Old Cottage with Night Storage Heaters - advise please

Boobydoo

Hi All

I've recently looked at an older property for myself and my small family. It's a two bed and has recently had double glazing fitted all around.

My concern is about the night storage heaters. I remember as a kid living in a property with them and not being cold, but that's about it. Do people find they are still cold with them working?

Can I switch from economy 7 to a normal tariff?

Can the heaters charge in the day if we needed them too?

Are there any other things we could consider? The property does not have gas.

Any help or advice on this really would be appreciated.

pinkskyatnight

Our 3 bed maisonette has storage heaters and I find them fantastic. We are on economy 7 tarif and don't have any gas and our eleci bill is £21.00 a month! Gas has got so expensive but everyone is so scared about electric when they need'nt be.

dogshome

Just like Gas, Oil or Solid fuel, the running costs and comfort levels of ECO7 are all about high levels of Insualtion - This cottage may have new windows, but what about the walls and loft ?

ECO7 gives 7 hours of cheap power overnight to charge the Storage Radiators and Hot water tank, bearing in mind that you will useing this heat over the next day, to a degree you are in the weather forecasting business

The power you use in the Day is expensive, so cooking up Hot water outside the 7 hour Night window is very costly and on a normal system it should not be possible to power up the Storage radiators during the day, unless that is the system is ECO10 that gives a boost in the afternoon, but ECO 10 is only supported by a few suppliers which makes it almost impossible to change the supplier for one with a better price

Wywth

Boobydoo wrote: »

Hi All

I've recently looked at an older property for myself and my small family. It's a two bed and has recently had double glazing fitted all around.

My concern is about the night storage heaters. I remember as a kid living in a property with them and not being cold, but that's about it. Do people find they are still cold with them working?

We had them 25 years ago and they were fine then. They are certainly no worse today.

Boobydoo wrote: »

Can I switch from economy 7 to a normal tariff?

Of course, but why would you want to?
Paying 2-4 times as much for your heating? :eek:
Are you sure you have signed up to the right site?

Boobydoo wrote: »

Can the heaters charge in the day if we needed them too?

Are you sure you have had night storage heaters in the past? :think:

Wywth

pinkskyatnight wrote: »

Our 3 bed maisonette has storage heaters and I find them fantastic. We are on economy 7 tarif and don't have any gas and our eleci bill is £21.00 a month! Gas has got so expensive but everyone is so scared about electric when they need'nt be.

Cor, that's cheap!

We use that amount of electricity every month, and currently use gas for all our heating and hot water.
And we are considered low users ...

macman

You can switch to whatever tariff you wish, but s a singe rate tariff will cost you approx 300% more than E7 for heating and hot water if you do.

Richie-from-the-Boro

No gas services is oil or electric only - + add the previously not mentioned water heating currently 365 days of nice hot water costing about 60% cheaper than core rate.

lstar337

I find storage heaters perfectly fine. You need to sort out insulation though, leaky windows and such can be a problem. The heaters always kick out enough heat, but the harder they have to work, the more they will cost to charge the following night.

We have automatic charge control on ours, not sure what yours are like.

Boobydoo

Thanks guys for all the replys.

I need to check exactly which heaters they are as someone has said they have a boost feature............which I do not remember seeing.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Boobydoo wrote: »

Thanks guys for all the replys.

I need to check exactly which heaters they are as someone has said they have a boost feature............which I do not remember seeing.

- the storage heater [apart from DUO's] do not have a boost feature
- its the E10 tariff ie, 10 hours, while the cheaper E7 tariff has 7 hours

lstar337

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

- the storage heater [apart from DUO's] do not have a boost feature
- its the E10 tariff ie, 10 hours, while the cheaper E7 tariff has 7 hours

Our Dimplex storage heaters label the output damper control as 'Boost'.

So 'Boost' does feature on some models, but it is just the damper control.