Storage Heaters vs Oil or Convection Heaters?

HarmonyAngel_2

whitevanwoman wrote: »

I live in a 2 up 2 down victorian terraced and my only source of heating is my multifuel stove in the kitchen. It's a 5kw stove with a boiler fitted to do my hot water and so 2kw of heat is used for the boiler and 3kw of heat is for heating the rooms downstairs. Except during the past few days when it has been about minus 8 at night (I live in the north) I try to manage during the day without the fire, lighting it about 4pm. Within an hour the kitchen is toasty warm and the chill has gone off the front room. During the winter I virtually live in the kitchen and only really use the front room in the summer. I also find that despite having no heating, the bedroom above the kitchen also gets quite warm from the heat in the chimney breast and the hot water pipes under the floorboards. I manage without heating in the bathroom by having baths during the winter instead of showers - the steam heats up the bathroom & I always have loads of hot water. I like the way a really hot bath keeps you feeling warm for ages afterwards. I have an electric shower that I only really use during the summer when I don't use the stove much.

I have taken weekly meter readings for the past year and have discovered that I actually use much more elec during the summer than during the winter - I presume this is due to using the immersion heater for the odd half hour to heat water and to using the elec shower because the stove is not lit.

However, the cost of coal is now astronomical - when I moved here 5 years ago it was £6.40 a bag, it's now £14.20 a bag and over the past year it has gone up almost on a monthly basis. During winter, if you want your stove going during the day aswell as in the evening and overnight you need to reckon on at least a bag of coal a week, supplemented by wood, and anything else burnable. I salvage wood from wherever I can (I've even demolished a shed for someone for the wood) and chainsaw it up myself, a job which I enjoy doing but which accounts for a day's work each week.
A trailer of ready cut logs usually costs £40 - 50 and should last a couple of months during the winter if used combined with coal. But you will need to stack it and store it somewhere dry. And make sure that the length of the logs is not too big for your stove.

In my freezing front bedroom where its 6 degrees at present, extra blankets and hot bean bags are essential. It's tough at first but you actually get used to living in a colder house, and I now have hot sweats in centrally heated houses.

Alot of my problem is that I have the original rattly draughty sash windows so I'm losing vast amounts of heat through those. I use a blind aswell as thick curtains as I can't afford nor really want new windows. I've bought some plastic film window insulation which I'm going to use over the windows. I think good insulation is as good as an extra heater - I felt a draught in the kitchen the other night coming from the cat flap so I have made a cat flap curtain and noticed the difference!

I think a 5 -7 kw stove would be more than enough to heat your cottage - in fact it might be worth looking at a 3 or 5 kw stove max as you might find that during the summer you want some heat for an hour or so in the evening but a higher kw stove would be too much.

I have a plug in halogen heater which I use in emergencies (like no dry wood) or when I come in late and its not worth lighting the stove for an hour before I go to bed. I think that's quite cheap to run as it doesn't seem to make a huge difference to my elec use.

I've got a device which measures the amount of elec and the cost of the elec used by an elec appliance so I'll try it on my halogen heater and on the mini oil heater I've got (but never use) and will let you know the results.

If you receive a disability benefit or disability premium for council tax or income support, you should qualifty for loft insulation and help towards heating through the Warm Front scheme ( http://www.warmfront.co.uk/ ). That includes replacing open fires with enclosed stoves so check their website out before you buy and fit your stove as you may be able to get financial help towards it.

Good luck, stay warm. You can't beat a wool jumper :-)

Thank you so very much for your in-depth reply, it is very much appreciated (as the other's have also been )

I think you're right that a 5kw stove will most likely be adequate. I plan to use a combination of wood & coal. I have discovered how much coal has gone up, it's crazy!! I use the oval's, (just the basic one's, ie, not the smoke free one's) as I learnt a long time ago, on advice originally from the coal man, that these burn the longest & leave little more than ash (as opposed to some of the cheaper stuff which leaves lumps behind). The old tenant has left a little wood & where my friend has taken back a lot of tree's & shrub's in the garden there is some good wood which will be going away to dry out ready for later in the year. I'll also gather up windfall etc from the field's when out with the dog's. For the rest of this winter I plan to get a trailer load of ready to use wood delivered.

My only positioning option for my stove (which I won't be getting until the summer) is in the lounge & I plan for it to be stood out on the hearth so that during power cut's I can still cook & make drink's, also, with the Eco Fan it will distribute the heat more effectively.

Today I've been to Dunelm & managed to get some thermal lined curtain's in the sale plus blind's for the kitchen & bathroom plus a soft brushed cotton sheet for my bed. I also went to Argos & reserved my fleccy electric blanket (I have to collect from another store on Friday).

Most of the cottage window's & the main door have draft excluder's around them, I just have the door from the lounge to the patio to do which at the moment has some awful old curtain's that will be replaced with a heavier & better fitting curtain & I've put a sausage dog type exluder at the bottom. I was going to install a catflap but have decided against it, the cat's will have to be either in or out!!

I do get DLA plus now a premium for housing & council tax so will take a look at the Warmfront website. I don't have a loft to insulate but if I could at least get some assistance towards a stove then that would make a big difference & may also mean I can get it in sooner.

