storage heaters/electric central heating or gas?

sanman

Hi!

Having spent a while reading this thread I wanted to say thank you to all of you who have taken the time to supply information to help us noobs out.

My own situation is that I have a 5 bedroom house (220sqm) in a village without gas. I have storage heaters on E7, a wood burner in the living room and solar power for hot water (installed by previous owners). I had thought about moving to some other system to make the house more saleable and wondered about the new breed of Kalirel etc systems but have changed my mind now - thanks for that :beer:

Ideally, my house would have mains gas. I would personally much prefer that. But in my situation I shall now (having read this forum) not change from storage heaters because

1. E7 is, for me, fantastic. I time the washing machine, etc to come on at night where possible and therefore my total usage is approximately 70% off peak, 30% peak.
2. The upheaval would be immense (floors up, redecoration, etc) and the cost very large also (several thousand for boiler and new radiators - it would take ages to recoup that).
3. Storage is fine IF you are organised (which my wife is - I'm not, but it only takes one of us ). You need to monitor weather and adjust accordingly. We use storage radiators for the core heat in the house - timed panels in the kids rooms and the stove in the living room which gets nice and hot.
4. Oil (and, to a lesser extent, gas) is a political fuel. Prices can potentially go through the roof overnight - less likely with electricity which is generated from a number of different sources.

We save a fair amount of money because
1. The house stays coolish during the winter (17 degrees or so) but 95% of our time is spent in the living room which is toasty due to the stove, so we can live with cooler rooms we spend very little time in
2. Rooms we don't use regularly (2 of the bedrooms) stay unheated with the door closed during the winter months
3. We turn things off when we aren't using them, live TVs, etc

Thus we use on average approx 70 units of electricity per day (remember, no gas) and this works out to about £32 per month with E7 (may now be higher ... need to check latest tariff). Yes, there is the cost of wood also ... but I know some tree surgeons :j.

Anyway, thanks again to all contributors, especially the very prolific Cardew!

Cardew

sanman wrote: »

Hi!

Having spent a while reading this thread I wanted to say thank you to all of you who have taken the time to supply information to help us noobs out.

My own situation is that I have a 5 bedroom house (220sqm) in a village without gas. I have storage heaters on E7, a wood burner in the living room and solar power for hot water (installed by previous owners). I had thought about moving to some other system to make the house more saleable and wondered about the new breed of Kalirel etc systems but have changed my mind now - thanks for that :beer:

Ideally, my house would have mains gas. I would personally much prefer that. But in my situation I shall now (having read this forum) not change from storage heaters because

1. E7 is, for me, fantastic. I time the washing machine, etc to come on at night where possible and therefore my total usage is approximately 70% off peak, 30% peak.
2. The upheaval would be immense (floors up, redecoration, etc) and the cost very large also (several thousand for boiler and new radiators - it would take ages to recoup that).
3. Storage is fine IF you are organised (which my wife is - I'm not, but it only takes one of us ). You need to monitor weather and adjust accordingly. We use storage radiators for the core heat in the house - timed panels in the kids rooms and the stove in the living room which gets nice and hot.
4. Oil (and, to a lesser extent, gas) is a political fuel. Prices can potentially go through the roof overnight - less likely with electricity which is generated from a number of different sources.

We save a fair amount of money because
1. The house stays coolish during the winter (17 degrees or so) but 95% of our time is spent in the living room which is toasty due to the stove, so we can live with cooler rooms we spend very little time in
2. Rooms we don't use regularly (2 of the bedrooms) stay unheated with the door closed during the winter months
3. We turn things off when we aren't using them, live TVs, etc

Thus we use on average approx 70 units of electricity per day (remember, no gas) and this works out to about £32 per month with E7 (may now be higher ... need to check latest tariff). Yes, there is the cost of wood also ... but I know some tree surgeons :j.

Anyway, thanks again to all contributors, especially the very prolific Cardew!

Welcome to the forum,

Nice post(especially the last sentence!!)

