Advice required on electric central heating please

ChumpusRex

Your options are:

1. Storage heaters
2. Air-source heat pump

A heat pump is a very much more expensive option to install and maintain, and isn't much cheaper to run. They also struggle in very cold weather and require that your house is very well insulated.

The following "options" are ruinously expensive to run, and should be avoided unless you are willing to heat your house by burning fivers.

1. Central heating with radiators and an electric boiler
2. Electric panel heaters (e.g. Fischer)

There was a thread here last year, about someone who had changed an oil boiler for an electric boiler, and paid about £2000 to have his electrics upgraded in order to be able to cope with the electric central heating. He only realised his mistake when his electricity payments went up to £700 per month.

HappyMJ

ChumpusRex wrote: »

Your options are:

1. Storage heaters
2. Air-source heat pump

A heat pump is a very much more expensive option to install and maintain, and isn't much cheaper to run. They also struggle in very cold weather and require that your house is very well insulated.

The following "options" are ruinously expensive to run, and should be avoided unless you are willing to heat your house by burning fivers.

1. Central heating with radiators and an electric boiler
2. Electric panel heaters (e.g. Fischer)

There was a thread here last year, about someone who had changed an oil boiler for an electric boiler, and paid about £2000 to have his electrics upgraded in order to be able to cope with the electric central heating. He only realised his mistake when his electricity payments went up to £700 per month.

There's no way an electric panel heating system would cost £700 per month. That's £8,400 per year. On the correct tariff of a maximum of 12p per unit that's 70.000kWh which isn't correct. A gas central heating system uses not much more than 10,000kWh per year to keep the place (a 2 bedroom terrace) warm at 4p that's only £400 per year and at 3 times the price of 12p on electric it's only £1,200 for the whole year...i.e £100 per month. You've also got hot water which doesn't make a huge difference to the bill.

lstar337

HappyMJ wrote: »

There's no way an electric panel heating system would cost £700 per month. That's £8,400 per year.

Skim reading happy?

That was for a wet system with electric boiler. Easily the worst system ever imagined by man.

jamiev

Thanks for all your posts. I have cancelled the Fischer order within 14 days as reading through the posts I dont think they offer value for money at all.

I have looked at Biomass boilers/heat pumps and other options and do not think they are options (I am think salability as well)

I do not want to go for storage heaters as we only use heating for 5-6 months of the year (due to wood burner) so I dont want to pay economy 7 tarriff for the rest of the rear when not benefitting from it.

What electric heating system would someone recommend that looks good in the house and is easily controllable? I have also been considering the Electrorad radiators, your thoughts?

Cardew

jamiev wrote: »

What electric heating system would someone recommend that looks good in the house and is easily controllable?

First and foremost you must appreciate that all electric heating is 100% efficient; there are hundreds of posts on this subject.


So a £10 fan heater from Argos gives out EXACTLY the same amount of heat, for the same running costs, as any other electrical heater costing £1,500 or more.


Ditto a £30 oil filled radiator is equally as efficient(100%) in producing heat(for the same running cost) as a radiator filled with any substance known to mankind.


So you firstly will probably want to select heaters that look good and are of the correct physical size for your rooms.


Nearly all heaters have thermostats, albeit those on the cheaper heaters are not as accurate as the more expensive digital variety. i.e. they may have a tolerance of +1C and -1C so set to 20C they might heat to 21C and then cut in again at 19C


Some have timers, or you can plug them in via sockets that have timers and even remote control.


The rating of the heaters is not critical, as long as it sufficient to heat the room. e.g. if the room requires, say, 1.7kW it will not be a problem to get a 2kW heater and not cost more to run as the thermostat will control the output.


Lastly I suggest you don't ask for opinions on the various manufacturers on MSE - just note the general advice above.

Richie-from-the-Boro

jamiev wrote: »

Thanks for all your posts. I have cancelled the Fischer order within 14 days as reading through the posts I dont think they offer value for money at all.

I have looked at Biomass boilers/heat pumps and other options and do not think they are options (I am think saleability as well)

I do not want to go for storage heaters as we only use heating for 5-6 months of the year (due to wood burner) so I don't want to pay economy 7 tariff for the rest of the rear when not benefiting from it.

What electric heating system would someone recommend that looks good in the house and is easily controllable? I have also been considering the Electrorad radiators, your thoughts?

- none of what you have considered this far have offered any reasonable cost-benefit returns at all
- your dislike and disregard is fine but your considered replacement heating and tariff do not make sense
- electrorad at least do publish a [trade] price list as do Dimplex for all their range
- the DUO500N comes in at about £360 and the Electrorad at about £460 while the Fischer is as it always has been a secret

Your end answer was always going to finish at your start question having excluded E7 / E ?? tariffs, gas, wet electric, oil and overpriced examples you are left with panel heating which given your menu is the only choice that makes sense. Electrorad are x4 times a decent panel and Fischer about x6-x8 times a decent panel. I have written in the past here on MSE that if I was forced to go for a 'German' panel radiator I would choose Electrorad because at least they do publish up front price information. Most people under-spec their needs so be careful about real world output provision. For myself I'd target sub £100 per unit retail which will give sufficient heat output for a living area at 3kW per unit.

Richie-from-the-Boro

SWenergy wrote: »

how much have you looked into spam ? there is an awful lot of misconceptions about them for example people think they are loud and expensive, however although the initial cost is quite high the government's RHI scheme is designed to cover that cost. Also they are around 50% cheaper to run than an oil boiler

- 5 posts all flogging an individual company and a heat pumps
- spam elsewhere my friend

macman

OP, you said in your original post that you 'don't want to use fossil fuels', and this leads you to look at wet electric central heating, or maybe electric panel heaters.
But what fuel do you think most of our electricity in the UK is generated from? It's gas or coal...approx half from gas and about a quarter from coal. Nuclear capacity is only going to decline for at least another ten years (apart from any that we import from France), and renewables are going to grow at a far slower rate now that the subsidies have been slashed. So I don't really think you've thought this through.
The only mainstream option for you (in the absence of oil) is E7.

[Deleted User]

macman wrote: »

OP, you said in your original post that you 'don't want to use fossil fuels', and this leads you to look at wet electric central heating, or maybe electric panel heaters.
But what fuel do you think most of our electricity in the UK is generated from? It's gas or coal...approx half from gas and about a quarter from coal. Nuclear capacity is only going to decline for at least another ten years (apart from any that we import from France), and renewables are going to grow at a far slower rate now that the subsidies have been slashed. So I don't really think you've thought this through.
The only mainstream option for you (in the absence of oil) is E7.

Exactly what I said.

geoffB

can any one give the price for fischer storage heating eg living room kitchen bathroom& bedroom and are they up to what they say?