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Should I install gas central heating or electric radiators?

I have just bought a house that needs a heating and hot water system installing. There is no mains gas in the property but there is a supply on the street. It will cost approximately £800 to bring the gas as far as the house. The property also needs major rewiring. An initial review of modern electric radiators leads me to think that their ability to be controlled individually to a high degree of accuracy - in terms of timings, temperature and for separate rooms - is attractive. It strikes me that the cost of installing gas central heating may work out the same as wiring and electric radiators. I know the cost of electricity is more than mains gas, but I have always found thermostats inaccurate. So should I go for gas central heating or electric radiators with WiFi?

However sophisticated the control system, electric radiators are still electric resistance heating, so will cost about three times as much to run as gas. Carbon emissions per kWh of heat delivered will also be higher - at least for the foreseeable future.

Modern gas boilers all have timers and thermostats and you can have thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs) in each heated room to ensure that you are not heating space unnecessarily. These can even be smart TRVs (such as Netatmo) or a WiFi control system with smart room thermostats (many boiler manufacturers now offer this). You might even want to consider going for a fully automated home setup with intelligent controls for heating, lighting and more if you’re having to rewire anyway.

Fundamentally, if you have mains gas available then I would definitely get it connected - it will repay you within a few years for space heating and less for hot water. The size of the storage vessel would depend on hot water demand, but in general the cylinder will need a larger heating coil than in a standard gas boiler installation, as a GSHP runs at a lower temperature than a boiler. This doesn’t affect the size of the cylinder, however. If you plan to add a second resource, such as solar thermal, then you’ll also need to install a dual-coil cylinder.