Storage heaters vs other forms of heating

readytofly

Hi all. My fiance and I are looking for our first home together. From looking on rightmove i have seen many different styles of heating. I had never heard of a storage heater before!
What are the pros and cons of it?
is it cheaper to run?
Do you feel its a waste if your home is heated while your not in it?
Is it too warm in the summer?

I had a quick look on wikipedia and it says you can turn it to on peak/off peak but there was a lot of jargon and i like to hear views from people who have experience with it.

I have also noticed some homes use electric heaters in each room - i imagine this would make your annual electricity bill VERY high!!!

Is central heating the way to go?

Any thoughts and tips greatly received

Cardew

There are loads of references to storage heating in this particular section. - just search for 'storage heating'.

It is fair to say that, in general, storage heating is not popular, especially with those who are out at work all day. Storage heaters are basically a load of bricks in a cabinet. The principle, as the name would suggest, is that they use cheap electricity to store heat overnight and release that heat during the day.

They are usually used on an Economy 7(E7) tariff where you get cheap electricity for 7 hours at night(there are variations Economy 10 etc). This electricity costs around 50% of a 'norma'l tariff(around 5p/kWh) but the downside is you pay more for the other 17 hours of electricity - typically 10% to 20% more.

The big problem is that the heaters 'leak' heat during the day and tend to run out of heat in the evening. Not a good idea if you are out at work.

readytofly

Thanks for that, will do a search now

A._Badger

Cardew is right. I have lived in several flats with several generations of these awful things, down the years. None of them were any good.

Ada3050

I would add, storage heating should be regarded as "background" heat.

It can't be compared to GCH systems as they work differently. Many people who like storage heating are in during the day, me included.

As long as you understand the difference then you can make an informed choice. A quick search will give the information you need.

Scoflo

I love mine! Cheap & clean and they hold their heat fine. My newest one is in my bedroom and its perhaps a bit small but as I hate sleeping in a warm room it works for us. warm in the morning for showers and getting dressed, cooler at night for falling asleep.

grahamc2003

I'm quite happy with mine.

All forms of heating have their pros and cons. The cons of storaae heaters are the relatively uncontrolability and heat loss during the day, which you can't do much about. We need the heat in the day, so it's not a downside to us, but for those out everyday, the house is being kept warm for not much benefit. A lot of the bad publicity comes from old storage heaters which were, and are, crap, with viurtually no controlability, but modern ones are much more controllable, but you have to know just a little about how to operate them correctly.

Storage heaters have zero maintenance. No servicing, no fumes, no co monitors necessary, no certificates, no worries about freezingf if you trake a winter holiday, no replacement every few years - and those aspects, to me, are massive benefits.

So while not being the best thing since sliced bread, they are very acceptable forms of heating which, if correctly sized and operated, should keep you acceptably warm if the ambient temperature is above 2or 3 degrees. (Below that, you're likely to need to suplement your heating later at night).

The tradeoff as I see between modern storage heaters and gas ch are a degree of uncontrollability and slight extra operatiung costs these days vs pretty intrusive maintenance costs and likelyhood of breakdown (It's not just the service - it's the hassle aswell, it has to be arranged, someone has to be in etc etc)

shegar

grahamc2003 wrote: »

I'm quite happy with mine.

All forms of heating have their pros and cons. The cons of storaae heaters are the relatively uncontrolability and heat loss during the day, which you can't do much about. We need the heat in the day, so it's not a downside to us, but for those out everyday, the house is being kept warm for not much benefit. A lot of the bad publicity comes from old storage heaters which were, and are, crap, with viurtually no controlability, but modern ones are much more controllable, but you have to know just a little about how to operate them correctly.

Storage heaters have zero maintenance. No servicing, no fumes, no co monitors necessary, no certificates, no worries about freezingf if you trake a winter holiday, no replacement every few years - and those aspects, to me, are massive benefits.

So while not being the best thing since sliced bread, they are very acceptable forms of heating which, if correctly sized and operated, should keep you acceptably warm if the ambient temperature is above 2or 3 degrees. (Below that, you're likely to need to suplement your heating later at night).

The tradeoff as I see between modern storage heaters and gas ch are a degree of uncontrollability and slight extra operatiung costs these days vs pretty intrusive maintenance costs and likelyhood of breakdown (It's not just the service - it's the hassle aswell, it has to be arranged, someone has to be in etc etc)

Wow you made GCH sounds as if its a big problem to have......for a start gas is very much cheaper than electric, yes you have to have your boiler serviced once a year but thats only about £70............one phone call to arrange a time for an engineer to call to do service, man comes out does boiler service, 1 hour at the most, end of.............thats not a great deal of problem is it...? No I havnt got any fumes either ..............you are given a gas safe certicate if you have a new boiler, no problems there ,you just have to file that with other household paperwork.....my boiler doesnt freeze either........

grahamc2003

shegar wrote: »

Wow you made GCH sounds as if its a big problem to have......for a start gas is very much cheaper than electric, yes you have to have your boiler serviced once a year but thats only about £70............one phone call to arrange a time for an engineer to call to do service, man comes out does boiler service, 1 hour at the most, end of.............thats not a great deal of problem is it...? No I havnt got any fumes either ..............you are given a gas safe certicate if you have a new boiler, no problems there ,you just have to file that with other household paperwork.....my boiler doesnt freeze either........

OK - Storage heaters have a couple of drawbacks, but gas ch is the perfect heating system with absolutely no possible drawbacks whatsoever, and reports of thousands of people having problems last winter are pure fabrication.

Happy?

I thought I originally gave quite a balanced view of the pros and cons of each system, just as the op requested.

A._Badger

There's another downside that no one has mentioned - the need to be psychic. Unless you can be sure what the weather is going to be like the following day, deciding how much to set them to store is guesswork. That can be awkward during the changeable months of the year.

Owain_Moneysaver

On the other hand, if you have a power failure during the day you probably have some stored heat from the night before, with storage heaters.

Of course, if you have a power failure during the night, the next day will be a bit frosty.