Karilel electric rad/towel rail

russian

I failed to find much feedback on Karilel heaters from customers but I went ahead and in March 2009 replaced E7 storage heaters with the electric radiaters. Cost about £3400 to buy with installation by electrician. I'm now on E10 with a timer on the hot water to use the 10 cheaper hours. The reason the storage heaters weren't ideal was because we had no secondary heating for the evenings. Summer bills have been £140 per month for a small 3 bed detached house.

The new heaters do not retain heat hardly at all so after 10 mins quite cold when off and the room is cold after half an hour. The towel rail is always too hot because if we turn the thermostat down it doesn't come on at all so I don't find it controllable as I wanted a constant low heat in the bathroom. In stead it is full blast even when no-one is in the bathroom or we turn it off and it's cold. The dimplex towel rail for £50 in our old house was better than this £300 monster.

The timer is a bit fiddly but if you have a very timed life then it is good to time the heaters coming on and off to suit your lifestyle.

I'm pacing out the winter but I'm worried the E10 will work out expensive as I am home a lot. I'll probably go to a standard tariff. Overall, all options are dear - we were paying £200 a month last winter for storage heaters. The new heaters look better but I'm not sure about their efficiency. The only advantage is heat on tap when you want it.

Towel rail disappointing; especially for price.

penrhyn

All electric heaters are 100% efficient.
There is no point being on an Economy 7 type tariff as I doubt you will be running your panel heaters during the night.
So you might as well go on the cheapest single tariff you can find.
In therms of cost you now have the most expensive form of heating. The savings you were making with storage heaters ( which charge up on the cheap rate overnight ) have gone.
I'd suggest you take steps to max out your insulation
Typically night rate electricity is around 5pence/unit, whilst you will be using day rate at about 12pence/unit.
If for example your towel rate is rated at 1Kw and doesn't have a thermostat it would cost around £2.88 /day to run


PS I'm not sure whether this is true or not, but the UK website suggests that the company has gone out of business:-

[FONT=Tahoma,sans-serif]Please be advised that despite tremendous demand in the UK for their products, the French company and manufacturer Kalirel no longer exists. However we are pleased to announce that this exciting, innovative and advanced heating system, which is the only one with an intelligent, built-in multifunctional programmer available in the UK, is now manufactured by and available directly from Intelliheat, a UK based company. This will ensure highly competitive pricing and much improved levels of service and after sales care, therefore should you require product details or a heating plan and quotation we would be more than happy to assist you.
[/FONT]

Andy_WSM

penrhyn wrote: »

PS I'm not sure whether this is true or not, but the UK website suggests that the company has gone out of business:-

[FONT=Tahoma,sans-serif]Please be advised that despite tremendous demand in the UK for their products, the French company and manufacturer Kalirel no longer exists. However we are pleased to announce that this exciting, innovative and advanced heating system, which is the only one with an intelligent, built-in multifunctional programmer available in the UK, is now manufactured by and available directly from INTELLI HEAT©, a UK based company. This will ensure highly competitive pricing and much improved levels of service and after sales care, therefore should you require product details or a heating plan and quotation we would be more than happy to assist you.
[/FONT]

Just in case anyone thinks that clicking this link and buying a heating system from them on the advise that they are "energy saving
Thermo-dynamic fluid electric radiators" then don't. There is no such thing.

Power in = heat out, whether that be one of these over priced electric heating systems or a cheap & cheerful Argos fan heater.