switch to gas central heating?

HappyMJ

brenda50 wrote: »

What about the new ceramic heaters?

No they are poor value using peak rate electric heating.

bengasman

Pincher wrote: »

At least, it doesn't cost anything to ask an estate agent.

Taking decisions based on the inept advice of an estate agent can cost you many thousands, as loads of people have experienced when they put their house on the market for too much and too late, and are now stuck with a property they can't sell for love or money.
A friend of mine listened to Foxton's overinflated estimates and put the place on the market for £230,000 in 2007. Asking price has now dropped to £170,000, and not a buyer who can afford it in sight. If he had put it on the market for the realistic price of £205,000, it would have sold 3 years ago. It has also created an unexpected cost of about £20,000, so the following the "free" advice has now cost a minimum of £60,000.

brenda50

No they are poor value using peak rate electric heating.

Answer

But they are not on all the time and they cost little to install.

HappyMJ

brenda50 wrote: »

No they are poor value using peak rate electric heating.

Answer

But they are not on all the time and they cost little to install.

Same with a £20 convector heater with a thermostat as most now have. A convector heater or even a nicer and slightly more expensive at £30 oil filled radiator from Aldi costs nothing to install.

brenda50

The ceramic heaters are different they store the heat as they are running.

HappyMJ

brenda50 wrote: »

The ceramic heaters are different they store the heat as they are running.

Same with an oil filled radiator. £30 from Aldi.

Richie-from-the-Boro

bengasman wrote: »

The old adage that says when you buy cheap, you get cheap, most certainly applies to central heating. If you don't want to pay for a quality install, keep what you have now as you are bound to get very expensive repair bills before long.

Agreed, other than the expensive repairs to [E7] night store systems.

- about 50 years with average usage
- and zero maintenance costs each and every year for 50 years

Richie-from-the-Boro

brenda50 wrote: »

What about the new ceramic heaters?

http://www.xxxxxxxxxxx.com/

There's nothing wrong with them, other than the fact that their heaters are 'panel~with~storage' and their marketing claims are 'snake oil'.

They .. .. as others have said are as efficient as any Aldi convector heater or LiDL oil filled type. They are yet one more of these companies that sell only 'direct to' the customer, in his / her own home / behind closed doors / prices are not available and are 'hidden'

Put simply, from what I can gather from testimonials etc, they are 500W panel heaters costing ten times the price at about £300.00 per unit, a cheap Sainsbury's job [ three times the power if required ] is about £30 per unit, but does the same thing.

- NOTE : thirty times the price of the ALDi / Sainsbury unit if the panel had a similar kWh rating value.

pothole50

And a quote from the Dimplex site when calculating the cost of running an appliance.

"Running Cost Information
Portable Heating
It is not possible to provide detailed information on running costs because there are so many variables to consider – what electricity tariff will be used, how long the heater will be on for, what setting the thermostat will be on, etc – all these factors need to be taken into account when working out the running cost of a heating system.

However most of our portable heaters incorporate energy saving features such as thermostats, climate control and half heat switches – all of which will reduce energy usage and therefore running costs.

It is also worth noting, that there have also been significant increases in the price of fuel in recent years, and whilst electricity prices have gone up, the increases are not as significant as gas. In fact Energywatch – the independent gas and electricity consumer watchdog – reported in July 2006 that some energy suppliers had increased the cost of gas to their customers by as much as 92% since 2003, while the price of electricity had increased by only 54%"

Someone should really update this to take into account current price increases.

Pincher

bengasman wrote: »

Taking decisions based on the inept advice of an estate agent can cost you many thousands, as loads of people have experienced when they put their house on the market for too much and too late, and are now stuck with a property they can't sell for love or money.
A friend of mine listened to Foxton's overinflated estimates and put the place on the market for £230,000 in 2007. Asking price has now dropped to £170,000, and not a buyer who can afford it in sight. If he had put it on the market for the realistic price of £205,000, it would have sold 3 years ago. It has also created an unexpected cost of about £20,000, so the following the "free" advice has now cost a minimum of £60,000.

A colleague's mother got done by her selling agent, East Sussex or thereabouts, who convinced her there was no interest and then got a friend to buy it cheap off her. Hair tearing stuff, but there is no harm in asking.

I use this site for venting and moaning as well, so I'll join you:
"Bad estate agent, horrible lying agents of Beelzebub, crawl away and die." Feel better?;)