Dimplex: gas safety stats show why private landlords should turn to electric

Electric heating must be the ‘sensible’ choice for private landlords, according to heating expert Dimplex, after new findings show more than a fifth of privately rented properties have an unsafe gas appliance.

Today’s gas appliances should be perfectly safe to use in rental properties, yet investigation data by the Gas Safe Register spanning five years shows that 21 per cent of privately rented homes still have an unsafe gas appliance – and 59 per cent of those appliances are gas heaters. The overriding problem that leads to unsafe gas heaters is the failure to ensure regular maintenance – all gas appliance manufacturers recommend that this should be done annually. Unfortunately, owners of private rental properties are either failing to realise this, or worse deliberately ignoring this requirement, endangering their tenants.

Chris Stammers, product marketing director for electric heating specialist Dimplex, says the research only serves to reinforce the benefits of electric for the UK’s army of two million private landlords, which let five million properties.

He said: “From a landlord’s perspective, in many cases, it makes more sense to fit electric heating rather than gas. The capital costs of a new gas system, the annual servicing requirements, the system reliability and longevity – it can be a huge financial burden and of course a legislative nightmare.

“By choosing electric, they can provide their tenants with close control of temperature, fast warm up and cool down times, room by room control and high satisfaction levels too. For the landlord, there is peace of mind as there is no requirement for the annual servicing seen in gas appliances. This is all achieved without incurring disproportionately high heating bills, which many people still mistakenly associate with electric heating."