Storage Heaters

clairfairy

We have storage heaters in every room in our bungalow, last winter we only had the living room one on which still cost us a fortune but then the bedrooms are freezing.
I would like to get a portable heater to take the chill off the bedrooms before night times, what would people recommend for this? Any ideas would be great

treeze

oil filled radiators are quite economical.You'll notice the difference in about half an hour.

daveyjp

Convector or oil filled heater will do.

It depends how quickly you want the heat as to which to choose. Oil filled take a while to warm up, convectors are instantaneous.

lstar337

Electric blanket. Much more efficient in this situation as you are heating the body directly.

clairfairy

Thanks for replies would rather not use an electric blanket in kids room as they only 2. maybe for us though.

Will have a look into different ones, does anyone recommend halogen heaters?

stevehemel

clairfairy wrote: »

We have storage heaters in every room in our bungalow, last winter we only had the living room one on which still cost us a fortune but then the bedrooms are freezing.
I would like to get a portable heater to take the chill off the bedrooms before night times, what would people recommend for this? Any ideas would be great

Hi Clair

Are you sure it was the storage heater that cost all the money. It was severely cold last winter and so some companies have suggested changing fuse box and eliminating Economy 7 altogether the going for some of more modern electric heaters.

Understanding storage heaters is often confusing for many. If it has a booster that gives auto heat e.g. when overnight stored heat has been used up, then that will be charged at standard rate on your bill. Perhaps give us some figures for your night/off peak electric charges and the unit price for heating up your storage heater for a night at different settings. Does a high 5 setting use e.g. 20 units of off peak electric at 5p per unit over a 7 hour overnight off peak period equating to £1 per night (£30pcm for one radiator at max). A 2 bed flat which is electric only is going to be well over £75pcm for all electric costs (and a cold winter considerably more) so how many rooms do you have. Lots of outside walls can increase costs so always worth looking at government green deals if you have a cavity and it has not been insulated. Otherwise good luck with choice of oil filled radiator. We swapped a standard electric heater (non storage) in our bedroom for a more expensive devise that thermostatically controls room temperature.

Cardew

stevehemel wrote: »

Hi Clair

Are you sure it was the storage heater that cost all the money. It was severely cold last winter and so some companies have suggested changing fuse box and eliminating Economy 7 altogether the going for some of more modern electric heaters.

Understanding storage heaters is often confusing for many. If it has a booster that gives auto heat e.g. when overnight stored heat has been used up, then that will be charged at standard rate on your bill. Perhaps give us some figures for your night/off peak electric charges and the unit price for heating up your storage heater for a night at different settings. Does a high 5 setting use e.g. 5 units of off peak electric at 20p per unit over a 7 hour overnight off peak period equating to £1 per night (£30pcm for one radiator at max). A 2 bed flat which is electric only is going to be well over £75pcm for all electric costs (and a cold winter considerably more) so how many rooms do you have. Lots of outside walls can increase costs so always worth looking at government green deals if you have a cavity and it has not been insulated. Otherwise good luck with choice of oil filled radiator. We swapped a standard electric heater (non storage) in our bedroom for a more expensive devise that thermostatically controls room temperature.

Welcome to the forum.

1. 'changing the fuse box' does not eliminate Economy 7. Some Utility companies will allow you to retain the Economy 7 meter and simply add the two meter readings and treat as a single 24/7 tariff.

Other houses will need some fairly extensive rewiring as the supply to storage heaters and immersion heater are only 'live' for the 7 hour off-peak period.

2.

Does a high 5 setting use e.g. 5 units of off peak electric at 20p per unit over a 7 hour overnight off peak period equating to £1 per night

Not understood! Typically off-peak electricity is around 6p/kWh(unit) - which is the whole point of having storage heating. Also a large 3.4kW set to max input might use around 23units(kWh) in the 7 hours.

3.

We swapped a standard electric heater (non storage) in our bedroom for a more expensive devise that thermostatically controls room temperature

Almost all electrical heaters, like a £10 fan heater or £20 oil filled radiator from Argos, have a thermostat that controls room temperature.

How much did your bedroom heater cost.

stevehemel

OK, thanks for the welcome. it looks I have been shot down in technical (expertise not admitted, only offering suggestions) details of my first post but while this does not feel good, I hope some of the points raised may be more useful in considering the best approach to balancing warmth and cost.

The reason for taking an interest in the area of economy 7 is that some people could be misled that off peak electric rates apply to all electric during off peak hours. I do not believe this to be the case (certainly not in our flat)

How much is an Eco7 storage heater costing - this can only be shown by doing some sums on your own property and knowing the tariffs.

An electrician suggested when changing our fuse box that the economy 7 aspect can be eliminated (not sure how) so the whole flat can run on a standard tariff. However this would not have required extensive house rewiring. All done at meter cupboard / fuse box from recollection.

As I was having an electrical test (thus as cost effective to update an old style fuse box) and was replacing a faulty electrical heater at time I was willing to listen to the suggestions of the electrician.

We bought a radiator for the room from the economy radiator company for about £300 from recollection.

Biscuit_Tin

clairfairy wrote: »

We have storage heaters in every room in our bungalow, last winter we only had the living room one on which still cost us a fortune but then the bedrooms are freezing.
I would like to get a portable heater to take the chill off the bedrooms before night times, what would people recommend for this? Any ideas would be great

Unless you want to spend a fortune on a new heating system, the cheapest way to heat your home is to use the electric storage heaters you have and take advantage of the cheap rate electricity from an E7 tariff, where the cost of such electricity is 50% -70% less than the normal rate (and after taking consideration of the lower efficiency levels of gas heating, about the same as that)

Also, unless you plan to live & sleep in just one room continually, then only heating one room is pointless, because as soon as you open the door, all the heat transfers to the rest of the cold house. (and even if you don't open the door, you'll lose quite alot of heat through the internal walls) So use all your storage heaters - that's why they installed them.

lstar337

stevehemel wrote: »

The reason for taking an interest in the area of economy 7 is that some people could be misled that off peak electric rates apply to all electric during off peak hours. I do not believe this to be the case (certainly not in our flat)

The only way I can see that being the case, is if you have a separate meter for the off-peak usage. Ours is a single meter that switches, and it does provide off-peak to both fuse boards for the duration of the off-peak period. This is the case for most installations, I believe you are in the minority.

stevehemel wrote: »

We bought a radiator for the room from the economy radiator company for about £300 from recollection.

Wow, that is truly poor economy. That radiator might look pretty, but it does no more than a £30 heater from Argos/Screwfix/Tesco.....etc.

McKendog

I've got a 2KW De'Longhi oscillating ceramic heater and it is great as a portable. Looks similar to the DCH4590ER but it seems my model is no longer being made. It heats my bedroom very quickly (16 sq m) and helps in the lounge but struggles to heat the whole room on a cold day (22 sq m).

I'm currently delaying decisions about wall mounted rads and will most likely be buying a Dimplex Convector Heater for £37 instead of the £300 - £1000 wall mounted things I was considering. The guys on here have convinced me the expensive ones don't produce more heat. :beer: