Night Storage Costs?

Lucy9999

Hi

Can anyone help calculate how much a night storage heater will cost to run a month. My calculations are coming out at huge sums of money, so I feel I must be doing something wrong.

Here's my workings..

Looking at the chart for Dimplex quantum night storage heaters from the Dimplex site it says for 1 day a single heater used 10.2kWh. Sorry I can't post the link, but the path is:
Homepage > Products > Domestic Heating > Installed Heating > Quantum Energy System > Running Costs.


The current tariff for E7 heating off-peak is 7.99p/unit with my current supplier.

This gives £0.81 per day per heater.

I think we would need 14 heaters throughout the house, so
0.81p x 14 heaters x 30 days = £342.29 per month

Does this sound correct, or do night storage heaters not always run throughout the full off peak period once fully charged?

Thanks for any help!

pooch

Lucy9999 wrote: »

Hi

Can anyone help calculate how much a night storage heater will cost to run a month. My calculations are coming out at huge sums of money, so I feel I must be doing something wrong.

Here's my workings..

Looking at the chart for Dimplex quantum night storage heaters from the Dimplex site it says for 1 day a single heater used 10.2kWh. Sorry I can't post the link, but the path is:
Homepage > Products > Domestic Heating > Installed Heating > Quantum Energy System > Running Costs.


The current tariff for E7 heating off-peak is 7.99p/unit with my current supplier.

This gives £0.81 per day per heater.

I think we would need 14 heaters throughout the house, so
0.81p x 14 heaters x 30 days = £342.29 per month

Does this sound correct, or do night storage heaters not always run throughout the full off peak period once fully charged?

Thanks for any help!

7.99p per kWh off peak? :eek:
I suggest you consult a comparison site


14 Night Storage Heaters? :eek:
I suggest you put your Buck House on the market and move into a 3 bed semi

HappyMJ

14 heaters!!!...think about installing something else to provide heat. LPG/Oil if gas is not available...Night storage is really only economic in small houses where there is only a need for 2 or 3 storage heaters and the maintenance costs of a boiler outweigh the savings.

The costs shown are for a mild day 4 degrees at night and 11 degrees in the day. Winter's are much colder than that. The cost when the outside temperature is below zero would be 3.4kW * 7 hours * 7.99pence. £1.90 per heater per night. You can though get a much better tariff and get the costs down for a medium sized heater down to £1 per night. A 2.55kW heater running for 7 hours at a rate of 5.5p per unit will acheive that.

edited to add: You do not need storage heaters in bedrooms...You would use a normal convector heater for no more than half an hour on peak rate which is cheaper than a storage heater and for however long you like on the E7 night rate.

Lucy9999

Thanks HappyMJ. There isn't any gas connection to the house but oil is an option (as is Air Source), but it would mean installing boiler and pipes throughout, so hoping electricity might work out.

Maybe I am over doing it some with the 14 night storage heaters! I was just going off what we have in our current house which has Gas CH and is a 3 bed with 11 radiators (including tiny ones in the cloakroom, hall, landing and ensuite etc). The new place has an extra couple of rooms and a converted loft so I added on another 3. If we got convectors in the bedrooms as you suggest that would reduce it, same for the bathroom and en suite too I presume. I need to look in to caculating which heating type is best for which room, and what heat output is needed for each room size too I think. Thanks again..

HappyMJ

Bedrooms only need convector heaters and used sparingly. Use electric blankets for cheap warmth at night.

Bathrooms and ensuites work quite well with a fan heater on the wall or even a bar radiator used only when you are in it.

Halls, landings and cloak rooms don't need radiators at all.

You will have a generally colder house than with gas central heating so you need to just heat the rooms that are occupied the most. Even a wood/coal fire would be a lot cheaper than using an electric heater.

The converted loft will be the hardest and most expensive to heat as the heat will be lost to the outside far faster than any other room in the house.

What heating is currently in the property?

Lucy9999

At the moment there are some really big and old looking night storage heaters in each of the three bedrooms, and nothing at all in the converted loft as I don't think it was used for much more than storage. There is underfloor electric in the living/dining room and kitchen. I have a feeling this will be hugely expensive to run though, so was planning on using night storage instead.

macman

If mains gas is available in the street then I'd get a price for connecting it up. Long term it will save you a fortune.

Lucy9999

Hi macman, thanks, yes that would have been ideal. Sadly mains gas isn't in the immediate area so having to look at other options.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Lucy9999 wrote: »

Thanks HappyMJ. There isn't any gas connection to the house but oil is an option (as is Air Source), but it would mean installing boiler and pipes throughout, so hoping electricity might work out.

Maybe I am over doing it some with the 14 night storage heaters! I was just going off what we have in our current house which has Gas CH and is a 3 bed with 11 radiators (including tiny ones in the cloakroom, hall, landing and en-suite etc). The new place has an extra couple of rooms and a converted loft so I added on another 3. If we got convector's in the bedrooms as you suggest that would reduce it, same for the bathroom and en suite too I presume. I need to look in to calculating which heating type is best for which room, and what heat output is needed for each room size too I think. Thanks again..

Quantum heaters do have excellent retention when compared to most new available now storage radiators, and certainly most if not all existing older storage radiators. 14 night storage radiators in a three bed house as others have said is just OTT you will have most of them off for most of the time for most of the year, including the winter.

A single Quantum QM150 will store 23.1kWh of heat to be released from 7am [ish] over the following 19 hours. If you were to put 14 of these in your home you would be storing 322kWh of room heat every night in addition to your Quantum Cylinder. A non insulated 6 bed house with solid walls and no double glazing would be lucky to use that much every 14 hours.

- read this 3 page post then get back with questions. The lady concerned recently went through a similar thought process and listed her decision making and prices.


An Output Calculator is here.