advise on infared please

Legacy_user

Hi, my landlord (social housing) is coming to my flat on tuesday i have been picked to trial some new heating. I will get to pick what system i want but what should i do.

All i no is i could either get new electric storage heaters with moden controls that adjust the temp and be more economical,

Or i could get the new infared heating panels installed.

So any thoughts as what i should do, i have googled the new infared panels and not really getting a answer.

Winter gone i used just under 4000 night units for the 3 month period. Will my flat be warmer with storage heaters i know how they work.

Thanks

matelodave

If you are happy with storage heaters them I'd stay with them.


Infrared heaters generally only heat you rather than the surrounding air or the fabric of the building so you'll only be warm when standing or sitting in front of them.


They would have to be switched on during the peak rate times so you'll probably have to change to a single rate tariff as well.

macman

All electric heaters are exactly the same efficiency: 100%. If you switch away from NSH's running on E7 then you can expect your heating costs to rise around 300%. You might well be warmer, but also a lot poorer.
Go for modern NSH's and keep E7

Richie-from-the-Boro

mackemps3 wrote: »

Hi, my landlord (social housing) is coming to my flat on tuesday i have been picked to trial some new heating. I will get to pick what system i want but what should i do.

All i no is i could either get new electric storage heaters with moden controls that adjust the temp and be more economical,

Or i could get the new infared heating panels installed.

So any thoughts as what i should do, i have googled the new infared panels and not really getting a answer.

Winter gone i used just under 4000 night units for the 3 month period. Will my flat be warmer with storage heaters i know how they work.

Thanks

- you give no useful information by which to judge, fortunately its no contest
- in a sentence storage heaters are at least half the cost to run compared to infra-red
- I wouldn't swap my beat up old storage heaters for a new infra-red system
- your housing association will know the infra-red costs nearly three times as much to run
- buying and fitting a system is a one-off cost
- paying for the system every day for the rest of your life is the real cost

Cardew

mackemps3 wrote: »

So any thoughts as what i should do, i have googled the new infared panels and not really getting a answer.

Just search on this forum on MSE and there are literally hundreds of posts on infrared panels.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Housing Associations know :

- infra-panel cost about £100, night store heater about £600
- installation cost for 13a infra a fraction of the cost of NSCH, because the same wiring and controller can be used
- big subsidy grants to the Housing Association for pushing 'green' especially in Scotland
- subsidy grants for Housing Associations installing NSCH are only available if you are off grid

So buying and installing infra is cheap and very very easy for you landlord, they won't care how much you pay year on year to adequately heat your home, and if you go infra and core rate pricing for room heat - how will you heat your water ? Think this through mackemps3, and the best of luck.

System

I think you are right i should get the new nsh with better controls, i will post exactly what type of heaters on tuesday.

The reason i have been chosen with 6 other people is the cost of the nsh to run i can use nearly 4000 night units in 1 3 month winter period.

Thanks

Cardew

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

Housing Associations know :

- infra-panel cost about £100,

It is worth pointing out to people, who haven't done their research, that there are firms out there who will charge the gullible many times that amount. We have reports on MSE of people paying several £thousands for infrared heaters for their house.


The salesmen for these products try to convince potential customers that their heaters have special properties that defy the laws of physics!

matelodave

Depending on your lifestyle and house type you could still use 4000units with Infra Red and that would cost you at least twice as much as you'd be using them on full price leccy. You would also be heating your hot water at the full rate as well if you go onto a single rate tariff


Hopefully better controls and more modern nsh units would reduce your consumption a bit and you'll still have your hot water heated at the lower rate. You could also use your washing machine, dryer and dish washer during the off-peak period to gain even more advantage.

Richie-from-the-Boro

All 'site' electricity resistive heating is 100% energy efficient, all the incoming electric energy is converted to heat, that is physics. It applies to infra, or NSCH, or oil filled, or convector, or fan heater etc. So if you want a room heated to 22°C will cost precisely the same amount of kW regardless of which type of heater.

- if you want to heat your living area to 22°C
- it will cost three times as many £'s for the same 22°C using 'daytime core rate' infra .. .. as it does for 'night rate' NSCH
- and, .. .. it will cost three times as many £'s for the same 60°C tank of hot water .. .. as it does for you current 'night rate' water

Most people who have very high winter NSCH costs fall into two simple categories :

(1) an EPC band of E, F or G which is a very badly insulated home - single glazed etc, about 50% of the UK housing stock is still at D or worse. Its fair to say i would expect all Local Authority and Housing Association properties to be at D or above.

(2) by far the biggest group suffering very high winter NSCH costs are those who don't know how to use NSCH properly. It crops up time after time year after year on this forum. I never cease to be amazed how may poor people are clueless on how to use NSCH properly, and how many poor people are using NDCH on the wrong, and often 'day rate' tariff.

macman

4,000kWh over a 3 month winter period is perfectly normal, if not actually quite low-and that includes water heating too.
Those same number of units using infra red on a single rate tariff will cost you as much as 12,000 units on E7!