Storage Heaters or the plug in electric ones?

miss-wright

I am after some advice on which is cheaper to run?
I currently have storage heaters and I am concerned that my electricity bills will be extremely high, I have only lived in my flat for a month so I dont have much to go on, bill wise.
I am finding it difficult to control them and I am wondering if the plug in electric heaters on a timer plug will be better cost wise?
Any advice would be gratefully recieved

Magentasue

Much depends on your house, how many heaters, how much you're in and what the heaters are like.

If you have old storage heaters in a large house and you're rarely in, they may not be worth using most of the time. If they're brand new, you have a studio flat and don't feel the cold, they could be your best option!

All electric heating is expensive but you presumably have Econ7 so your storage heaters will use cheaper electricity than plug in ones run at the expensive day rate.

How about reading your meter, running the heaters and recording the kwh used? You can compare that with running plug in heaters in whichever rooms you'd have them in.

You're right to worry. I found them very expensive but they were old in a big Victorian semi. Other posters have also found them too expensive to use but others have defended them. Don't even think about using them without Economy 7.

Cardew

Magentasue wrote: »

Don't even think about using them with Economy 7.

Without Economy 7?

russian

I'm looking into replacing storage heaters on economy 7 with electric radiators, running mostly on economy 10, but which are versatile and more controllable. One system - Kalirel has gel in the rads and the other system has ceramic or stone that retains heat. Anyone had these before. They seem popular in France but relatively new here, I think.

m_13

I've got Kalirel and have posted on another thread about them. Use the search to find the post. We did look at the stone heaters but they were a) huge and b) a fortune!

Magentasue

Cardew wrote: »

Without Economy 7?

Thanks. :beer: Post edited!

russian

Are thr Kalirel heaters satisfactory?

russian

Sorry m_13 I just read your detailed post about the electric rads. That has encouraged me. I haven't seen anything else comparable to these and my main concern is that they work OK. It seems they do.

Cardew

russian wrote: »

Sorry m_13 I just read your detailed post about the electric rads. That has encouraged me. I haven't seen anything else comparable to these and my main concern is that they work OK. It seems they do.

They work OK.

However they are very expensive to run as they give out exactly the same heat for your money as any other electrical heater.

Why pay £hundreds/Thousands for a system that will produce no more heat for your money than simple heaters costing £20 or so.?