Replacing old electric heating system

michty6

Ok so I got measurements of the rooms, I found some tools to help you pick the necessary heaters (Like this one, this one or this on)

Based on this, I am going to get:
- 2 x 1 Kwh Panel Heaters for the bedrooms
- 1 x 0.5 Kwh Panel Heater for the bathroom
- 2 x 1.7 Kw for upstairs, downstairs landings (we have a small downstairs entry hall)
- 1 x 2.5 Kw for kitchen (this one is close in the sizing charts between 1.7Kw and 2.5Kw, but I know my Mum likes to sit and have a cup of tea and chat in here so was thinking higher...)
- 1 x 3.4 Kw Combination (with 1.75 Kw convector) for living room

All the storage heaters are with automatic charge control and simple dials.

I have sourced some options and can do it for around £1.1k. Sound reasonable?

Two things I'm not sure of: kitchen size heater (am even considering getting a combi) and the downstairs landing (where you only really go to get out the flat - thinking maybe a 1 Kw panel instead of storage)...

EDIT: Now I think about it, I think having a 1.7 Kw heater downstairs is a waste of energy, unless we set the output and input really low - in which case we might as well just use a small 0.5 Kw panel on a timer...

Richie-from-the-Boro

General rule of thumb is :

- always overestimate
- 1000 watts, or 1kW per m□ meter for average to good insulation
- 1200 watts, or 1.2kW per m□ meter for poorly insulated or frequent opening door traffic areas
- if you can afford it and work on 1.2kW m2, your mum should never need to open dampers, and will never be cold
- remember cabling and install has its costs, but over-provision of the cheap stored stuff does not of itself increase the bill

You will see now that I've given you 1000 watts per meter m□ that you are over-providing, which generally is a good thing and what 99% of installers don't do [cost]. If you mum spends a lot of her time in the kitchen then either will do, 1.7 or 2.4 - combi or non-combi is more than sufficient.

NOTE 01 : The actual real calc is 900kW per □ meter for average or good, but no one makes that spec, so round it up to 1kW.

NOTE 02 : A working example for all areas would [if rounded up] be if any room is 10 m2 you would need at least 1000 watts 10m2 x 100 watts.

NOTE 03 : If you up or down that figure according to m2 area for any room size with average double glazed usual modern spec insulation you won't go far wrong.

NOTE 04 : If by downstairs you mean you mum enters her flat at ground level [directly to the street] then does upstairs to the living accommodation, there are two answers depending on whether there's a door on the top of the staircase. If there's no door on the top the ingress of cold into the flat and the leeching of hot from the flat will be high to very high and will benefit from night-store pricing. If it's door'd at the top then small panel or smallest night store would be sufficient, its not a living area.

Richie-from-the-Boro

"""I have sourced some options and can do it for around £1.1k""" - cheap as chips for modern spec.

michty6

Great. My living room is about 22m squared, I went with the 3.5 Kw since I think having more cheap heat available for this room is not a bad thing. Also it has 2 external walls.

There is a door at the top of the stairs, so I just ordered a simple 1 Kw panel heater (with timer) for the downstairs landing. We can always set it to heat during the night so that nothing down there freezes. Or if my Mum goes to the shops, she can pop it on before she leaves and turn it off when she gets back...

So I ordered 6 panel heaters (2 bedrooms we use, 2 study/spare rooms, bathroom, downstairs) and 3 storage heaters (living room, hall, kitchen). Total cost £1.2k.

For anyone interested, this site was the cheapest I found for automatic charge storage heaters:
Alert Electrical

Others that weren't too far off:
Tlc Direct
HW Electric

For panel heaters, I went with the hygienesuppliesdirect.com links posted earlier in this thread for the ones with thermostat + timers at a really good price.

We know a local electrician so I am hoping he will know how to install these/take-out the old ones - otherwise I have asked for a few quotes from people I found on the web. Hopefully get this up and running not too long after the 20th when Hydro changes us over to E7!

michty6

Small update. Got the quote from the Gas Network today (9 days turn around from the date I requested is pretty good!). Just shy of £290 to put in a mains connection. Much cheaper than I thought, I assume this is heavily subsidised!

But it will be a while before I can afford GCH so going to see how those storage heaters I ordered turn out

michty6

Update! Thought I'd update this since sometimes people might not know how these things end.

The storage heaters were installed before Xmas. Since then my Mum informs me that the house is nice and toasty with no issues at all. Our first meter readings came in and we are using 80% of our electricity overnight so have drastically cut our bills after switching to a proper E7 meter. The new storage heaters are also very easy to manage - if my Mum can do it anyone can! You don't even need to remember to lower the output before you go to bed as the automatic charge control does this for you - just set the input for what you want for the next day and you're sorted!

Furthermore, looking on-line I found there are a bunch of companies that not only have cheap overnight rates but the day rates are very comparable to what you'd get on a day-only plan.

So great success, thanks to everyone for all the help!

Richie-from-the-Boro

michty6 wrote: »

Update! Thought I'd update this since sometimes people might not know how these things end.

The storage heaters were installed before Xmas. Since then my Mum informs me that the house is nice and toasty with no issues at all. Our first meter readings came in and we are using 80% of our electricity overnight so have drastically cut our bills after switching to a proper E7 meter. The new storage heaters are also very easy to manage - if my Mum can do it anyone can! You don't even need to remember to lower the output before you go to bed as the automatic charge control does this for you - just set the input for what you want for the next day and you're sorted!

Furthermore, looking on-line I found there are a bunch of companies that not only have cheap overnight rates but the day rates are very comparable to what you'd get on a day-only plan.

So great success, thanks to everyone for all the help!

- thanks for the update michty6, others coming here for actual 'hands on' personal experiences will appreciate your diligence
- 80% is an exceptional achievement, and shows others what can be done when the storage requirement is fittingly boosted