Replacing old night storage heaters

kimwoo83

I realise there are many threads along these lines, and I'm sorry, but what I could find boggled my mind somewhat!

Current situation:
1 bed flat; bedroom, living room, bathroom, kitchen, small hallway. High ceilings, single glazing (conservation area).
Living room: big ancient night storage heater
Bedroom: the same - have never switched them on, have lived there a couple of months
Bathroom: electric heated towel rail
Hall: wall mounted plug-in panel heater
Hot water: an electric immersion heater tank, set on a timer

All of this has some age to it and at the very least I want rid of the storage heaters to be replaced by something lovely, cheap to install, cheap to run and effective; too much to ask?!

I would consider taking ALL of it out and replacing with some kind of complete system, if there is one worth having?

Anything other than electric isn't an option. An idea of installation costs, monthly bills and recommendations of specific products are very welcome :T

p.s. We only plan to live in the flat a couple of years so with the market how it is we have to seriously consider the value of the outlay of installation - this is why we are dismissing gas.

bozlite

Your flat sounds identical to mine! I've just been through my first winter in it and am now planning to get gas central heating installed ...

I found that the storage heaters were expensive (approx £100.00 pcm for heating and hot water only during the winter months) and they're very inflexible - you have to know how cold you're going to be tomorrow evening!

Unfortunately, if gas isn't an option for you, then any other electric system (other than night storage) is going to be even more expensive. The economy 7 rate is a LOT cheaper than daytime rate. You might try having a look at the Dimplex website (https://www.dimplex.co.uk) to see if there's anything much nicer to look at than what you've currently got, but it's unlikely you'll get anything that is actually more efficient - the technology is pretty simple: heating bricks up overnight, releasing heat during the day.

It seems that a new storage heater costs around £150.00-300.00 depending on the output. As long as your wiring is sound, installation should be very easy.

Hope this helps!

kimwoo83

So it's just a fact that electric heating costs a fortune? I was kind of hoping it was something of a myth! Will even brand new storage heaters cost as much as that to run?

DobboT

I took the decision to go all electric 20 years ago, and have never regretted it. I have 2 bedroom semi-bungalow, and installed off-peak heaters, together with large off-peak water heater.I also installed a Pactrol Weather Watcher control system (which controls the heater input depending upon outside temp.) and made sure that insulation was good (cavity wall, loft, and double glazing) My bills are no more than neighbours,and no maintenence.

beer_tins

I have a two bedroom maisonette, all electric and on economy 7. Three storage heaters, night time immersion heater (plus top up immersion heater). We pay £50 a month electricity and no gas, obviously. The storage heaters are new and are much better than the old ones used to be. They are still warm when you get back from work, unless you have the output on full blast during the day...

kimwoo83

Thanks so much for those responses - very helpful!

You've raised a question about our immersion heater now - we have it set to come on for an hour ish in the morning and the same again in the early evening - would we be better off setting it for a couple of hours late at night? If we did this would the water cool off by the next evening?

Inactive

kimwoo83 wrote: »

Thanks so much for those responses - very helpful!

You've raised a question about our immersion heater now - we have it set to come on for an hour ish in the morning and the same again in the early evening - would we be better off setting it for a couple of hours late at night? If we did this would the water cool off by the next evening?

I have mine set to come on at around 6.30am on cheap rate for about 2 hours.

With the suggested increases in gas prices, electricity is set to become the cheapest option, I use night storage heaters, no regrets, no maintenence charges either.:T