Help..electric heating!

anmadogo

Hello, firstly apologies as I know there are many threads on this subject but after asking advice from three different electricians I am getting conflicting advice....and am hoping that I may be able to get a clearer picture here as my head is beginning to hurt with the dilemma!

I have been living in my flat for 1 year (solely electricity and not possible to have gas)

I have old storage heaters, one of which went pop the other day!!

I am on an economy 7 tariff and spent £360 on heating inc water tank last year (1 bed flat).

My question is: Financially am i best to replace my storage heaters with newer equivalents or look for an alternative such as panel heaters or electric radiators? If I went with the alternative would I run them on the economy 7 tariff as the water is being heated at night currently or switch to a standard tariff??

Apologies for naivety, this is all very new to me!

Any advice would be really appreciated, thanks

chris1973

Although the recent round of price increases have made some E7 customers upto 35% worse off

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/oct/31/economy-7-customers-face-35-per-cent-bill-rises

You are still better sticking to E7 for Electric heating, as the cost of using a standard tariff for Convectors & Panel Heaters is huge.

For example, even with the increases E7 off peak can still be bought for around 6p - 7p per unit, whilst a standard tariff can cost upto 11p - 12p per unit, nearly twice the price, and so running an immersion or panel heating at 12p per unit is effectively going to cost you twice as much as you are paying on E7 in the longer term.

Provided the storage heating was adequately warming your flat, and £360 was your annual bill (which is enviable) then I would replace the broken storage heater with a new storage heater (or cheaper still, have the existing one repaired) and stick with your E7 tariff, as it clearly seems to be working well for you, with such a low bill.

Incidentally, most storage heater problems are down to broken elements, tripped overheat safety cutouts or faulty thermostats, all of which are far cheaper to replace than an entire heater. So provided your broken storage heater is not an antique and is still in reasonable condition, then there is no reason why you couldn't have the elements replaced, the cutout reset or a new thermostat, at around 25% of the cost of an entire new heater!. The "pop" you heard was most likely an element failing and blowing the fuse in the spur outlet where the heater is fed from.

Of course, *some* Electricians are like car mechanics unfortunately, and they would rather charge you for a big job rather than quote an hour or two for labour in order to replace a few elements - so if a diagnosis and a possible repair of the existing heater hasn't been offered as an option then the first thing you need to do, is to change your Electrician!. I've repaired loads of storage heaters, with new elements, control panels etc and non of it is brain surgery.

Random Spares Example :- http://www.elementman.co.uk/dimplex_storage_heater_elements.asp

anmadogo

Thanks so much chris1973, thats a great help.

just to clarify: my total electricity bill was around the £680 mark but according to the itemisation the night time costs were £360.

I would say the storage heaters were ancient, the controls are input/output and are very stiff to turn. Also, when I said 'pop' it was a turn of phrase (not useful...sorry) it didnt make a sound but it sparked....i freaked out, turned it off at the wall and haven't used it since!

Would this be an indication to replace it and should I expect any change to my bill costs with new thermostatically controlled storage heaters.

Thanks again

rogerblack

anmadogo wrote: »

Would this be an indication to replace it and should I expect any change to my bill costs with new thermostatically controlled storage heaters.

Thanks again

Storage heaters can in general be simply repaired, if you have even a basic understanding of electrics.
Especially old ones are fundamentally very simple.

Second hand storage heaters tend to go inexpensively on ebay.
You can dismantle them easily to remove the bricks (they are designed to be transported in this way)

anmadogo

rogerblack wrote: »

Storage heaters can in general be simply repaired, if you have even a basic understanding of electrics.
Especially old ones are fundamentally very simple.

Second hand storage heaters tend to go inexpensively on ebay.
You can dismantle them easily to remove the bricks (they are designed to be transported in this way)

Thanks roger black!!! The current heaters do not warm the flat sufficiently and by the time I return home after work the heat has already dissipated...I know this is a characteristic of storage heaters but do you think I would notice an improvement in temperature level and length of heating period with more modern thermostatically controlled storage heaters??

Is my £680 electricity bill about average? I live on my own in a one bedroom flat and work a 9-5 job.

