Are electrick storage heaters more expensive then Gas central heating, please help?

LouiseTopp

I have been offered a house swap from Salisbury to Bournemouth and I am a little dubious because I want to move, but the property has electric storage heating. What I would like to know is are storage heaters more expensive to run then gas central heating? I have a combi boiler and I can override the system if it gets too cold, which I don't think I can do on a storage heating system.

I am also disabled and I have been told that I can get a grant to replace the storage heaters with radiators, is this true? I get confused, and even more so as I have borderline learning difficulties and will need support. Should I consider it or forget it? :undecided

Advice would be most welcome, many thanks.

HappyMJ

In my opinion.....Managed well storage heaters don't cost that much more than gas central heating. You will get a wide variety of views. Some people hate them with a passion and wouldn't look twice at a property with storage heating. If you are home all day you would be best placed to take advantage of the cheap heat. Most people who work from 9-5 find them useless as the storage heaters can't really heat well late into the evening when they are home from work and resort to using expensive peak rate electric heating.

My opinion is to set the input of the storage heaters at maximum and the output at minimum then adjust the output upwards if it feels too cold remembering to turn the output back down to minimum before you go to bed or the heat will be lost early the next day. They cost about £1 per night per storage heater.

You can get a grant towards part of the cost of gas central heating but it will only help cover part of the cost.

I'd consider it if the property is right. Does the property have any gas at all?

Cardew

I assume the OP is renting as they talk of a House swap - which is usually for Council/HA tenants.

Given the OP's circumstances, I would be very wary about moving to a property with Storage heating. They are more expensive to run than gas, and also require some management.

LouiseTopp

Yes I am in a council house and I am on benefits so I will be a bit weary, would prefer gas central heating. So I might say no, apparently I have also put my name on a house bidding site which I hope will help. There is also a organisation called MoveOn, do you know of any others which could help please?

Many thanks.

Wickedkitten

You might actually find that you end up spending a lot less because of the fact that they cost so much to run so you'll be waiting until it actually gets properly cold before you put them on.

denise38

Sorry wouldn't touch them with a barge pole in your circumstances. My mother,brother , aunt all had them and have replaced them with oil and other means. Granted they live in the scottish highlands but the bills were very high compared to what they have now.
I rented a house for a year while waiting for new build to be finished and bills for 2 bedroom cottage were more than I paid for 4 bed house with gas .However if you are at home all day then you may be able to control it more.

macman

'Replace them with radiators'? If by that you mean gas CH, then that would depend on a gas supply being available in or near to the property. If it's already got NSH, that may well not be the case.
The kWh cost for gas and E7 cheap rate electricity is similar, (around 4p), but if the NSH are inadequate, you'll be resorting to topping up with peak rate E7 power at about 14p per kWh-vastly more expensive than gas.

rogerblack

The other _huge_ part that's not been mentioned is the heating demand of the property.
Different sorts of similar sized property can vary in heating demand by over 5*.
This can dwarf energy savings due to cheaper heating.
The only way is to find out what the existing tenant is paying.

grahamc2003

Heating by storage heaters will cost more than gas (almost certainly) for the same house temperatures during the day. This for two reasons - gas is likely (but not definately, depends on the boiler efficiency and other things) to be cheaper per unit of useful heat that 'cheap' rate electricity (that didn't used to be the case when night electricity was about 1/3rd day rates, but these days ime it's more like 1/2 day rates). Second reason is the storage of heat causes heat losses when you probably don't want the heating (like 3a.m.)

Why I stick with storage heaters and not move to gas is due to the major benefit for me of the zero maintenance of storage heaters, compared the the usually expensive annual services and more frequent breakdonws, and more frequent replacements, of gas boilers. If you are renting, then it's your landlord who gets these benefits (hence why so many rental properties have storage heaters!), and you who are left with the higher running costs and less convenient system.

If you have a choiice and are renting, then go with gas imv.