Fischer Storage Heaters

grahamc2003 · 23 February 2012 at 5:44PM

Makus wrote: »

Thanks for the reply, that's really useful and should help me calculate, if I only knew how!

Is there a way to calculate how much heat loss in KW there is from a room? I can measure the temperature inside and outside after say a one hour period or something? Then somehow work out how much heat has been lost from that?

The problem I have is that as oil is so expensive, we currently run our heating for 8 hours a day and it costs us over £2000 per year (£160 a month isn't quite covering it), so even if the Fischer system (13.5KW in total) ran for the same 8 hours a day and was on constantly (which I'm guessing it would not be) then at say £0.12/KWHr cost for electricity then that would cost £2358 which is about the same as the oil is currently! - Is that correct or am I missing something?

I know everyone says electricity is expensive but compared to what we are paying out in oil I'm not sure it is! Our oil has gone up 60% in two years! I'm sure if gas had gone up by the same there would be an uproar! At one point last year our oil had gone up 100% in a year (was 0.35/ltr two and a half years ago, peaked at 0.70 last year and is now 0.60/ltr).

Any help with calculating heat loss would be great.

:-(

There are ways of estimating heat loss for a certain inside and outside temperature - I had it done when I had a survey for a heatpump system. Seemed very involved to me.

I would estimate it a different way. You know how much oil you've used in say the last year, you can look up the number of kwh in a litre of oil, you can estimate the efficiency of your boiler (60% if old? 80% if new?), so it's easy to get an idea of the number of kwh you need each year. Simply multiply that by your unit rate to get the (rough) electrcity cost.

Incidentally, the rough cost of electricity will be the same for whatever electric heater you use on day rates - the expensive Fischer ones will have the same running costs as a cheap fan heater (whatever Fischer tells you in their sales blurb).

To get the approx storage heater cost, add 10-15% to the kwh calculated above (to allow for a slightly different room temperature profile - basically typically a little warmer between 00:00 and 07:00), and multiply that by the economy seven cheap rate.

jalexa · 23 February 2012 at 6:41PM

Makus wrote: »

Is there a way to calculate how much heat loss in KW there is from a room?

If you Google "heat loss calculator" you will find several links.

Makus · 23 February 2012 at 8:03PM

grahamc2003 wrote: »

There are ways of estimating heat loss for a certain inside and outside temperature - I had it done when I had a survey for a heatpump system. Seemed very involved to me.

I would estimate it a different way. You know how much oil you've used in say the last year, you can look up the number of kwh in a litre of oil, you can estimate the efficiency of your boiler (60% if old? 80% if new?), so it's easy to get an idea of the number of kwh you need each year. Simply multiply that by your unit rate to get the (rough) electrcity cost.

Incidentally, the rough cost of electricity will be the same for whatever electric heater you use on day rates - the expensive Fischer ones will have the same running costs as a cheap fan heater (whatever Fischer tells you in their sales blurb).

To get the approx storage heater cost, add 10-15% to the kwh calculated above (to allow for a slightly different room temperature profile - basically typically a little warmer between 00:00 and 07:00), and multiply that by the economy seven cheap rate.

That makes sense and seems an easy way of calculating it. So looking at a few places it seems that heating oil gives approx. 10KW per litre so allowing for a 70% efficient boiler (it's not old but not new) then I'm getting 7KW per litre. We are using 3600 litres per year, so that's 25,200 KW per year (wow!)... So multiply that by £0.12 for electricity and I get £3024 per year (actually my rate is currently £0.09 per KW but I doubt that will remain after the first year).

Does that sound as though my calculations are correct?

With regard to the Fischer radiators compared with say a cheap oil filled radiator.. Would the fact that the surface area is larger on the Fischer ones mean that more heat is radiated from it (in the same way that a car radiator dispels heat efficiently because it has a large surface area) or does that not make any difference?

Has anyone actually bought any of them and can give some feedback?

Thanks again for all the help so far in my mission :-)

Lungho · 25 June 2012 at 6:37AM

This is my newbie debut.
I am very pleased to read all the info regarding the Fischer-Future Heat Radiators. Collectively you have raised doubts about the claims of cost and efficiency, except one who appears to have raised doubts about whether an employee or not. If I were to buy one for our very small conservatory it would only be used in winter time occasionally so what I am looking for it must be switched on and warm up speedily, safely, healthier and to a degree economically. Issues such as opening and closing the conservatory doors for the dog are an obvious blight to your calculations.

My main question is :
How much are Fischer-Future Heat Radiators ?

simong1983 · 8 October 2012 at 10:56AM

my wifes grandparents have just had a qoute off fischer for the radiators. for THREE radiators total £4088 with a 15% saving, already knocked off,

why are people relutant to say the price they cost,

[text deleted by MSE Forum Team]

jalexa · 8 October 2012 at 2:45PM

simong1983 wrote: »

my wifes grandparents have just had a qoute off fischer for the radiators. for THREE radiators total £4088

And there is another thing, these do not have "storage capacity" similar to traditional UK storage radiators. The price is predicated on them being plugged in to sockets using (mostly) day rate electricity.

carlover · 10 October 2012 at 2:35PM

All you Experts ??? Are missing a big point.

"older" people are in all day by 10am in the morning the place is cold from the E7s being off so they are putting on Electric fires to keep warm.Very expensive.

The salesman will bring in a heater and demonstrate by putting it on for 10 minutes ,its very hot. Take the plug out and after 15 minutes feel again and its even hotter ,that is why its only on for 15 minutes every hour.
These other experts who say buy a cheap £20 job and its the same output ,gee whizz ,of course it is but turn it off and how quickly does it get cold ,in seconds probably.

You can buy £400 Electric heaters ,woopee do ,open them up ,no Chamotte,no tungsten element ,and thermosts IN the radiator ,no wonder its a lot cheaper.

To the person who reckons they get bought in for £250 ,well maybe but the company over here has to spend £40,000 a week in advertising. Plus all other overheads ,its a real world out there.

Frightened of the price ?
When you sell a High Ticket price product you have to justify the value of it ,the whys and wherefores.Thats selling ,what is wrong with that.Just telling someone a heater is £1500 ,a reflex reaction would be no thanks ,show that person WHY and they may make an informed decision one way or another.But the rooms have to be measured anyway so a from to ...is not easy anyway.

A night storage heater 3.5 Kw will cost 17.5p an hour and at 10am in the morning if you are in the house during the winter it will be cold.Awaste of time.

A fischer system will cost around 1/4 of that and give you heat when you want it delivered in a way that you want.

Wish you well.

Ada3050 · 10 October 2012 at 2:58PM

carlover wrote: »

All you Experts ??? Are missing a big point.

"older" people are in all day by 10am in the morning the place is cold from the E7s being off so they are putting on Electric fires to keep warm.Very expensive.

That's just plain wrong, my storage heaters are still nice and toasty at 10am, one of the reasons why I like them.

macman · 10 October 2012 at 4:20PM

Storage heaters cold by 10am? How can that be, when they are typically charging overnight until maybe 7am or whenever the cheap rate ends in your region?
Night storage heaters are particularly suitable for elderly/retired people for just this reason.
It's 10pm at night when they are more likely to have fully discharged.

jalexa · 10 October 2012 at 4:29PM

carlover wrote: »

and thermosts IN the radiator ,no wonder its a lot cheaper.

You need to understand that "thermostats IN the radiator" act as energy controllers not absolute temperature controllers, a perfectly valid mode of operation which allows users to select a suitable (for them) setting.

Fischer Storage Heaters

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