Thanks

Richie-from-the-Boro

- UK average is £1400 per annum, £680 is uber low
- my last 12 months years 22°C dwelling used 10885kWh of electricity
- my next years same 10885kWh consumption will rise to a £983.44 cost
- if you run out of anything its because you did not store enough of the cheap stuff
- or someone leached your stored asset with poor insulation, poor appliances, or bad practice
- per 'chris1973' nowt to repairing them, loads of posts on here

macman

Get your existing heaters controls working properly-if set correctly you should be able to reduce the output in the day and then turn it up in the evening. Modern NSH's may offer more control, so if one has failed anyway (and isn't repairable-they usually are), it may be time to upgrade.
If you switch to any other form of electric heating it will have to run off a single rate tariff (which may require a meter change), and your bills will consequently rise by around 250%, and oc course you'll also lose your cheap water heating. You can't run electric rads or convectors off E7 unless you want them on between midnight and 7am-fairly pointless unless you are nocturnal.
As pointed out above, your bill is already less than half what would be expected.

anmadogo

Hello, thanks to you all I have managed to save a wadge of cash by finding an electrician to hopefully repair my ancient but hopefully salvageable storage heaters. Thanks again

lstar337

anmadogo wrote: »

Thanks roger black!!! The current heaters do not warm the flat sufficiently and by the time I return home after work the heat has already dissipated...I know this is a characteristic of storage heaters

No it isn't. It might be a characteristic of inadequately sized storage heaters in poorly insulated properties.

anmadogo wrote: »

but do you think I would notice an improvement in temperature level and length of heating period with more modern thermostatically controlled storage heaters?

Automatic storage heaters will really only save you money. The difference being that the old type would always take a full charge, but automatic charge control heaters will take what it thinks it needs based on the current room temperature and the temperature of the internal storage material.

If they are running out of heat by the evening then they are likely undersized for the space and/or the space has poor heat retention.

If you are planning on replacing your heaters, look to up size them at the same time.

anmadogo

Automatic storage heaters will really only save you money. The difference being that the old type would always take a full charge, but automatic charge control heaters will take what it thinks it needs based on the current room temperature and the temperature of the internal storage material.

If they are running out of heat by the evening then they are likely undersized for the space and/or the space has poor heat retention.

If you are planning on replacing your heaters, look to up size them at the same time.[/QUOTE]


Thanks Istar337...Uh oh!!! More food for thought! My current storage heaters are old chunky creda models and are around 35 years old.

Room dimensions are:

Bedroom: 14'5" x 9'9" (4.4m x 2.97m) Currently has approx 2.5 kw storage heater.

Sitting room/Kitchen: 19'4" (5.90m) x 12'5" (3.78m). Increasing to 20' (6.10m) Currently has approx 3.5 kw storage heater
Bedroom: 14'5" x 9'9" (4.4m x 2.97m)

Sitting room/Kitchen: 19'4" (5.90m) x 12'5" (3.78m). Increasing to 20' (6.10m)

I was hoping just having them repaired/serviced might do the job but any further thoughts/ideas of what storage heaters to look at would be really welcome.

Thanks so much

anmadogo

anmadogo wrote: »

Automatic storage heaters will really only save you money. The difference being that the old type would always take a full charge, but automatic charge control heaters will take what it thinks it needs based on the current room temperature and the temperature of the internal storage material.

If they are running out of heat by the evening then they are likely undersized for the space and/or the space has poor heat retention.

If you are planning on replacing your heaters, look to up size them at the same time.

Thanks Istar337...Uh oh!!! More food for thought! My current storage heaters are old chunky creda models and are around 35 years old.

Room dimensions are:

Bedroom: 14'5" x 9'9" (4.4m x 2.97m) Currently has approx 2.5 kw storage heater.

Sitting room/Kitchen: 19'4" (5.90m) x 12'5" (3.78m). Increasing to 20' (6.10m) Currently has approx 3.5 kw storage heater

I was hoping just having them repaired/serviced might do the job but any further thoughts/ideas of what storage heaters to look at would be really welcome.

Thanks so much