Electric Central Heating i.e Thermaflow v Amtec

gc_bus

Units of electricity used now down to 24 per day (as it's turned milder and solar PV now generating around 4 Kwh per day too) - very pleased as that's for everything used not just the electric boiler C/H. Also, compared to my previous "awful" electric heaters (yes got sucked in by the gel-filled hype) the whole house is warm to the core - probably due to the slight loss of heat from pipe runs to the radiators which spreads the heat well. Again I can't stress enough how very good insulation is crucial to any heating system, especially when using electricity in any form. Remember to have sufficient ventilation though especially if burning fossil fuels.

ggmathers

Hello everyone first time using this.
I have recently moved into my first house which has electrical heating. The current setup is a heatrae sandia amptec 12kw boiler for my radiators and a huge immersion tank for my hot water. I am finding it very expensive to run the amptec and feel I am not getting my money's worth of heat from it I was wondering if anyone had any information on electric combi boilers or any other forms? I am not wanting storage heaters or pannel heaters. Also the type of house I live in is a two bed bungalow which has no gas or oil.

Cardew

ggmathers wrote: »

Hello everyone first time using this.
I have recently moved into my first house which has electrical heating. The current setup is a heatrae sandia amptec 12kw boiler for my radiators and a huge immersion tank for my hot water. I am finding it very expensive to run the amptec and feel I am not getting my money's worth of heat from it I was wondering if anyone had any information on electric combi boilers or any other forms? I am not wanting storage heaters or pannel heaters. Also the type of house I live in is a two bed bungalow which has no gas or oil.

Welcome to the forum.

If you don't want storage heaters, and don't have gas, your options are limited.

Any electric heating is very expensive unless you get a heat pump which is very expensive to install.

Oil CH is another option, but again expensive to install.

gc_bus

Have a look further up this thread for my experiences with a newly installed Elnur CMX15 combi boiler (downrated to 6Kwh max.).

lesage

hello
i have a 1bedroom flat on the ground flor and i want to do wet electric heater system because the storage electric heater which i have is not working properly.
im wondred about the bill
i have a 3kw boiler and i will instal 4 radiators , 2 small 600*600 and the other 2 is 1400* 600
so please , can any one have the same system (wet electric heater) give me advice ,
thanks

HappyMJ

lesage wrote: »

hello
i have a 1bedroom flat on the ground flor and i want to do wet electric heater system because the storage electric heater which i have is not working properly.
im wondred about the bill
i have a 3kw boiler and i will instal 4 radiators , 2 small 600*600 and the other 2 is 1400* 600
so please , can any one have the same system (wet electric heater) give me advice ,
thanks

It'll be expensive. You will be much better off fixing the storage heating and using the cheap night rate at about 5p/kWh. E10 charges about 8p/kWh for heating. You need to check the rates in your area....and then when you need heat outside of the E10 hours it's full price at about 16p/kWh. A properly sized and properly set storage heater should still be emitting some heat late into the evening and if not a small convector heater can be used for a extra burst of heat when required. It'll be much cheaper than turning on a wet central heating boiler.

gc_bus

Our electric boiler is down-rated to 6Kwh. We've one small; four medium and one large radiator. We're on Economy 7 as we've left the house before the day rate kicks in so the early morning baths/showers/heating etc are all done on the cheap rate (6.5p/Kwh). Our day rate is 11.5p/Kwh - May 2014 Online tariff with nPower. The whole of our electricity is costing us around £80 per month including standing charge. No servicing required per se nor any gas standing charge either. We've a three bed house. Very well insulated - that's they key. Hope that helps.

kmdp99

Hi gc_bus

Are you still happy with the CMX15?

We're thinking about ditching oil and moving over to all electric as we are hoping to build a small extension and would need to spend quite a bit on a remote filling point, re-siting the tank etc. and we would still have to look at the delightful tank which does somewhat spoil our beautiful view.

Did you use an 'approved installer' if there is indeed such a thing?

gc_bus

Hi kmdp99,

Yes, we are still very happy with the CMX15. Since last posting to this thread we've moved to E7 as we're using greater than 33% of our electricity on the "overnight" rate being early risers. Our TOTAL electricity bills are coming in at less than £80 per month. No gas servicing charges or gas standing charges to pay either. The CMX15 is quick to heat up the rads. and the chronostat in smart learning mode is very very accurate. Lovely to have that reserve of 50 litres of hot water so it's near instant at the taps. No venting of excess hot water around the rads unlike some gas combi boilers which can be wasteful in the summer (as well as appreciably heating up the rads when you don't want them to be). Very pleased with it. Siting of the boiler was also a consideration for us but with the CMX15 no outside wall is required and of course no fumes produced.

We used a local heating and plumbing company who we've used before.

Our heating is on from ~05:30 - 07:00 at 20c and then ~15:30-22:00 at 22c. 14c at all other times. The house never drops below 16c even in this protracted cold snap. Good insulation is the key for all heating to be efficient.

Thomas1707

gc_bus wrote: »

For information:

Two weeks ago we had an Elnur CMX15 electric combi boiler fitted along with 6 radiators controlled via a Myson MPRT RF "smart" chronostat. The boiler has been restricted to use a maximum of 6KW from a new 32amp supply. The CMX15 has an on-board 50 litre hot water store. We're running the boiler on a standard tariff from nPower at 10.5p/Kwh (inc. VAT). The boiler takes 14 minutes to re-heat the water store from cold.

Our house is a 2/3 bed modern mid-terrace and is very well insulated.

Despite it having been a very very cold couple of weeks I've worked out that our total electricity usage in the last week was £33.05 (including VAT & standing charge of 25p per day). I'm very pleased with this.

We also have a 1.7Kwp solar PV installed but this only generated 4Kwh in the past seven days having spent much of its time covered with snow.

The chronostat is set to come on 05:00 - 07:00 at 21c and 15:00 - 22:00 at 22c dropping back to 14c all other times. All but the bypass radiator in the living room (where the chronostat is fitted) have TRV's.

We do have a gas supply available but do not use it and pay no standanding charge. Also the electric boiler needs minimal servicing and no inspections per se.

Another factor in our choice to go electric was from a safety perspective (no fume ingress possibility) and also no requirement to bash through the kitchen wall to fit a flue.

Very pleased with the new boiler and the hot water from the store gets to the taps in 3-4 seconds as opposed to a gas combi which can take 30-45 seconds (if no on-board store). Furthermore a gas combi often pumps excess hot water around the radiators when the hot tap is turned off to avoid overheat which can appreciably heat up radiators (as previously experienced) in the warmer months which is not too desirable. The electric combi boiler does not do this.

So, we're pleased with our installation and running costs. :j

Please feel free to ask any questions.

gc_bus

p.s. the new electric boiler/CH system replaced some previously installed "electric radiators" that we pretty useless to be honest - cheapish to run but ineffective as they seem to modulate down really low to save energy but then of course gave out little heat.

Hi we're looking at electric central heating systems, we have no gas in the block of flats. I'd seen the elnur combination boiler, ie with hot water tank. Just wondered how you're managing with this, ie is it sufficient for a decent shower - will most likely get a power shower installed.

Also, now you've had the boiler in for some time, what has been your experience, eg running costs, reliability, etc.

Thanks