Non biased advice needed

poptart_2

I'm looking for some advice on behalf of my mum.

She's a housing association resident, currently living in a three bedroom three storey townhouse with gas central heating. She can barely afford the rent, utilities etc on her wage and has been looking at moving to a smaller place.

She's found a lovely one bedroom house to swap with, however it has night storage heating.

This is where she is struggling. She will be around £20 a week better off in the smaller house but is it worth it for swapping gas central heating for night storage heating? Also, once she swaps to a one bedroom place it would be impossible for her to move back into a larger property again.

We have thought about a lodger but the current house is too small with not much privacy.

I'm looking for an unbiased opinion as we both have attachments to the house.

Savvy_Sue

I can't really comment on the night storage heaters, although I've heard they can be OK if you know how to drive them which many people don't. If the house is well insulated it may not be a problem at all.

As for the not being able to upsize again, how important is that? How often does she have overnight visitors, for example?

If it's children / grandchildren visiting she's concerned about, DH's parents live in a 3 bed semi, his brother still lives at home, and the 3rd bedroom is tiny. When the boys were small we used to put one boy on Uncle's bedroom floor, 2 boys on the floor in the spare room, and we'd go on the dining room floor.

Now the boys are adults, we book a cheap hotel or B&B. We could still jam in, but it's not a lot of fun.

I think I'd encourage her to go for the downsizing, on the grounds that it won't become any easier as time goes on, and if she's already struggling with bills then it's worth a try ...

Opinion

I've never had a problem with night storage heating, whereas I have lots of problems with my gas central heating.

With the chronic shortage of housing I would say that downsizing would be the right thing to do, as well as being better money-wise for your mum.

Hermia

I have night storage heating and it is fine. I have a little Dimplex oil-free eco heater which I will put on if it is really cold, but I haven't needed it yet this year. The only problem with night storage is that you don't have instant control. So, if the weather forecast is really bad I need to remember to turn it up the day before.

Pippin12

I would definitely downsize - it sounds like she's really struggling financially at the mo and as a previous poster suggested she could get an oil filled radiator to supplement the night storage heaters.

January20

I have night storage heaters and generally it is fine. There are a couple of points I want to make though.

There is a certain lack of flexibility that comes with having night storage heaters ie you can't just switch it on on a cold morning/ evening. You have to plan a bit better.

With night storage heaters, you have an Economy7 or Economy10 meter and it may be difficult to find a supplier. I am with npower at the moment, and I'm having problems with them. I'm finding it very difficult to find another supplier.

I also have an old radiator and 3 new ones. The old one gets a lot warmer and is a lot more efficient at heating the room that the new ones. Having said that, out of 4 radiators, I only ever use 2: the old one and a new one.

Make sure your mum finds out as much as possible about the storage heaters in the flat she has found, ie electricity supplier, size of the heaters etc.

belfastgirl23

If it's easier to swap a three bed for a one bed, would your mum be better off holding on and seeing if something else suitable comes up? Just a thought, you will know better if that's feasible or not in your area.

Failing that could she ask to see the swapees bills for the last year?? At least that would give her some idea of what they have been spending (although admittedly some people live differently to others in terms of heat).

Or if it's a small place she could just figure in the additional costs of a small portable heater as well?

itsanne

We have storage heaters. To be honest I'd much prefer to have the gas central heating because it's more instantly controllable, but once you know how to work them, the storage heaters aren't bad. The main problem can be that it's warmer than you need in the morning and cooler later in the day with Economy 7. The most important thing is to check what the weather / temperature will be the following day and set them accordingly. Some storage heaters also have a convector heater inbuilt. It is charged at the daytime rate when used, but does away with any need for an additional heater.

Economy 10 charges for a spell during the day as well as at night, but it doesn't seem to be widely available. I seem to remember that it was originally designed for people who would be at home during the day - like your mum. It might be worth checking out.

We haven't had any problems with suppliers / changing suppliers with Economy 7.

One additional thing to bear in mind with Economy 7 is that all the electricity used during the day is at the higher rate and all during the night at the lower rate. I hadn't realised that to start with! That means it's cheaper, for example, to set the washing machine to come on overnight, although there are other issues associated with that.

Having used storage heating for a number of years, I would say that they shouldn't make the difference between your mum choosing to move or not.

mountainofdebt

Is this the same as Economy 7 heating?

If so,our first home had this and it was bliss....bills were so much cheaper than 'regular' heating.

The pnly problem we had was if there was a sudden cold snap but we learnt to listen to weather forecasts or wear jumpers (we got there before D Cameron!)

DUTR

poptart wrote: »

I'm looking for some advice on behalf of my mum.

She's a housing association resident, currently living in a three bedroom three storey townhouse with gas central heating. She can barely afford the rent, utilities etc on her wage and has been looking at moving to a smaller place.

She's found a lovely one bedroom house to swap with, however it has night storage heating.

This is where she is struggling. She will be around £20 a week better off in the smaller house but is it worth it for swapping gas central heating for night storage heating? Also, once she swaps to a one bedroom place it would be impossible for her to move back into a larger property again.

We have thought about a lodger but the current house is too small with not much privacy.

I'm looking for an unbiased opinion as we both have attachments to the house.

It seems to me the question is more about storage heating vs central heating, my Mum had storage heating and they changed it to central heating over the years, she is in a single bed flat and the energy bills have reduced with the comfort and convenience improving.

mountainofdebt

Is there any reason why your mum would want a larger property in the future?

whilst a one bedroom home may seem small initially, I'm sure that the benefits would out way the fact that she won't have surplus bedrooms