Would I be better turning off the storage heaters and buying some oil heaters?

albyota

its very likely you would have to pay £15 - £20 per element to repair, or £20 ish for one of these:-

manda1205

Breadrun wrote: »

No they didnt, I just rang up British Gas and got my electric thru them as they seem cheaper for a prepayment meter

I'm still trying to think of wether theres a possibility my storage heaters could be not fully working or need servicing as it seems rather stupid that on maximum input and minimum output its cold by 4pm

We lived in a 2 bed house with storage heaters, we were on E7 and they used to charge up from midnight to bout 7am (I think), we had ours set on max input and low output. By the time it got to tea time they were cold again and we had stand alone electric heaters we put on. It used to cost us a fortune in electric (we were pre pay too). My nan and grandad are in exactly the same boat and theirs work exactly like ours did, so there was no fault with the heaters. Storage heaters IMO are just rubbish! Hence we moved house. If I were you, Id switch them off and get your oilfilled heaters.

shegar

manda1205 wrote: »

We lived in a 2 bed house with storage heaters, we were on E7 and they used to charge up from midnight to bout 7am (I think), we had ours set on max input and low output. By the time it got to tea time they were cold again and we had stand alone electric heaters we put on. It used to cost us a fortune in electric (we were pre pay too). My nan and grandad are in exactly the same boat and theirs work exactly like ours did, so there was no fault with the heaters. Storage heaters IMO are just rubbish! Hence we moved house. If I were you, Id switch them off and get your oilfilled heaters.

When I had storage heaters mine were cold at 5 just when I needed the heat more, cost a fortune to run and b..... useless things.:mad: When we moved I vowed id never ever live in a house with storage heaters again and we havent. Your best to buy a gas fire with bottle turn it on off when you need to and your heat will be paid for as you use it, instead of getting an electric bill for £400 every 3 months ... an hardly kept warm .:eek:

tabskitten

I HATE storage heaters!! 4 years at uni in Edinburgh with those was 4 years of being cold!!!

JennyR68

It's not so good if your poorly insulated. Ive ditched the E7 and night storage and gone for thermostatic controlled electric radiators and it works out cheaper for me but I'm well insulated. All I can say is you will probably be warmer when you want to be but if not insulated might not be
any cheaper.

shegar

JennyR68 wrote: »

It's not so good if your poorly insulated. Ive ditched the E7 and night storage and gone for thermostatic controlled electric radiators and it works out cheaper for me but I'm well insulated. All I can say is you will probably be warmer when you want to be but if not insulated might not be
any cheaper.

Well the house I was in for 18 years had double glazing,cavity wall insulation, loft insulation but still wasnt warm at tea time , and the heaters were new ,,,but the bills were very high.....Ive never had thermostatic controlled electric radiators so I cant comment on them ..are they similar style to slim oil filled rads.? are they warmer than storage heaters.?and are they cheaper to run?and are they cheap to buy.?,,,electric seems to be expensive ive honestly not come accross any cheap electric heating .

JennyR68

shegar wrote: »

Well the house I was in for 18 years had double glazing,cavity wall insulation, loft insulation but still wasnt warm at tea time , and the heaters were new ,,,but the bills were very high.....Ive never had thermostatic controlled electric radiators so I cant comment on them ..are they similar style to slim oil filled rads.? are they warmer than storage heaters.?and are they cheaper to run?and are they cheap to buy.?,,,electric seems to be expensive ive honestly not come accross any cheap electric heating .

I had same problem with the storage heaters hence removing them. I was referring to the the levels of insulation in regard to running an oil filled rad.

I suppose my rads are similar to slim oil filled, they are wall mounted and each have a programmable thermostat. I have mine on 24/7 at 17c with temp rising to 21c for a total of 10 hrs during day in sitting room and 6 or 7 hours in bedrooms.

I don't know what you call 'cheap' but for me the system I put in is affordable. Certainly far cheaper than installing storage heaters.

As regards running costs my bill for Jan was £148.90 Feb £126.06.

Last years E7 consumption would have cost me £1170.43 on my present plan's E7 tariff and we were not warm when it was cold.

We have taken out 3 storage heaters replacing them with 5 rads, heating more of the house and being perfectly warm and happy in the cold snap and anticipate this years costs to be around £979. A saving of nearly £200 ( I'll have to return to confirm that but on track with predictions so far) Which I don't feel is bad for a family of 5 in a 3 bed semi all electric house.

I have been assured on this forum that would get the exact same results with cheap oil filled radiators but never having attempted to I can't confirm if that so.

Magenta

I too have storage heaters and have to add an electric convector heater in the evenings as by 4pm the heat has 'run out' and I am freezing cold!!!

Storage heaters are rubbish!

macman

Breadrun wrote: »

Thanks for the replies,

As far as I know its not on E7 but there is a time switch i think as there are 2 boxes by the fusebox, I wouldnt know how to check its set up for the full 8hour charge,

As said I think oil filled heaters would be best because then i can turn off the storage heaters and just have the heater on for a couple of hours in the morning, afternoon, evening

You really need to know what tariff you are on firsdt, because if you put in oil-filled radiators but remnain on E7 then you will be paying a premium for all your peak rate consumption-which will be most of your bill without storage heaters.

ixwood

JennyR68 wrote: »

I had same problem with the storage heaters hence removing them. I was referring to the the levels of insulation in regard to running an oil filled rad.

I suppose my rads are similar to slim oil filled, they are wall mounted and each have a programmable thermostat. I have mine on 24/7 at 17c with temp rising to 21c for a total of 10 hrs during day in sitting room and 6 or 7 hours in bedrooms.

I don't know what you call 'cheap' but for me the system I put in is affordable. Certainly far cheaper than installing storage heaters.

As regards running costs my bill for Jan was £148.90 Feb £126.06.

Last years E7 consumption would have cost me £1170.43 on my present plan's E7 tariff and we were not warm when it was cold.

We have taken out 3 storage heaters replacing them with 5 rads, heating more of the house and being perfectly warm and happy in the cold snap and anticipate this years costs to be around £979. A saving of nearly £200 ( I'll have to return to confirm that but on track with predictions so far) Which I don't feel is bad for a family of 5 in a 3 bed semi all electric house.

I have been assured on this forum that would get the exact same results with cheap oil filled radiators but never having attempted to I can't confirm if that so.

I've never used oil filled radiators either, but know that the running costs will be the same. All electric heating is 100% efficient (usual electrical waste is heat, which obviously isn't waste in a heater).

The only way to save money with electric heaters is to have them thermostatically controlled and timed/zoned so that you're not heating unused space.