Which is cheaper to run, eber or electric heater

Elessar

Elessar

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Now my furnace is getting the dust burned off it, in a marina which makes me toasty for less? I have a good selection of electric oil heaters used for background heat throughout winter, I'm talking about for making the boat warm.
 
If shore power is available I prefer electric. Cheap to buy, effective and silent (even fan models relatively low noise). Easy to move around on the boat too.

May even be used in combination with the Webasto to get temp up.
Latest one is ceramic, thermostatic controlled, oscillating (selectable), three heating levels (0/1000/2000 watt). Cost €10 in Madrid (bought for a stay where the hotel management didn't consider October to be heating season :( )
 
With my Mikuni as it's ducted to the all the compartments it heats the whole boat with no cold spots, difficult to replicate without at least 4 leccy heaters, with associated storage problems and leads every where.

So for quick visits we have one convector heater for the saloon, but for longer periods the Mikuni is used.

Haven't actually looked at the costs, which is unusual for me!
 
Agreed. Ducting to all rooms, but as we visit the boat almost daily for short(ish) stays like dinner or coffee, our need is to heat the main cabin fast and for a couple of hours. Hence making the oilburner a bit slow.
 
As it comes up to winter you could quite legitimately declare a higher proportion of diesel for heating when you buy fuel, and so all your heating fuel would be duty free. I'd guess this would make it cheaper than running an electric heater, though maybe you have to factor in the cost of servicing or repairing the eber from time to time. I doubt it makes much difference to annual boating costs either way though.
 
Nick_H said:
As it comes up to winter you could quite legitimately declare a higher proportion of diesel for heating when you buy fuel, and so all your heating fuel would be duty free. I'd guess this would make it cheaper than running an electric heater, though maybe you have to factor in the cost of servicing or repairing the eber from time to time. I doubt it makes much difference to annual boating costs either way though.
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The you would have to declare a lower proportion in the summer! best to stick to 60/40
 
An eber D5 uses 0.58lph at full pelt. At say £1.00/litre 60/40 (this is a bit of a guess, sorry, I don't know the current cost of fuel in the UK) that's 58p an hour. A typical marina elec charge might be 20p/kwh, so the equivalent would be a 3kw heater running continuously.

Sounds like a score draw to me...
 
jimmy_the_builder said:
An eber D5 uses 0.58lph at full pelt. At say £1.00/litre 60/40 (this is a bit of a guess, sorry, I don't know the current cost of fuel in the UK) that's 58p an hour. A typical marina elec charge might be 20p/kwh, so the equivalent would be a 3kw heater running continuously.

Sounds like a score draw to me...
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Useful info Jimmy, many thanks. For me, heating cost is pretty marginal. Tube heaters for frost protection, Eber for me when on board, plus electric blanket. Makes Rafiki quite snugly in the winter :)
 
Nick_H said:
No you wouldn't, you can declare 60/40 in the summer, and 80/20 or 90/10 in the winter, and who could say you were wrong?
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I guess you mean 20/80 or 10/90. In any case the 60/40 was if i recall based on an average for a year. I think the last thing we need is for boaters to start taking liberties with this arrangement and bringing it into disrepute.
 
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RIN said:
I guess you mean 20/80 or 90/10. In any case the 60/40 was if i recall based on an average for a year. I think the last thing we need is for boaters to start taking liberties with this arrangement and bringing it into disrepute.
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This is correct and important.

Note HMRC effectively said "declare your own usage split and by the way if it's 60:40 we probably won't look too much. "

At 60:40 the duty is just about the minimum duty that the eu demands is on diesel.

If, overall, the take is less than 60:40 I reckon it's game over for this very pragmatic solution that HMRC allowed us to have.
 
I have done the numbers quite frequently and always come to the same conclusion, and there is no question from a purely cost point of view electricity wins out every time. Exceptions are for those with access to "cheap" paraffin in 205l barrels and a separate tank. There are other considerations like size and intrusion of heaters, positioning, availability of amps from shore power, suitability of vessel's internal cabling etc. that also come into play. There is nothing to beat the rapid warm up and distribution of a blown air system but each case needs to be treated as an individual.
 
