Electric Heating, any good?

suestew

Hi all, just viewed a property to rent which my other half is very keen on, but it has electric heating. I asked the agent if it's like storage heaters and he said that no it can be on all the time and the owners have had it updated, I took from that it's newish. I am a gas central heating person, and I am worried that A. is it any good for warmth and B. is it really expensive to run?

I don't know make or anything, can find this out Monday but just wondered if you experts can give any advice in the meantime.

thanks

pooch

suestew wrote: »

Hi all, just viewed a property to rent which my other half is very keen on, but it has electric heating. I asked the agent if it's like storage heaters and he said that no it can be on all the time and the owners have had it updated, I took from that it's newish. I am a gas central heating person, and I am worried that A. is it any good for warmth and B. is it really expensive to run?

I don't know make or anything, can find this out Monday but just wondered if you experts can give any advice in the meantime.

thanks

What's the EPC rating?

suestew

Hi good point, just found this on their web site:

Energy efficiency rating is E - 47 (potential the same)
Eviromental F - 29 (potential the same)

Heating £1050 per year
Hot water £219 year

It's a 2 bed detached bungalow by the way

Owain_Moneysaver

So that's £200 a month on heating assuming a 6 month heating season.

How is it so low rated with no potential for improvement?

How warm it is depends on how many heaters there are; as to cost, peak rate electricity is about 3 times the cost of gas.

The seller's not had magic German clay-filled radiators installed have they?

chris1973

is it really expensive to run?

Yes very, more so as its not even Economy 7

An EPC is a guide, and I wouldn't trust anything the Estate Agent says unless he / she has lived there themselves.

Everybodies' energy usage varies, it all depends on the hours they are in the property and also their comfort level. Some people are happy watching TV in 15c, others want 22c we are all individuals.

Standard Electricity heating is very expensive in the UK, (second only to perhaps Bio-Ethanol heaters) largely because Electricity has to be generated by burning another fuel (Gas, Coal, Oil etc) so there are two suppliers, two lots of hungry shareholders and a distribution supplier to pay for in the equation.

Assuming you get a good electricity deal of say 10p per KW/H then it will cost you upto 20p per hour to run one single 2kw panel heater. The size and heat loss of some larger rooms, may require at least 4kw of heat to warm them during the coldest winter months, so thats upto 40p per hour for two panel heaters.

(I've quoted upto figures above because my calculation assumes that the heaters will not be cycling on their thermostats, but given the EPC rating, the house won't hold much heat so you should budget for the worst case figures and anything below would be considered a bonus / saving)

Even if you only heat the main living areas, it can still work out expensive if used for several hours every evening and 10+ hours if occupied over the weekends.

I'd use this information to negotiate a reduction in the rent, or do yourself a big favour and run for the horizon and find a property with Gas central heating, or at worst, storage heaters (and a good insulation rating)

suestew

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

How is it so low rated with no potential for improvement? ?

I did wonder at that, you do usually get an improvemnt level don't you? I did also note that the EPC is dated last October as well.

suestew

chris1973 wrote: »

Yes very, more so as its not even Economy 7

An EPC is a guide, and I wouldn't trust anything the Estate Agent says unless he / she has lived there themselves.

Everybodies' energy usage varies, it all depends on the hours they are in the property and also their comfort level. Some people are happy watching TV in 15c, others want 22c we are all individuals.

Standard Electricity heating is very expensive in the UK, (second only to perhaps Bio-Ethanol heaters) largely because Electricity has to be generated by burning another fuel (Gas, Coal, Oil etc) so there are two suppliers, two lots of hungry shareholders and a distribution supplier to pay for in the equation.

Assuming you get a good electricity deal of say 10p per KW/H then it will cost you upto 20p per hour to run one single 2kw panel heater. The size and heat loss of some larger rooms, may require at least 4kw of heat to warm them during the coldest winter months, so thats upto 40p per hour for two panel heaters.

(I've quoted upto figures above because my calculation assumes that the heaters will not be cycling on their thermostats, but given the EPC rating, the house won't hold much heat so you should budget for the worst case figures and anything below would be considered a bonus / saving)

Even if you only heat the main living areas, it can still work out expensive if used for several hours every evening and 10+ hours if occupied over the weekends.

I'd use this information to negotiate a reduction in the rent, or do yourself a big favour and run for the horizon and find a property with Gas central heating, or at worst, storage heaters (and a good insulation rating)

Thanks for reply. It sounds worse than i thought it might be. The living room is very large and I cant recall if there was even a heater in there, but from the photo's there is an electric fire, which would push up the cost even more.

Owain_Moneysaver

If it's £200 a month heating on electric, and you'd be paying about £60 a month on gas, I'd expect the rent to be about £150 a month less than a similar property with gas central heating.