Large storage heater vs small thermostatic fan heater

silentjay_2

I work from home and spend most the day indoors in a 1 bed flat. My flat has storage heaters installed in all the rooms and last winter I only used the main one in the living room. However my electricity use rocketed, from using 5 units per day the rest of the year to 20 in winter, just because of this one storage heater.

I'm starting to think these storage heaters are a big con by electricity companies. Boiling in the mornings and freezing in the evenings.

Now my question: I have a tiny termostatic fan heater, which gets my living room nice and toasty in about 30 seconds and my living room being quite well insulated keeps the heat in for up to a hour. Now say I use this small heater per day for around 30 minutes a day at peak rates, is this going to be cheaper than using the storage heater?

I know I won't know for sure until I get another electricity monitor but would like it if one of the knowledgeable people on here could give me a educated guess!

Oh I should also note the thermostatic heater is 2kw

espresso

Presumably you are on an E7 tariff if you have storage heaters and therefore your day rate per kWh will be more expensive than if you were on a standard tariff. You need to know the wattage of your fan heater to calculate how much it costs to use, in comparison to charging the storage heater on the cheap rate electricity. If you don't use the storage heaters then a standard tariff would be cheaper, however a standard tariff would be very expensive if you did use the storage heaters.

Cardew

As espresso indicates above, with small properties there is often a case to ditch the storage heaters and of course the Economy 7 tariff and move to a 'normal' 24/7 tariff.



Don't assume that the Normal tariff should always be with your present supplier, but it is probably best to switch tariffs with that supplier first.

silentjay_2

Thanks for the reply. Yes am currently on the E7 tariff. Its around 20p kwh for first lot of units during the day and 5p at night, off the top of my head.

So would that basically mean even if i had the small heater on for a whole hour (which i cant imagine doing as it room gets hot after 30 seconds and then the heater turns itself off) it would cost 20p? I may be mistaken but last time I worked it out the storage heater was costing about 60p a night plus the fact i'd also need the small heater on in addition as the storage heater would barely give out any heat by the evening. So i'm guessing it would be getting close to £1 a day to heat my living room.

The storage heater was giving heat out when I didn't need it during the day and not enough left by the cold evening to keep me warm.

If im doing my maths right even if i stayed on the E7 tariff I could have my small heater on for 5 hours (5hrs x 20p = £1) and spend the same as the storage heater and small heater combined. There's no way I could have that little thing on for 5 hours a day...i'd melt!

Thinking about this even more with the fact I cook all my own meals during the day and use the computer...a switch to a standard tariff and not bothering with the storage heaters looks like the best way to go?

Cardew

You need to look at your tariff carefully.

I doubt if you are paying 20p/kWh for most of your daytime electricity.

You pay a higher rate for the first xxx units in a quarter(normally 125 or 225kWh) this is called Tier 1 and then you revert to Tier 2. Off peak is another rate

If you dump the E7 tariff you will still pay for the Tier 1 rate but the rest of your electricity should be about 10p/kWh.

Wickedkitten

Bloody Nora, we have E7, switched to Scottish Power from Southern Electric back in July, and only pay 10.5p day and around 5p night.

Who is your energy supplier?

Katie-Kat-Kins

If your storage heater is hot in the morning and cold at night it probably isn't set right. I have storage heaters in a 3 bed house and can normally keep the house warm right through to bed time.

Try turning the output down so that the heat is distributed more slowly, most modern storage heaters hold the heat reasonably well. To get the best from a storage heater though you need to understand how they work. At night electricity is passed through an element a bit like a big kettle but instead of water in the kettle there are these big manky bricks that get hot, you input dial controls how much these bricks are heated at night. Come morning when the electric turns off the storage heater is a big thermos flask and tries to hold the heat in as much as possible. The output dial controls some vents which allow the bricks to cool and discharge the heat to warm the room. If your output is down low the storage heater will try its best to keep all the heat in, the further up you turn the output dial the wider the vents will open, this will mean that your room will get warmer but also that the bricks will cool faster meaning that you may not have enough heat left for the evening.

So If your heater is currently set with the input and output both at 3 try turning the output down to 2 and see whether that lasts you all day.

Alternatively turn the output right down to 1 when you go to bed and only turn it up when you actually want the heat.

You may need to experiment a bit but storage heaters can be pretty effective and economical especially in a small well insulated property. It would be worth increasing your insulation and blocking any drafts which should help you keep the flat warm in the evenings, in particular close your curtains before it actually gets dark!

silentjay_2

EDF. I'm paying 18p for the first 258 units and then 13p per unit. At nights its 5p per unit.

My last quater i used 377 peak units and 49 off peak units

silentjay_2

KatP thanks for the informative post, I did try abit of research into storage heaters last winter, alas i could never find the manual for my exact model online.

My storage heater has two controls, "room temp" which goes 1-9 and a nameless dial with "off", "combi", "comfort" and "boost" options. From my research i assumed boost would use on peak electricity, comfort just spit all the heat out and combi is thermostatic using the room temp dial. Whatever combination i used it would just dump all the heat out in the morning lol

Cardew

silentjay wrote: »

EDF. I'm paying 18p for the first 258 units and then 13p per unit. At nights its 5p per unit.

My last quater i used 377 peak units and 49 off peak units

Only 427kWh in a quarter, in an all electric house. Are you sure?

On that ratio of night/day units you will be better off on a normal 24/7 tariff.

However the last quarter was summer where you wouldn't use much heating. You really need a 12 month consumption figure to work things out.

silentjay_2

Yup its definatly 427kwhs, i was using about 4 units a day according to EDF last quarter. I never have the hot water on, never use the TV, my computer is a laptop and uses hardly any power.

However during the colder last quater of Dec - Mar i used around 18 units per day, 1360 of them being off peak and 530 on peak. Basically the one lone storage heater managed to more than quadruple the amount of energy im using lol