thinking of installing water filled electric radiators, anyone have experience?

Cardew

ChumpusRex wrote: »

The wet heating is expensive to install and expensive to maintain (needs regular servicing, power flushing, corrosion inhibitor, etc.)

It has poor responsiveness, because only a single heating element has to heat all the radiators, so they take a long time to come up to temperature. A gas boiler has 3-4x the power, so will get the radiators up to temperature in 5-10 minutes. It'll take at least an hour to get the radiators up to temperature in a wet electric system.

My understanding is that the OP is not considering a wet electric system - i.e. a central heating system with an electric boiler, pipes etc.

This is a quote from his opening post:

I was doing some research and was told that water filled electric heaters may be a great alternative to gas, are very cost effective to run! just need to plug them in to the wall socket, hang them on the wall and that's it.

i.e. they are simply panel type heaters filled with water instead of the more normal oil/clay(or secret magic ingredient;)_

All for a mere £3,000!!

yuwaret

Thanks to all for their responses

It is not a full wet system I am planning on and I have an immersion heater taking care of the hot water.

Here is what the company said:

"Survey completed, the chap did a full floor plan highlighting the positions of the radiators and controllers.
There would be two controllers, one in bedroom 1 that controls the radiators in the 3 bedrooms and one in the
lounge that controls the kitchen, hall and lounge. You set the overall temperature with them but you can control individual rooms
with the controls at the side of the heaters which saves money"

They maintain they are cost effective to run, he was very clear on that score! but maybe he is comparing the running costs to other electric alternatives as opposed to gas. They may not be ideal for me (since I have gas) but they do look impressive and could be a great solution to those who can't have gas.

From reading the stats, it looks like they would be even better on economy 7 or 10 but unfortunately my property doesn't have either so looks like the gas would definitely be better for the tenant.

Here is their list of benefits to tenants/home buyers according to their paperwork:

1 Controllability
Each radiator can be controlled by the times they come on and off and/or room temperature. This means users have complete control over their heating and their heating bills.
2 Ease of Use
The radiators and controls are very simple to use, controlled by just two buttons. The time is also automatically set from a transmitter so you don’t have to worry about the clock being wrong, even when they change for GMT and BST.
3. Quick to Heat-Up
As the radiators heat up within 10 minutes, tenants do not have to have heating on just in case it gets cooler. This reduces costs for tenants.
4. Healthier Heat
Heat Electric radiators provide heat in two ways; convected and radiant heat. This means that the heating does not dry the air like panel heaters which is better for young families and the elderly.
5. Cost Savings
Numerous users of Heat Electric radiators report that the controllability of the radiators sees them save money on their fuel bills compared to storage heaters as they only used them when they needed to. When used with the low cost Economy 10
tariff the cost savings are even greater.
6. Economy 10 Tariff
Heat Electric radiators are great with any energy tariff and ideal for Economy 10 (an updated and improved version of Economy 7). Economy 10 gives cheaper electricity three times per day on all electricity used, not just for storage heaters. This leads to
even greater cost savings.
7. Efficiency
Heat Electric radiators are 100% efficient – all the electricity consumed gets turned into useful heat. When a room reaches the temperature you have set, the radiators stop drawing electricity to reduce wastage and reduce costs. If the room
temperature then drops, the radiators will switch back on automatically.
8. No Maintenance Required
The radiators are fully sealed units and do not require bleeding, topping-up, servicing or any other maintenance.
9. Aesthetically Pleasing
There are no exposed pipes and the radiators look like normal gas central heating
radiators.
10. No Annual Gas Inspections & No Annual Gas Maintenance Contract
Unlike Gas, Heat Electric radiators will not require an annual safety inspection. Also, there is no need for a costly Gas servicing contract. In the unlikely event of a problem with a Heat Electric radiator, the remainder of the house is still heated,
unlike problems with Gas Central Heating.

I have gone through their website and can't see anything specific on running costs but there is a bit on how they work:

Heat Electric radiators contain their own miniature pump which
circulates the water inside the radiator and over a heat exchanger
which heats the water. The electric radiator then emits a combination of radiant and convected heat ensuring the whole room is heated easily and efficiently.

amiehall

There are basically no benefits of the new heaters you're suggesting over the £50 panels you've got installed at the moment. They have identical running costs.

If you must go with electric heating, I strongly suggest that you get some storage heaters which can take advantage of overnight E7 electricity units at a third of the price. E10 is MUCH more expensive and there's very limited opportunities to switch supplier.

I would strongly suggest you save up for a gas system. £3000 on these heaters would be money down the drain.

matelodave

Economy 10 isn't available everywhere so you'd need to find out if you could get it. E10 gives you your overnight cheaper tariff similar to E7 and usually an extra three hours of cheaper electricity during the afternoon. However the costs for the peak tariff can be very expensive - have a look at a few comparison sites to get an idea of the costs. Generally you can't get an E10 tariff on a comparison site so you'll have to see which supplier (if any) does it for your postcode and go direct to their site to get a cost.
Most people need to heat their houses when they are sitting around during the day and in the evening, that's when E7 tariffs are most expensive. E10 tends to be even more expensive for peak rate consumption.
E7 & E10 tariffs are really only any good if you've got storage heaters and can heat your hot water at night during the off-peak times. They work out to be much more expensive if you can't optimise your consumption towards the off peak times
.
It doesn't really make much difference how controllable they are. If a room needs a 2kw heater to keep it warm then a £9.95 fan heater with a £5 time switch will provide that 2kw and so will a £20 oil filled rad from B&Q. A 2kw super-duper everso expensive radiator with extra lights, bells, whistles & sirens will still produce just 2kw and cost exactly the same to run it.


I can see that you are being swayed by the very persuasive snake oil salesman but they just ain't worth it

Richie-from-the-Boro

yuwaret, the same site offers 2kW panel heaters for £39.95 + VAT. The same power output and a slightly lower consumption per hour and higher efficiency because there's no pump. If you want to pay x10 times the price for the same outcome its you business. Please read the 10 bullet points [in #13] you posted above, read it out loud, read it again, what does it say ?

It says the 10 bullet points apply to all electric heating, all electric resistance heat is 100% efficient, except in this case, the loss as a result of the cost of the pump required to move water. Your chosen option the £400 unit cost is the same output as the £40 unit cost. Don't you see that ?

aleph_0

yuwaret, the thing to remember is a new gas boiler should be around 90% efficient, using gas which is about 3 times cheaper per kWh than electricity. Even if you use Economy 7, the off-peak price for electricity is roughly twice the price of gas.

So, the fact electric panels are "100% efficient" isn't a huge selling point. All that's happened is the loss of energy has already occurred at the power plant/in transmission, which is why electricity is more expensive.

What this all means, is that if a house has gas, it's probably worthwhile using it. If it doesn't, then you consider electric-based solutions.

But, if I was going to heat a house with electric, I wouldn't use the system you're talking about. I would use standard storage heaters on E7. The only advantage of the system you're talking about is that it might look like a gas system to a visitor. But I doubt the appeal to buyers/tenants are the aesthetic of gas heating, it's the cheap heat that they want!

The system also boasts around the ability to control/programme each radiator individually. But this is due to need, and isn't really a fancy feature - electricity is expensive, so one has to be more careful about when/where each bit of the house is heated.

With gas, because it's cheaper, one doesn't need to worry about this as much. But, if you are worried about this, you could buy some fancy smart theromstat/smart TRVs (but I recommend you stick with standard TRVs/theromstat, anything more is a luxury).

In short - gas is cheap, you really should stick with gas. But if you didn't have gas, the system you're describing would be very low down the list.