I think the phrase that sums it up is "We use storage radiators for the core heat in the house"

That is exactly the advantage of Economy 7 heating, if you need to 'top up' during the day with other forms of electrical heating, then you are paying the same running cost as these "new breed" electrical heaters anyway.

If this message gets about it will perhaps stop people buying radiators for £hundreds each, that give out exactly the same heat as radiators costing £tens.

Cardew

sanman wrote: »

my total usage is approximately 70% off peak, 30% peak.
Thus we use on average approx 70 units of electricity per day (remember, no gas) and this works out to about £32 per month with E7 (may now be higher ... need to check latest tariff).!

You presumably mean £32 a week?

70 units a day average is 25,550kWh. 70%/30% split is 17,885 cheap rate and 7665 day rate.

Taking E7 as 4p/kWh and day as 11p/kWh that is £1,558pa.

amtrakuk

Peeps

Just heard on IPTW there are energy price rises due this summer. Did a bit of looking on the web and came across http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7306173.stm has been advised to look for capped energy prices.

Over winter my electric energy prices are about 80.00 / month and no gas bill :j

amtrakuk

Cardew wrote: »

You presumably mean £32 a week?

70 units a day average is 25,550kWh. 70%/30% split is 17,885 cheap rate and 7665 day rate.

Taking E7 as 4p/kWh and day as 11p/kWh that is £1,558pa.

Cardew: Looks like the calculations are right, but I don't think the heating is on all year?

derbygirl1

Miss_Ladybird wrote: »

Can I add my question as there seem to be lots of knowledgable people about!
Have bought a 3-bed semi which has no heating except an electric fire in the living room. There is no gas in the village. We are thinking about installing an oil tank and oil central heating, or alternatively using some kind of electric heating (unknown!) Any thoughts or advice? Thanks!

Hi, I am renting a house which uses oil heating and I would very strongly advise AGAINST it! Its a 3 bed semi (like yours) and costs us £300 every six weeks in oil. On top of that the house NEVER heats up - its always cold, so cold I have to wear a jumper to bed! Unfortunately, I know that electric is not much better. :eek:

Cardew

amtrakuk wrote: »

Cardew: Looks like the calculations are right, but I don't think the heating is on all year?

Agreed the heating will not be on all year.

However he stated an average of 70 units a day.

If it was only £32 a month that would be for approx 6,000kWh a year for a large 5 bed house with storage heating as well as the normal electricity use.

Well at 70 units a day(490 a week) he would use 6,000kWh in 12 weeks.

Seems strange that sanman has written a long and informative post and not visited the site since!

amtrakuk

True... But since the scheduled 9.7% increase in lekky and 15% for gas - the distance is closing

samtheman1k

I don't think the gap is closing, just not increasing at such a fast rate as oil is increasing by stupid amounts too!

ElectricPeace

I live in a terraced house and some time ago my neighbours got a new gas heating
system. The installers had the complete thoughtlessness to put the boiler on our
party wall where its noise has managed to make my life sheer hell. Fortunately
the local Environmental Health Department persuaded them to turn it off at night
after my own efforts failed.
Noise matters if you don't live in a detached house. My neighbour used to have
storage and immersion heating before and even dabbled in running their washing
machine in the middle of the night, but it woke them up so they stopped!! It
woke me up too and probably their neighbour the other side!
I too have gas water and central heating, but the boiler is placed on an outside
wall and I have had no complaints so far! However it is old and needs replacing.
I cannot face gas any more, both because of what my neighbour's noise has done
for me and because I fear disturbing my neighbour on the other side, so I have
been thinking of going electric, but have not known where to start. Coming upon
this forum has been such a help - you never come across adverts for electric
heating, only gas, and have gained some ideas and followed links. I realise that
it will cost more to run but am happy to pay extra for peace. Thank you all so
much and please bear noise in mind in your own plans if you live in a terraced
house or flat, as I'm sure most of you would of course anyway!