storage heaters/electric central heating or gas?

debtfreeoneday

Hi, I'm after some advice if possible.. Similar to some of the posts above, we are in an area with no gas, therefore our house currently has storage heaters downstairs and panel heaters upstairs.. Looking at the options open to us, it is just a minefield and I feel totally lost.

Looking at electric heating systems.. is there any real difference between gel filled and water filled systems? And are either of these cost effective??

What other options could we consider for heating the house?

Thanks

Cardew

debtfreeoneday wrote: »

Looking at electric heating systems.. is there any real difference between gel filled and water filled systems? And are either of these cost effective??

No difference at all in the amount of heat produced for the money.

If you use 10kWh costing, say, £1, then the heat produced from any electrical heating system will be exactly the same.

Radiators filled with gel, clay, oil, water, or a £10 fan heater, or Granny's old 1/2/3 bar fire - they all produce exactly the same heat.

The only difference is in the manner in which they produce that heat, either 'instant' with no residual heat. Or oil/gel filled radiators that retain heat longer - but are slower to produce heat.

There are all sorts of electrical systems being marketed that claim(or imply) that they produce more heat for your bucks - and they don't. That is not even open for discussion! if a salesman tells you they do produce more heat they are lying!!!!

Is any form of electrical heating cost effective? Not really - it is more expensive than oil and gas or electrical storage heating. However it is cheap to install(provided you don't get fooled into buying these stupidly priced systems) and instant heat is available.

P.S. Having storage heating downstairs and panel heating upstairs is the worst of both worlds. On an Economy 7 tariff you will be paying a lot more for the other 17 hours when you use panel heaters.

albyota

debtfreeoneday wrote: »

Hi, I'm after some advice if possible.. Similar to some of the posts above, we are in an area with no gas, therefore our house currently has storage heaters downstairs and panel heaters upstairs.. Looking at the options open to us, it is just a minefield and I feel totally lost.

Looking at electric heating systems.. is there any real difference between gel filled and water filled systems? And are either of these cost effective??

What other options could we consider for heating the house?

Thanks

1. Electric heating in the form of storage heaters running on economy 7 tariff, are 100% efficient and use off peak rate electric at 5p/kWh and store up the heat from 12 midnight or 1am through to 7 or 8 am, then slowly release the heat throughout the day, most heaters run out of heat during the early evening and therefore require peak rate boost heating.

2. Direct electric gel / oil filled / convector / fan heaters are also 100% efficient, but have no means of storing heat, and they will use peak rate electric at between 9p/kWh and 15p/kWh depending on your supplier/tariff, these are more controllable, very low cost to install, but expensive to run.

Air source (to water) heat pump (ASHP) with radiators will use electric at peak rate but are over 300% efficient, meaning for every 1kW of power needed to run the compressor, it will produce 3kW of heat, although the capital cost of installing the equipment, hot water cylinder and radiators is higher, the running costs are considerably lower.....

http://heating.mitsubishielectric.co.uk/files/library/files/ecodan/Casestudies/1955%20Home%20Needs%20Renewable.pdf

hope this helps


Sorry... forgot to mention cardews....'or Granny's old 1/2/3 bar fire'

Cardew

albyota wrote: »

Sorry... forgot to mention cardews....'or Granny's old 1/2/3 bar fire'

However Granny's fire is a genuine 'Belling' antique - complete with a 'living coal' plastic display. So will certainly not be cheap to buy!

But make me an offer;)

albyota

What like this?



those were the days......

Cardew

albyota wrote: »

What like this?



those were the days......

Please Albyota - give my Gran a bit of credit.

I don't think there is anyone of this forum who wouldn't recognise that as the 2 bar Adelphi - which incidentally does not have the 'living' coal display.

My Gran's is a 3 bar, not that cheap version above!!!

albyota

Forgive me cardew......I can be a pillock at times.....of course it is a 2 bar Adelphi, it was the plastic that through me, should have looked for the bakelite caps on the elements, I must carry out my research with closer attention to detail in future, please apologise to grannie for me!

debtfreeoneday

Thanks for the responses so far.. Much appreciated!

prunus

My wife and I live in a detached 3 bed bungalow with lounge, dining room, kitchen, and bath. We are all electric and have seven storage radiators for all our heating. We would take a deal of persuading to change to anything but a heat pump system.

We are both retired and love having the house warm 24 hours a day, which it is. We watch the weather forecasts and adjust the intake of the rads accordingly. We air the house every day, except in the worst of weather like last winter, but are not stupid about leaving doors and windows open unnecessarily. We didn't need to have any supplementary heating to the rads in the living rooms last winter because we sized the room rads properly to start with.

I changed elec suppliers a few months ago so can't give exact figures for heating costs but, before then, they worked out roughly at up to £900 pa. Remember, the elec bill and the water bill are the only ones we get.

I've been prompted to post this because the rad in the small bedroom has suddenly gone faulty. This is the first real fault we've had in the twenty odd years we've been relying on storage radiators. I don't suppose that many other heating systems offer that low a level of maintenance and repair costs!

prunus

Don't suppose anyone is reading this thread now but I want to tell you why my storage radiator failed. It was just that some insect managed, somehow, to get into the inside of the radiator where it shorted the wires.

A simple rewiring job fixed matters.