a similar way that a kettle boils water. The immersion element has a thermostat inside which only allows the immersion element to heat the water up to the desired temperature (usually 55°C). Once the cylinder temperature is achieved, the immersion element will switch itself off and on to maintain the desired temperature in the cylinder.
This will continue throughout the day unless a timer is fitted to control when the immersion element can be activated. This allows you to heat the cylinder water up solely in the Economy 12 low rate, therefore saving money on your electricity bill.