No gas connection in the street - Electric heating only help!

miatuffers123

Hi all just after some impartial advice. My partner and I are moving into house that has no gas supply and never will have - according to the national grid.

We are struggling to find a cheap effective way to heat the house. At present there are storage heaters which are really old and bulky and have not been used in over 2 years (We haven't moved yet so haven't tried them).

We are trying our best to research all methods of electric heating that is not going to cost the earth. We don't mind paying alot for installation as such its more the running costs we are worried about.

We are first time buyers and both come from gas central heating homes so are clueless in this market.

Thanks in advance.:o

penrhyn

Modern storage heaters are much better than the old ones that you may have in the property. I'd suggest looking at the Creda and Dimplex ranges.
Electric heating is never going to be cheap.

spuunge

What about oil central heating?
Not as expensive as electric, but sadly not as cheap as gas and you really have to keep an eye on heating oil prices. However it is much closer to the gas heating you are used to. I moved from a gas heated home to an oil heated one and there really isn't much difference in my opinion.
One advantage for me is that once you have bought your oil you dont have standing charges to pay.
I do also have a wood burning stove which pretty much heats the entire house (3 bedroom semi) to some degree and its more than a source of heat, its mesmerising to watch at times and visitors love it. If you have a chimney then I would recommend!

spiro

How about LPG.

Premier_2

If you don't mind the initial capital outlay / installation costs then you could look at more modern approaches such as electrical heat pumps / ground source heating.

I hope you allowed for these costs when you negotiated the purchase price. But how could you if you don't even know what the options are? Storage heating will probably give you the best balance of capital outlay and running costs.

HappyMJ

Personally I'd avoid storage heating unless you know you will be at home every day and not just weekends. They always cool by early evening. I'd either switch to oil/lpg that has been suggested and/or switch to a tariff that makes it worthwhile just to use cheap electric convector heaters on demand. E7 rates for me are 5p/14p or a standard rate in winter is 10p per kwh. You need to compare. You will use less electric only having the heating on in the evening when and if you need it rather than heating the storage units up every night and letting them heat the house all day long while everyone is at work. You still need to use the boost function of the storage units later in the evening as they lose their charge at that's at full peak rate.

Cardew

There are loads of firms advertising electrical heating systems that purport to be cheap to run - (a fraction of a penny an hour to heat a room the size of the Albert hall to 30C!!). Don't be fooled into thinking that any electrical heating system gives out more heat for the same running cost that any other system - they can't and don't!.

If you are out at work all day, storage heating is probably not the best option. The best and cheapest to install option would be simple panel and convector heaters. These days you can get timers and remote controls very cheaply.

miatuffers123

Thanks for your help thinkng of going with storage heaters and possibley under floor heating in the lounge. We both work shifts so more often than not one of us will be home to get the benefit of the storage heaters. If it gets too cold we thought underfloor heating would be good for a couple of hours in the evening to take the edge off. Anyone think this is a good idea?

HappyMJ

miatuffers123 wrote: »

Thanks for your help thinkng of going with storage heaters and possibley under floor heating in the lounge. We both work shifts so more often than not one of us will be home to get the benefit of the storage heaters. If it gets too cold we thought underfloor heating would be good for a couple of hours in the evening to take the edge off. Anyone think this is a good idea?

My personal opinion here again and it's no. They take an age to heat up and are only worth it if you install with a GSHP and leave it on most of the time using a timer to turn it on a few hours before you come home. Ends up quite expensive but in a large mostly ground floor house it may be worth it. You'll still need heating upstairs in the bedrooms.

sasha.p

You have more options than those i have no gas connected i use 47kpropane formy hot water and cooker and my heating runs off solid wood it is do able but you need a damn good wood supply then you have no service charges but this will only be cost effective if your house is well insulated etc x

Premier_2

miatuffers123 wrote: »

Thanks for your help thinkng of going with storage heaters and possibley under floor heating in the lounge. We both work shifts so more often than not one of us will be home to get the benefit of the storage heaters. If it gets too cold we thought underfloor heating would be good for a couple of hours in the evening to take the edge off. Anyone think this is a good idea?

Underfloor heating will be quite expensive to install ... and may eventually prove surplus to requirements.

If you get the storage heaters correctly sized and learn to control them correctly, you probably won't need any thing else - they'll can still be giving out plenty of heat well up to the time they recharge.
When I had storage heaters, it would take about two days for them to go cold after I switched them off.

In the event you do make a error in the control, or it does turn particularly cold, the new storage heater may have a built in convector heater for boost purposes.