RIN said:
In any case the 60/40 was if i recall based on an average for a year
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I thought it was supposed to be a forecast of your usage for the fuel you were buying, not the split from the last tank you bought, or an average over the year. Arguably boaters claiming different splits in the winter vs. the summer supports HMRC's case rather than weakens it. If everyone claims 60/40 all year round then its pretty obvious they've made no attempt to forecast their usage.
 
I buy fuel twice a year .In the spring I refill the tanks after the heater has used about 600 l ( my boat does not move in this period ) I declare 100 % domestic use . In the autum I refill after my usual 3 one week holidays and odd day out say between 200 to 400 l and l declare 60/40 I believe this to be fair as it's what I'm asked to do both times I fill the boatyard asks me to fill in a form name address what fuel is used for and my declaration and I sign it simple.
 
if 60/40 is right for the year the boaters who take the boat out and dont useit in the winter , must be decaring wrong and the winter boaters are subsidising ,fair weather boater ,
 
Since I've just finished rebuilding my Eberspächer D5LC and the engineer I bought parts from insisted that Diesel was cheaper, I've done the math. Turns out he's right - at current Diesel prices, even road diesel is slightly cheaper than electric heating. Here's the results:

eber_vs_leccy.PNG


So yes, the Eber is cheaper with current diesel prices (fuel prices from Google, I was too lazy to check the actual ones for here, but don't think they differ much).

This does account for the additional electric use of the diesel heater (the fan), although only in raw watts, which are likely slightly higher as they're supplied by the shorepower charger, which isn't 100% efficient.

It does not account for:
Diesel heater startup - 280W electric power for 1 minute
Environmental impact
Fossil fuel depletion
CO2 emission
Other harmful emissions
Noise
Initial purchase cost
Spare part/maintenance cost
Heat lost in ducting / heating unwanted areas
Fuel spent visiting fuel pontoon
 
Yngmar said:
Since I've just finished rebuilding my Eberspächer D5LC and the engineer I bought parts from insisted that Diesel was cheaper, I've done the math. Turns out he's right - at current Diesel prices, even road diesel is slightly cheaper than electric heating. Here's the results:

eber_vs_leccy.PNG


So yes, the Eber is cheaper with current diesel prices (fuel prices from Google, I was too lazy to check the actual ones for here, but don't think they differ much).

This does account for the additional electric use of the diesel heater (the fan), although only in raw watts, which are likely slightly higher as they're supplied by the shorepower charger, which isn't 100% efficient.

It does not account for:
Diesel heater startup - 280W electric power for 1 minute
Environmental impact
Fossil fuel depletion
CO2 emission
Other harmful emissions
Noise
Initial purchase cost
Spare part/maintenance cost
Heat lost in ducting / heating unwanted areas
Fuel spent visiting fuel pontoon
Click to expand...

Thats interesting but could be a tad general - I use the ebber full on for +/- 1 hr and always assume thats 50p or so.


However once its toasty warm and dry too a small 1kw unit fan keeps the temp confortable even with the overpriced Premier elect at 17p/Kw hr thats much cheaper than the epper better than 1/2 the cost.


What an old thread............
 
One unit of electricity = 1 kw hour so lets' compare a Webo 5000:
5 units of electric = 5kwh, that at the 10p per unit price at South Dock is £0.50p
A Webo 5000 burns 0.66l per hour, that's assuming it has its burn rate set correctly, most don't
At a cheap £0.70p per litre for diesel it comes out at just less than that, when this thread was last active the numbers were entirely different and the electricity won hands down but now there is little in it, but as soon as diesel hits even £1 again electricity will have the advantage again. But if one wants to save 1 or 2p an hour against boat wide comfort and dehumidification bought by warm air heating...............
 
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