Convector heaters - avoid?

jockkkk_2

Hi all,

I'm viewing the perfect rental property tonight, It ticks all the boxes but I'm concerned that it's heated by convector heaters.

Should I avoid them like the plague due to cost?

Thankfully the tenant is showing me around so I hope to get an honest assessment of the fuel bills but your advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Siobhan

Premier_2

Cost of gas - about 3.5p per kWh (although may only be 60% efficient, so perhaps costs 5.8p to get 1kWh of useful heat output)

Cost of E7 low rate (which needs storage heaters to keep you warm during the day) - about 5-6p per kWh

Cost of daytime/single rate electricity - about 10p-12p per kWh


Are you still certain it's such a perfect rental property?

pstuart

We are assuming that they are electric - they do make gas ones as well.

Premier_2

pstuart wrote: »

We are assuming that they are electric - they do make gas ones as well.

Yes I was that admittedly.

I've not much experience of gas wall heaters (the other common name for them). We had one in a property years ago (an extension where they put it in instead of extending/upgrading the existing gas central heating).
We were not very impressed by it.

I think the biggest issue was that there was no timer facility on it. I can't remember if it even had a thermostat on it (but you could manually adjust the output). In the end, we tended to not use it in favour of a plug in electrical heater.

They may have come a long way since those days though...

pstuart

I was thinking that after all the problems we've had with our condensing boiler (and if you count the cost of installation for the whole system including rads etc.), we would have been (over a 20 year period), warmer and cheaper running having 3 well positioned gas convector heaters and using an immersion heater in our 3 bed semi.

daveyjp

Whether they are good depends on the property, how large the rooms are and your lifestyle. In modern well insulated properties with smaller rooms they can be more than adequate.

They are controllable through timers and thermostats so only need to be set to come on when you need them, which if you are out most of the day could be short amounts of time, but useage does need managing. If you want 25 degrees 24/7 in the whole property they will cost a fortune to run.

pstuart

Thanks for that d.........., but are we still talking gas?

jockkkk_2

Many thanks for your responses,

I've called the agency and they've advised me that the energy rating is 65 and the environmental impact is 76. She said that's 'reasonable'.

Any thoughts?


oh and re the property, it's a third floor 2 bed flat with double glazing. There would be 2 of us and we've got laptops, mobiles etc. As we've both previously worked for a utility company we're very careful about switching things like chargers off.

Owain_Moneysaver

jockkkk wrote: »

oh and re the property, it's a third floor 2 bed flat with double glazing.

What's on the fourth floor?

jockkkk_2

The third floor is the top. The rooms wet helix windows bar the living room which has 2 patio doors leading out to a small balcony. The tenants said they pay £65 pm for their electricity which includes the occasional bath. Theyremoving because they've bought and were genuinely puzzled when we mentioned high costs. I was looking got some kind of flinch when I mentioned it.

All in all it seems ok. I think we'll go for it, ensure we have accurate bills over the summer period and in 6 months we'll have an idea of the cost during the cheapest time of the year.