some advice for a newbie please

treeze

Hello-this is my first Winter in my one bed flat which is fitted with dimplex storage heaters,I imagine they were fitted when the flats were converted in the 80's,they have input/output dials. The flat is on the first floor and has thick walls and I don't think it will be too cold apart from having no double glazing. I'm dubious about using the storage heaters as don't know how expensive they are to run and feel nervous of having heating going all night.I'm in and out throughout the day and out a few evenings a week.My kitchen is justoff thr living room so warms the room when I've cooked.I'm on a very low income and need some advice on the cheapest heating for just a couple of hours a day for just my living room. I only have electricity and no idea if it's economy 7 or not.Wondering about a small radiator or halogen heater? Hope someone can help me.

Premier_2

Electricity on normal or daytime is about 2 - 3 times more expensive than on the E7 low rate. Check your bills for the exact cost per unit.

So you don't need to be a mathematician to work out what the cheapest electricity is.

The way to harness that heat that is supplied at night is to use... wait for it...night storage heaters.

They warm up at night when the leccy is cheap and, if you control them correctly, give out that heat during the day when you would prefer to have it.

Try googling for instructions on how to get the most out of your heating system.

Companymole

Hi

If you dont use storage heaters be careful of using halogen/bar heaters. 2000w bar heater = 2KW per hour. roughly 24p an hour to run, soon adds up over a 3 month quarter.

Recommend: finding out your timeswitch times (call your supplier/ask landlord) find out how to put your storage heater son timer (although prob already are from previous tenant) Storage heaters are fairly expensive to run hence the cheap night rates

chris1973

If you dont use storage heaters be careful of using halogen/bar heaters. 2000w bar heater = 2KW per hour. roughly 24p an hour to run, soon adds up over a 3 month quarter.

Most halogen heaters are rated at either 400W or 600w per 'bar' or should I say tube. Meaning 1 'bar' consuming 400w will use 0.4 units per hour which means it will run for a little over 2 hours for 1KW/H on its lowest setting - on full, a popular 1200w 3 'bar' model will use 1.2 units per hour.

Bear in mind that halogen heaters are designed to directly heat the person, rather than the room, and although they will give out a little heat, they are unlikely to adequately heat a room in comparison to a radiant, convector or fan heater. There are advantages to this however, for example if you live in a poorly insulated or drafty home, then it will be cheaper and quicker to heat yourself with a halogen heater directly, rather than trying to heat the air and then in turn the heated ambient room air heating you, and finding that most of the freshly heated air escapes / cools before you get to take advantage of the heat you are paying to put into it!

I run 3 storage heaters in my one bedroom annexe, and they consume around 50 - 55 units of Electricity per night on E7, which at around 5p per KW/H costs me around £2.50 per night to run. During very cold periods, I switch on the remaining 4th 2.55KW storage heater in the living area, which takes the total to around 70 units per night or £3.50 per night for heating. Thats about £60 - £90 per month in heat terms. The rest of my electricity consumption is not really worth mentioning in comparison.

However to produce the same amount of heat 'locally' using Daytime Electricity to run Halogen / convector / fan heaters would be significantly higher. I pay 5p for electricity during off peak hours, and almost 20p per KW/H during daytime hours on Npowers pre-pay E7 tariff, as you can see, my E7 electricity is 25% the cost of my peak rate Electricity, so effectively E7 heating is 25% the cost of heating during the day.

After last winter I've actually moved over to cutting back on the running of the storage heaters, as they are expensive in comparison to gas etc. If your storage heaters are effective and do heat the property during the colder spells then you'll find them to be the cheapest form of heating. However, if like me you find that they are not effective enough during colder Evenings, then some other form of supplementary heating would be required to use there and then.

Personally I use a safe modern paraffin fan heater, whose running cost works out at around 7p per KW/H, which is slightly more than E7, but far less than Daytime rates. Considering any supplementary heating I use would be outside of E7 'cheaper' hours, using Paraffin compared to Electricity outside of E7, saves me 13p per KW/H and yes, that saving mounts up over a month, especially during weekends and Xmas week!.

Paraffin isn't for everybody though, despite safe, modern almost odourless heaters designed for indoor household use, and they are expensive to buy. On that basis, you may be better investing in an Electrically heated throw, for wrapping over yourself when watching TV etc. These are extremely effective at heating 'you' quickly and comfortably for long periods and will run for around 8 - 10 hours for just 1 KW/H of Electricity. Far better than even the Halogen heaters on the lowest setting.

Neither the throw or the halogen heater will be effective or a good choice for heating if you move from room to room or are up and around the flat doing stuff, as they are more suited to personal 'direct' heating rather than the types of heating which heats the air in the room. However they remain the cheapest option if the E7 either isn't effective or works out expensive.

An electric blanket is also a good investment, and it will consume very little, especially as it will mostly be running on E7 rate electricity!.