storage heaters/electric central heating or gas?

bevc_2

Bit disappointed that no-one has responded to my question so far (post #268) - guess it's been overlooked....

Anyway, instead of an Aztec boiler, I've found 'thermal stores' online and wonder if they would be more suitable for running the heating. Apparently they heat up during E7 hours and use a heat exchanger system when they receive demand from the heating system... still uses E7 but with similar controllability/availability of an on-demand combi system...

I could use them for the hot water too, I suppose, but wouldn't want to take all the 'stored heat' that way and leave nothing for the CH, so still like the idea of undersink hot water units.

Getting gas installed really isn't an option - does this look like a half-sensible way of doing my heating & hot water by electric without using NSH?

peat

I have had a similar thermal store system for a couple of years now but its with an economy 10 tariff rather than E7. The water in the thermal store is heated by a 12kw heatrae sadia (amptec) heater only during the cheap rate periods (3 periods, varies by region, totalling 10 hours in 24) Hot water from the store is pumped round the radiator system at times I have set to suit our lifestyle. Domestic hot water is supplied from a cold water feed going through a heat exchanger coil within the thermal store - thus mains pressure hot water which you could drink if such was your bent. If you search wet electric central heating on this forum you will find previous discussions.

jrhodes

Gas heating are a little risky I think you should have electric heater

Or much better alternate fuel sources. More information
high pressure steam generator

bevc_2

peat, thanks for the pointer to other discussions. I appreciate you are using E10 rather than E7, but what are the running costs like? In other words, are they manageable!!! My current system is bloody ridiculously expensive and unsustainable in the long term (as well as being next to useless!!)

peat

Average summer consumption 29 off-peak units 3 peak units per day
Average winter usage 50 off-peak units 7 peak units per day
I cook with bottled propane other than that the above is the entire energy consumption.

samtheman1k

The problem with this type of system and E7 is that you'll use all the hot water within a few hours, and thus be back to using the expensive peak rate electricity. E10 is a must for this. Search for the Gledhill Electramate for an 'all in one' type system (with E10) that looks quite good, although I've never tried it myself, I did nearly buy one last year, but opted for an air source heat pump instead.

amtrakuk

I'm not sure wether modern storage heaters they are all cracked upto be. Now I dont have personal experience of them but am working on what people say who have used them. Older heaters run out of puff quite early in the evening, I was told that most older units very frequently have to be backed up by an other electric heating source. Now I guess the heating requirements could have been underspec'd when installing and/or poor insulation.

Modern storage heaters still leak heat apparently not as bad as the older ones but still on a cold night still need a backup source.

This is why Im not convinced Storage heaters are a good thing, yes they are prob better than standard rate but the savings gained by using E4/E7 seemed to be cancelled with the need for backup heat source.

I wouldnt have thought they would be much use in my 1902 terrace house as it insulation isn't that wonderful but there is little I can do about it in practice.

kimwoo83

My one bed flat has 2 night storage heaters (not enough for the room sizes and high ceilings). Installation of GCH was going to cost in excess of £4.5k, an upgrade to the night storage heaters, either to modern storage heaters, or an on peak system, was going to cost in excess of £2k. In this current housing market and with little intention of staying in this flat for more than a couple of years I think I'm just going to heat the place with the Dimplex plug-in oil-free radiators (Cadiz?). Over this short term do others think that's the correct decision?

Money is tight as ever!...Plus, to sleep at night we're having to get some soundproofing put in above our heads, so that may have priority over warmth!

samtheman1k

kimwoo83 wrote: »

Over this short term do others think that's the correct decision?

I think you are wrong. You will easily make back the extra investment GCH costs with the increase in the value of your house that you will get back when you sell.

amtrakuk

I tried oil filled heaters and found they took along time to react and depending on the insulation of the house I found they had to be on 24/7. Another thing if you are thinking of wall mounting oil filled heaters make sure they are on an inner all. I had 2 oil filled Dimplex OFX type heaters, they heated the room lovely after a couple of hours but when I wall mounted them half they werent half as efficient as half the heat was going into the outside wall so I was loosing half the benefit from them.

Another thing I read was you wanted plug in type. Just make sure you don't overload the ring main. 1 KW heater is equal to about 4 amps. 2 x 3 KW heaters are about 24 amps. A typical ring main is about 25 amps. I eded up blowing my ring main after putting 2 x 3KW heaters on it and the fridge clicking in killed the fuse box bigtime!

I got a sparky in and got 2 x 3KW convection heaters about £30 each from argos. I preferred these to oil filled as they give instant heat and can switch them off to frost protection at the thermostat when you go out. Unlike oil filled which you still have to leave on to be affective.