Thanks again for your reply, I really appreciate you taking the time

:A

halia

whitevanwoman wrote: »

I live in a 2 up 2 down victorian terraced and my only source of heating is my multifuel stove in the kitchen. It's a 5kw stove with a boiler fitted to do my hot water and so 2kw of heat is used for the boiler and 3kw of heat is for heating the rooms downstairs. Except during the past few days when it has been about minus 8 at night (I live in the north) I try to manage during the day without the fire, lighting it about 4pm. Within an hour the kitchen is toasty warm and the chill has gone off the front room. During the winter I virtually live in the kitchen and only really use the front room in the summer. I also find that despite having no heating, the bedroom above the kitchen also gets quite warm from the heat in the chimney breast and the hot water pipes under the floorboards. I manage without heating in the bathroom by having baths during the winter instead of showers - the steam heats up the bathroom & I always have loads of hot water. I like the way a really hot bath keeps you feeling warm for ages afterwards. I have an electric shower that I only really use during the summer when I don't use the stove much.

I have taken weekly meter readings for the past year and have discovered that I actually use much more elec during the summer than during the winter - I presume this is due to using the immersion heater for the odd half hour to heat water and to using the elec shower because the stove is not lit.

However, the cost of coal is now astronomical - when I moved here 5 years ago it was £6.40 a bag, it's now £14.20 a bag and over the past year it has gone up almost on a monthly basis. During winter, if you want your stove going during the day aswell as in the evening and overnight you need to reckon on at least a bag of coal a week, supplemented by wood, and anything else burnable. I salvage wood from wherever I can (I've even demolished a shed for someone for the wood) and chainsaw it up myself, a job which I enjoy doing but which accounts for a day's work each week.
A trailer of ready cut logs usually costs £40 - 50 and should last a couple of months during the winter if used combined with coal. But you will need to stack it and store it somewhere dry. And make sure that the length of the logs is not too big for your stove.

I think a 5 -7 kw stove would be more than enough to heat your cottage - in fact it might be worth looking at a 3 or 5 kw stove max as you might find that during the summer you want some heat for an hour or so in the evening but a higher kw stove would be too much.

r :-)

thanks this is really useful and detailed. I'm going through the problem of trying to decide how to heat my new house. As it stands it has 2 open fires (one connected to a back boiler) 1 electric fire and one electric convector heater which we bought to enable us to warm other rooms!

Its an old stone built mid terrace early victorian house with no mains gas and no insulation to speak of.

I'm obviuosly going to insulate wherever Ican, - walls, under floors, loft. We can't replace the single glazed Sash windows but will be putting secondary glazing in (the lift in panes) and using thick curtains.

I was hoping to get the Hunter 8 multifuel stove with boiler to run the central heating. I'll need a minimum of 4 radiators plus the hot water. The living area and kitchen are open plan so that stove should heat that space I hope?(its 12ftx 22ft)

hen I was going to put electric underfloor heating in the kitchen and bathroom (both very small spaces) so that they can be warmed up for chilly mornings/evenings without having to get the fire lit. Electric shower for the summer and will keep the freestanding convector heater for instant warmth when needed (cold and wet and no logs ready!)

Does this sound OK?

never_too_old

I used to have storage heaters in my last house so information is based on a few years ago.I was on a tarriff where the electricity was alot less at night so i used to put all major appliances on timers to come on during the cheap rate.i found it sufficient to heat my house and didnt often have to open the boast vents,they heat up over night using the cheap rate so i would be against using oil filled radiators as these are expensive to run.hope that is of some help:wave:

whitevanwoman

halia wrote: »

thanks this is really useful and detailed. I'm going through the problem of trying to decide how to heat my new house. As it stands it has 2 open fires (one connected to a back boiler) 1 electric fire and one electric convector heater which we bought to enable us to warm other rooms!

Its an old stone built mid terrace early victorian house with no mains gas and no insulation to speak of.

I'm obviuosly going to insulate wherever Ican, - walls, under floors, loft. We can't replace the single glazed Sash windows but will be putting secondary glazing in (the lift in panes) and using thick curtains.

I was hoping to get the Hunter 8 multifuel stove with boiler to run the central heating. I'll need a minimum of 4 radiators plus the hot water. The living area and kitchen are open plan so that stove should heat that space I hope?(its 12ftx 22ft)

hen I was going to put electric underfloor heating in the kitchen and bathroom (both very small spaces) so that they can be warmed up for chilly mornings/evenings without having to get the fire lit. Electric shower for the summer and will keep the freestanding convector heater for instant warmth when needed (cold and wet and no logs ready!)

Does this sound OK?

I'm not an expert but you might get away with a heated towel rail running of your back boiler as well as the 4 radiators. You might not need a radiator in the bedroom directly above the stove - especially if the water pipes go through that room. I wouldn't bother with the underfloor heating in the kitchen either - if you bank up your stove at night (use coal dust, sawdust, potato peelings on top of a layer of coal etc) and close all doors, you will be surprised how warm the room will stay even after the stove has gone out, and it shouldn't be too cold first thing.

You will probably find that you use the elec convector mostly in the [STRIKE]winter[/STRIKE] oops, I mean summer, when you're stove isn't lit but it's a bit chilly in the evenings.

Houses like yours and mine tend to keep the heat in fairly well - I often find that its much cooler inside the house in the summer than outside, which is why you sometimes need a bit of extra heat in the evening.

You might want to think about getting a calor gas heater - the heat is instant and they are cheap to run - the gas bottles last ages. The heaters are expensive to buy new (around £100 I think) but you can usually pick one up in ads in the local paper for £20 ish, although I guess you should get it serviced. They're not very good if you want to move it between upstairs and downstairs (too heavy) but good for a big room as you can move it where you want.

I would like to investigate a way of getting some solar hot water for during the summer so that I don't have to light the stove or put the immersion heater on just to get some hot water. If you're going to have a new stove put in and have to have plumbing work done, it would be worth talking to the builder/plumber so that they could put in extra valves / pipes etc so that even if you don't do that now, it's an option for the future.

good luck - invest in some pure wool jumpers and socks! xx