New Flat & Storage Heaters

jo1967

Looking for some general advice for a friend.

Mt 21 year old pal is buying a small one bed flat. For general info there is a hall, lounge with kitchen off, bed with bath off.

There is no gas in the area & the flat has an old elec fire & storage heaters. I found storage heaters so expensive & suggested, as did another friend, she get rid of the storage heaters & fire - buy a nice modern elec fire & some elec wall heaters which she could fit timers too (this is what I did in my first flat). She is on a TIGHT budget!

Now her dad says leave the storage heaters or you will devalue the flat - personally i would not consider a place with storage heaters unless I had funds to remove.

She is a little confused now so have you guys got advice / experience with storage heaters?

Thanks!

david29dpo

E7 storage heaters are the only practical option. The latest ones are very good. Any full price electric heating is expensive.

maninthestreet

The storage heaters should be on the lower cost, Economy 7 tariff, using off-peak electricity at night. This is always going to cheaper than full price electricity used by free-standing or wall-mounted heaters.
Has your pal asked the vendor how much the electricity bills have been for the last 4 quarters?

lynzpower

I dont know.the flat I sold had electric storage heaters ( brand new tho mind you ) and they were superb. Really very nifty indeed and cheap as chips to run, I was really chuffed with them, they really kick it out too , so i only needed to stick them on for half hour comeing home from work and all warm for the rest of the evening.

My whole flat ( 2 bed) was run off lecky only and my bill seldom breached 35 a month and that was with ecotricity so not the cheapest provider on the block.

sm9ai

Storage heaters are extremely expensive compared to Gas and people look to avoid them when buying/renting.

I would personally look for another flat that does have Gas, there is no shortage of flats in this country.

Edale

sm9ai wrote: »

Storage heaters are extremely expensive compared to Gas and people look to avoid them when buying/renting.

I would personally look for another flat that does have Gas, there is no shortage of flats in this country.

What do you base this comment on? I have just moved out of a large flat that had 13 storage heaters running on economy 7. They were very effective and not expensive to run. It is important to find an electricity supplier with a very low night rate. I have just checked on British Gas website and 1Kwh of gas currently costs 2.21p on their cheapest tarrif whereas 1Kwh low rate electricity costs from 2.27p depending on region. Like anything storage heaters have their pros and cons but the statement made is not helpful and if anything is untrue.

BlondeHeadOn

I'm with Lynzpower on the storage heaters - I lived for 11 years in a maisonette with just storage heaters for heating and they were brilliant - and dead cheap to run. There was no gas to the flat so I didn't have the choice of central heating, but I never missed it. And these were the old-style storage heaters not the modern ones, but they were on economy 7 tarif.

Why doesn't your friend wait until she has moved in tried them before you advise her to throw them out - she doesn't need to decide yet, and she may find that the existing heaters meet her needs at least in the short term. Especially if she is on a tight budget, I'd wait and see before spending any money!

vivatifosi

As the other posters have said, a lot of people have a poor opinion of storage heating based on misinformation or experiences with older systems.

I have 13 year old storage heaters that were installed when my house was first built and my heating is pretty cheap. I live in a 3 bedroom semi and my electricity bill is about £800 per year with no other heat or power costs. Where I live we have Economy 10. Although my storage heaters aren't thermostatically controlled, I have worked out what settings to put them on according to what the weather is like (eg when it falls below zero, I set to 6, 1-5 degrees = 5, 6-10 degrees = 3-4, etc) and check this against my thermostat to make sure that the indoor temperature doesn't go above 22-23 degrees or below 20. Its a bit more of an effort than with thermostatically controlled rads but it works for me.

This works out cheaper than my previous combined power bills (I moved a year ago).

I telephoned the manufacturer of my storage heaters who told me it wasn't worth the cost of upgrading as the models that were fitted in my home were state of the art at the time and haven't changed much.

There are however storage heaters, and storage heaters. So I would check with the manufacturer whether the ones your friend has are the most efficient models.

irnbru_2

lynzpower wrote: »

so i only needed to stick them on for half hour comeing home from work and all warm for the rest of the evening.

Are you sure you're talking about storage heaters and not wall panel heaters?

Most storage heaters require the 7hr charge on E7 to maintain heat throughout the day.

The OP's friend should check their tariff to ensure they're on an E7 one.

Storage heaters are fine if they are the correct size for a room.

jo1967

sm9ai wrote: »

Storage heaters are extremely expensive compared to Gas and people look to avoid them when buying/renting.

I would personally look for another flat that does have Gas, there is no shortage of flats in this country.

I agree - there are plenty flats around - but its the cost of the flats thats the killer,she is 21 & buying alone, her flat is a little bargain & will make her an eventual profit with updating.

Thanks for all your comments, knew we could get some useful info. It seems some research needs to be done (maybe keep the heaters for a year & see how they cost out) but I will definately suggest the E7 - a good search for cheap elec. The flat has been rented & I dont think the vendor has ever lived in it so checking prev bills isnt an option (its empty now).

Thanks again! :T

nick22abdn

Another heating option depending on budget is elecltic central heating. Very cost effective to run and not too much to install. Check out the Haetrae Sadie website. They use standard radiators and TRV's, and the unit is very small. You only need to run a 6mm cable and cold water feed to it and plumb in radiators as normal. Materials cost would be about£500 plus plumbers if she cant do it herself. Is likely to add a large amount onto the resale value as, regardless of reality, storage heaters are viewed by potential buyers as bulky, outdated and costly to run