Best way to heat an electric-only house?

katepower

Hi all,
I have recently moved to a house that is not on the gas grid, only the electric. I only intend to be in the house for a 6 month let. I am aware that electricity is a very expensive way of heating the house, but as the house was furnished, cheap, and I had to move for work quite quickly it will have to do until end of March when I can then look for a better house.

The house is a high F EPC rating, and I have already booked for British Gas to come and do a cavity wall/loft insulation survey for free installations, landlord permitting.

I wanted to know how to heat the house in the most economical way. It is only myself living in a small two bed property - I am here four nights a week then generally away most weekends. There are storage heaters in every room but they look very old and due to this I believe not as economical as they could be. There is also an electric fire in the living room.

I wanted to know whether it would be cost effective to use two small oil radiators; one for the bedroom and one for the living area, or a halogen heater, rather than the storage heaters. As I mentioned I appreciate electricity is expensive, but at the time of relocation it was very convenient :money:

savemoney

All electric heaters are same efficiency its only the method of how it heats that various. A oil filled heater who use same amount of energy efficiency as say a halogen heater, the halogen would give immediate heat where as oil filled heater wouldn't and would take time to heat up but would give off some heat when turned off unlike halogen

katepower

Ok thankyou - does the wattage/output have any impact at all do you know?

Gloomendoom

All the watts that go in will come out as heat. More watts = more heat = bigger bill.

We use a cheap convection heater if we want a single room warm without having to heat the whole house. It's cheaper than running the gas boiler.

teddysmum

We used a Delonghi thermostatically controlled oil filled radiator, over last winter, when our boiler broke. It warmed the long living room nicely,though we did have a gas fire at one end. It provided more pleasant heat than the direct heat of a halogen heater, which we also have, besides switching off when the required temperature was reached.


The radiator is now to be used in winter, in the kitchen, as we have had the kitchen radiator removed from the system, to give more storage space.

katepower

Thankyou everyone

Ectophile

Since nobody else has mentioned it yet, do you know if you are on an Economy 7 tariff? If you are, then the storage heaters will be a lot cheaper than anything else, as they will use cheap night-rate electricity. Also if you are on E7, then daytime electricity is more expensive than usual, so running electric heaters during the day and evening will cost even more.

sk240

See another recent thread also
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5077973

Robwiz

Ectophile wrote: »

Also if you are on E7, then daytime electricity is more expensive than usual, so running electric heaters during the day and evening will cost even more.

It's always worth running your day/night numbers through a price comparison website. Some suppliers' daytime rates aren't far off the single tariff rate (e.g. for me Scottish Power is 12.65p/kWh) which isn't horrific.

jess1974

Have you considered a portable gas heater...my friend has one and she says a gas bottle lasts her all winter and is v economical x

Robwiz

jess1974 wrote: »

Have you considered a portable gas heater...my friend has one and she says a gas bottle lasts her all winter and is v economical x

A portable gas heater may be worth considering but also factor in the consequences – use a carbon monoxide alarm and ensure you have good extraction (or a dehumidifier) to remove all the water vapour arising from gas combustion – otherwise be prepared for condensation and a risk of mould.

Personally, I wouldn't have any gas appliance inside my house.