storage heaters/electric central heating or gas?

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.

heater11

jawa1 wrote: »

A friend had a really bad house fire at 3am in the morning last march. It was caused by the storage heater overheating and I think the thermos failing.

The storage heater was 15+ years old.

The fire investigating officer said this it quite a common occurrence, (but he could have meant that storage heaters in general cause fires i.e clothes left on them rather than overheating and bursting into flames as what happened to a friend)

Do not mean to worry anyone, but if you have a old storage heater I would research into them more.

i am worried about the safety of the storage heaters in my flat as i have been ill since moving in-i have also been told my probs could be the fumes off the one in my bedroom-i have read that the heaters can overheat when very old-can anyone throw me any light on this please

amtrakuk

It depends what illness your referring to? Dry itchy eyes, headaches etc?

Not having and experience in storage heaters but looking at the design, when they are open they appear to work by convection, some people don't like this type of heating as it dries out the air, people complain of itchy eyes, blocked noses, headaches. If this is the case, it might be worth trying a "plug in" oil filed radiator as these work on the same principle as central heating by heat the moisture in the air giving a "cozy' feel. One of the downside of these heaters is they have next to no heat storage factor compared with storage heaters and therefore not really suitable for Off Peak electricity.