I've made a REALLY expensive mistake, help!

gw23

I live in a 2 bed purpose built flat. I decided to rid myself of the ugly night storage heaters. I hated them as you don't really have control over the heat - you can control the amount of heat to some extent, but I hated how they'd pump out stored heat even at the lowest setting if it suddenly turned warm, or if it turned really cold, they couldn't store enough heat to keep the place warm all day. (I'm home most of time). I did my research - Energy Efficiency Board - as much use as a chocolate teapot. Spoke to my electricity supplier and a number of heating suppliers and installers. There is no gas here. I eventually bought BEHA panel heaters - I checked the kw I needed and took advice as to whether I was buying wisely. Well I wasn't!! I used to have 2 storage heaters, one in the lounge, one in the hall. The hall one would pretty much heat the main bedroom if I left the bedroom door open. The 2nd bedroom doesn't get used much, but again, it would be OK if the door was open. I had meter changed from E7 to standard tariff.
Well I've been freezing ever since I had them installed. (End of October) The supplier has agreed to take them back and test them to see if the thermostats are faulty and has replaced them with 2 new ones. The heaters are wired directly into the spur (no socket), so I've now had to pay for them to be connected, and now disconnected and the new ones connected, and if they test OK the supplier is going to charge me carriage for picking up original ones and delivering replacements. I've now had them on for 48 hours solid at about 20 degrees and still I'm cold. (I'm normally a "hot" type person). This must be costing me a fortune in electricity - I dread looking. Am I doomed to reverse everything and go back to those nasty storage heaters? (which I also HATE the look of and I hate how they ruin the carpet).

Is there someone out there with any ideas or can I say goodbye to another £500?

HappyMJ

£500? Electric convector heaters are only about £10 maybe £20 each. You plug them in yourself. Buy a few more if you are too cold.

They are expensive much more expensive than your storage heaters which you should have kept and supplemented with an electric convector heater or two.

If the flat just isn't getting warm at a reasonable cost then move.

Can I ask what size the rooms are and what size heaters you purchased?

The 2000W heater I found on their website which is suitable for a small/medium room is £151.58 ex VAT...That's expensive.

grahamc2003

gw23 wrote: »

I live in a 2 bed purpose built flat. I decided to rid myself of the ugly night storage heaters. I hated them as you don't really have control over the heat - you can control the amount of heat to some extent, but I hated how they'd pump out stored heat even at the lowest setting if it suddenly turned warm, or if it turned really cold, they couldn't store enough heat to keep the place warm all day. (I'm home most of time). I did my research - Energy Efficiency Board - as much use as a chocolate teapot. Spoke to my electricity supplier and a number of heating suppliers and installers. There is no gas here. I eventually bought BEHA panel heaters - I checked the kw I needed and took advice as to whether I was buying wisely. Well I wasn't!! I used to have 2 storage heaters, one in the lounge, one in the hall. The hall one would pretty much heat the main bedroom if I left the bedroom door open. The 2nd bedroom doesn't get used much, but again, it would be OK if the door was open. I had meter changed from E7 to standard tariff.
Well I've been freezing ever since I had them installed. (End of October) The supplier has agreed to take them back and test them to see if the thermostats are faulty and has replaced them with 2 new ones. The heaters are wired directly into the spur (no socket), so I've now had to pay for them to be connected, and now disconnected and the new ones connected, and if they test OK the supplier is going to charge me carriage for picking up original ones and delivering replacements. I've now had them on for 48 hours solid at about 20 degrees and still I'm cold. (I'm normally a "hot" type person). This must be costing me a fortune in electricity - I dread looking. Am I doomed to reverse everything and go back to those nasty storage heaters? (which I also HATE the look of and I hate how they ruin the carpet).

Is there someone out there with any ideas or can I say goodbye to another £500?

I'm afraid you can say goodbye to another £500. I'm assuming your new heaters are similar to 'Ronte' heaters or similar? Plenty of comments on threads on those types of peak-rate electric heaters. Basically, as you have discoevered too late, they simply cannot work as they are advertised. Any form of peak rate resistive electric heating will cost a bomb to keep your place warm.

I'd get the heaters removed, request a refund since not fit for purpose, and install modern storage heaters, which are nowhere near as bad as you describe, if you know how to operate them. Another alternative (if you can hang things on your outside wall) are air-to-air heatpumps, but a couple of those will set you back a couple of grand (but supply you with cheap heat much of the time).

Edit - well having googled, I see beha heaters are simply panel heaters. They'll just give out heat (mind you a 500w one won't give out much) more or less straight away, at about 2.5 times the price you were paying for your heat from storage heaters.

Who on earth convinced you to do that?

I'd check ebay for modern stoage heaters, apparently, you can pick up quite new ones for next to nothing. Easy to dismantle, carry to your car, and reassemble. I wouldn't try moving them without dismantling!

gw23

One of the reasons I changed from the storage heaters is that I've spent a load of money updating this flat and I wanted something decent & modern looking - plug-in freestanding heaters are really not what I wanted - I think they're ugly and date a property. Whilst I realise the aesthetics of heaters may not be everyone's priority, they are one of mine. Notwithstanding that, I wanted more control over how I heat my property and myself!

