Night storage or central heating?

rowly731

We move into our first house tomorrow and I have a question about radiators.

The house has a combi boiler which heats the hot water and radiators downstairs. The 3 upstairs rooms are heated by night storage heaters but a plumber friend said the boiler could support more radiators upstairs and that he would install them at cost price without labour.

However another friend said that the night storage heaters are cost efficient and that we should see if we cold manage with them.

Another friend said that our granite terraced cottage would be prone to dampness so we should get central heating to dry the house out.

In a sea of opinions I am seeking more! Please help.

macman

If you do that, make sure that you change the tariff away from E7 (which may or may not require a meter change).

Cardew

Gas is cheaper than night storage heating - but not by a huge margin when you take into account the efficiency of the boiler.

However there are two factors that make gas the preferred option IMO.

Firstly the sheer convienience of gas CH as you can switch on and off as you wish. With storage heaters you have to 'pre-plan' how much heat you will require the following day. Also storage heaters 'leak' heat during the day, when you may not need it - e.g out at work.

Secondly as alluded to in the post above, if you have an Economy 7 tariff for your storage heating(essential) then you pay a premium on your daytime electricity(17 hours)

No contest IMO!!

Owain_Moneysaver

Storage heaters aren't usually fitted in bedrooms - they're unneccessary as most people are in their bedrooms at night when the leccy is cheaper anyway, so panel heaters are just as good, and storage heaters can make the bedroom too hot.

You will be paying more for your day time leccy on Econ 7 too.

You can ask plumber friend to put the new upstairs rads on a separate zone so you can have them programmed separately, eg downstairs comes on at 5pm for the evening and the bedrooms come on at 10pm for overnight. The extra cost on a new install is minimal (motorised valve, bit of pipe, two-channel programmer instead of single-channel).