Yes I'd love to move - my property is on the market and has been for some time - if you reckon you can sell it so I CAN move, be my guest. I feel that remark is a little glib?

The lounge is 15.5sq and the hall 13.5. I have the 2000 in the lounge and the 1000 in the hall. (And I was actually told the 800 would probably be ok for the hall but I erred on the side of caution).

jalexa

gw23 wrote: »

I live in a 2 bed purpose built flat. I decided to rid myself of the ugly night storage heaters.

By "purpose built" do you mean "new build" or a least "newish" built? By "ugly" do you mean modern?

You are perhaps between an iceberg and a cold place but "new build" should have at least adequate insulation standards and I do not believe that modern storage heaters (relatively speaking) deserve to be called "ugly". Indeed if they are (were) modern heaters with serviceable input and output controls perhaps you were not operating the controls "optimally".

I find advice quite easy, purely on the basis of water heating in a no-gas property, restore E7. Ensure the hotwater cylinder is an adequately sized factory insulated cylinder with full E7 controls. Restore a "modern" storage heater as basic background heating in the living space. Personally I don't see the need to heat unoccupied spaces such as hallways. Keep the expensive panel heaters if you cannot cancel but use them only for timed top-up.

HappyMJ

gw23 wrote: »

One of the reasons I changed from the storage heaters is that I've spent a load of money updating this flat and I wanted something decent & modern looking - plug-in freestanding heaters are really not what I wanted - I think they're ugly and date a property. Whilst I realise the aesthetics of heaters may not be everyone's priority, they are one of mine. Notwithstanding that, I wanted more control over how I heat my property and myself!

Yes I'd love to move - my property is on the market and has been for some time - if you reckon you can sell it so I CAN move, be my guest. I feel that remark is a little glib?

The lounge is 15.5sq and the hall 13.5. I have the 2000 in the lounge and the 1000 in the hall. (And I was actually told the 800 would probably be ok for the hall but I erred on the side of caution).

Plug in heaters will meet your need. Hide them behind the sofa or a chair. 2000W is not enough for a 15.5sq room you need double that. The hall will need to be much higher but I don't see why you need to heat the hall anyway. A wall heater in the bathroom will be useful and a oil filled radiator ideal for the bedroom. You can do all of that for under £100.

penrhyn

Modern storage heaters are a world away from the older ugly types, and are quite slim. in my flat I had the Creda TSR Model. The feet are designed to go under your carpet.

http://www.storageheaters.com/creda-storage-heaters.htm

Some info here, the important thing is to get the correct size of heater for your room size.

grahamc2003

gw23 wrote: »

One of the reasons I changed from the storage heaters is that I've spent a load of money updating this flat and I wanted something decent & modern looking - plug-in freestanding heaters are really not what I wanted - I think they're ugly and date a property. Whilst I realise the aesthetics of heaters may not be everyone's priority, they are one of mine. .

This looks up your street (still very expensive to run, even if James tells you it isn't ....

http://www.dyson.co.uk/fans/heaters.asp

rogerblack

penrhyn wrote: »

Modern storage heaters are a world away from the older ugly types, and are quite slim. in my flat I had the Creda TSR Model. The feet are designed to go under your carpet.

http://www.storageheaters.com/creda-storage-heaters.htm

Some info here, the important thing is to get the correct size of heater for your room size.

I find it depressing that the most obvious thing on that page was the ad for http://www.economy-radiators.com/index.html !

(Whos radiators are no better than a 20 quid fan-heater in anything other than looks)

macman

Even if they did provide sufficient heat, then the switch from E7 to standard tariff would result in your heating bill being about 3 times higher anyway. I think that your 'heating aesthetics' penchant will rapidly dwindle once you get the next bill.
I'm afraid that you'll have to start again from scratch with some modern storage heaters.

gw23

Thanks for all the replies. I think you must all be blokes and we're talking at cross purposes about what constitutes "ugly" or appearances in general!! I really appreciate all your views though.

Nope, sorry, I loathe the look of the most modern storage heater available. I did not want anything that had feet! Either on top of or underneath the carpet.

No it's not a new flat, it's about 30 years old, and I guess the storage heaters were possibly the originals or one up from them. I know exactly how to work the controls on storage heaters for their optimum performance - I've lived here for 11 years and my total electric payments per month last year (and remember, no gas) were £50 a month on E7 - and I was never cold, even through that awful winter, so I guess I had energy consumption/efficiency pretty well tied up. £600 per annum for total energy bills is pretty good I think.

It does seem that I have a valid issue with the suppliers who advised me that panel heaters would do the job for me. (I spoke to them at least 4 times and not specifically about BEHA heaters - just whether alternative electric heating would be suitable for the property). As I explained to them exactly what I already had, and that I was looking for an alternative that would do the same job, they probably should have advised me that no alternative heaters would be a suitable replacement for storage heaters, and thus they have sold me something "not fit for the purpose". Nevertheless, that's another issue - and one that with my professional hat on I am well equipped to deal with!

It does seem that I have to bite the bullet and make do with storage heaters - hate those feet! - which is a damn shame as when the old heaters were taken out I had brand new carpeting laid.

Thanks for the tip about the water cylinder - I've recently had an Energy Certificate thingy and they didn't make any mention of any problems with the cylinder - or that it should be upgraded, but I will check that out.