Which storage heaters & economy 7 or thtc

cazum

Hey folks

Energy question

Just bought our first house woohoo.... anyway slight issue it's got thtc meter upon phoning sse I have been informed the rates are
19p pkwh normal
9p pkwh on heating and water
24p per day standing charge

330am till 630am
1145 am till 1345pm
1945 till 2145pm
These are the times my heating rate will be active
Seems bloody expensive at to that sse can't speak to me till 6th of October about the meter as it's exotic....

I hear scottish power do a similar tariff but nobody had called me back with more info

Basically what am wondering is the thtc any good or should I switch to e7 which I can get for
11p pkwh rate 1
6p pkwh night rate
54p per day standing charge


Seems to be e7 is a no brained but wanna double check with people that know


Heating question

The heaters are storage heaters am looking to replace them myself

Looking at

Dimplex quantum storage
Or
Elnur ecombi

Or is there something else I should consider

What would you recommend out of them both both seem pretty similar but the elnur range seems about 100 cheaper a radiator

Will be only looking to heat property 6am till 8am and 6pm till 10pm mon to friday so looking for a storage heater that will actually work unlike the old ones in here

Cheers for any help

coffeehound

Congrats on your new home

If you want to save money, you could look into repairing your exisiting storage heaters. The parts should still be available and they are pretty simple in construction so not too hard to fix.

With those providing a minimum background heating you could then supplement with regular electric heaters since much of your required heating time coincides with the cheaper rate.

Or go the Economy7 route..

CashStrapped

Congratulations on your purchase.

1) The first thing you need to do is ensure you create an account with the existing supplier (the one already supplying electric/gas to the property). I assume you have done this.

2) It looks like you are on an E10 tariff (multiple cheap periods) as opposed to E7 (night cheap period).

3) As there are far less E10 tariffs around, they are usually less competitive than E7. So a switch to E7 would make sense.. You should be able to do this via your existing supplier, or if they are not being forthcoming, switch to another supplier who is. EDF are usually very good with meter changes etc. I would always suggest doing a comparison based on your annual KWH use just to be sure what tariff meets your needs.

4) Why do you want to swap out your existing storage heaters...for new storage heaters. Storage heaters are simple devices, basically heaters with dense bricks inside. If the current ones work, apart from a bit of extra controls it may not be a worthwhile exchange. What do you mean when you say they do not work?

5) What type of property is it? As it is your own house, you may want to consider keeping the existing storage heaters and put the money you would have spent into installing Gas Central Heating in the future. This may make the property more attractive if you ever come to sell. I would only suggest this if it is a 2/3 bed semi. If it is a small flat, stick to your original plan perhaps. But if the current storage heaters work fine, there may be little point in replacing them. Many people who are used to central heating assume their storage heaters do not work properly when they first come to use them. This is only because they are not used to operating them.

footyguy

cazum wrote: »

Hey folks

Energy question

Just bought our first house woohoo.... anyway slight issue it's got thtc meter upon phoning sse I have been informed the rates are
19p pkwh normal
9p pkwh on heating and water
24p per day standing charge

330am till 630am
1145 am till 1345pm
1945 till 2145pm
These are the times my heating rate will be active
Seems bloody expensive at to that sse can't speak to me till 6th of October about the meter as it's exotic....

I hear scottish power do a similar tariff but nobody had called me back with more info

Basically what am wondering is the thtc any good or should I switch to e7 which I can get for
11p pkwh rate 1
6p pkwh night rate
54p per day standing charge


Seems to be e7 is a no brained but wanna double check with people that know


Heating question

The heaters are storage heaters am looking to replace them myself

Looking at

Dimplex quantum storage
Or
Elnur ecombi

Or is there something else I should consider

What would you recommend out of them both both seem pretty similar but the elnur range seems about 100 cheaper a radiator

Will be only looking to heat property 6am till 8am and 6pm till 10pm mon to friday so looking for a storage heater that will actually work unlike the old ones in here

Cheers for any help

Do not attempt to switch supplier with your existing metering. Attempts to do so invariably end in tears,
Hopefully your existing supplier will tell you (if asked) that there is no choice of tariff they offer with your existing metering

Probably best to seek professional advice if you really are keen to get things changed - you'll need it.

CashStrapped

footyguy wrote: »

Do not attempt to switch supplier with your existing metering.

Ahh - is this one of those non-standard (I missed the word exotic) meter set-ups?

In that case.....I agree with footy, do not switch until you have clarity on your set-up. You many need an electrician to look at your side of the set-up too.

cazum

Thanks for the responses folks

1. There is no gas supply in the area so that's not an option

2. There are only 2 storage heaters in the property 4bed detached...... both heaters are different makes

3. I was looking to install new storage heating throughout the property hence asking for advice on which makes ect....

4. On the meter stuff I will speak to sse about swapping out the existing thtc meter to a economy 7 meter then I will have more choice if that's what's best option I just feel sse are taking the pics with the costings on the thtc tariff

CashStrapped

Dimplex are an establish and reliable brand going back decades in storage heaters. Creda (another brand) is also Dimplex. Quite often you get flats with different branded storage heaters, but quite often are the same company.

The Quantum will be the most expensive with automatic adaptive controls. You will pay a premium for these. They also have ones with simpler automatic controls and then your standard manual variety.

Have a look at their website for the range. But you don't have to buy direct from them, you can get them cheaper elsewhere.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Quantum & Elnur ecombi

Are much the same, both need a 13a day feed and a 20a night feed. The capacity to link to each other and other inputs being the distinctive difference. Unless you can afford the whole Quantum setup including water the Elnur will do the same for less up front purchase cost.

THTC tariff

As footy says its a hangman's tariff, metering and wiring arrangement. You are stuck with it unless you are prepared for an electricians cost of moving to E7. This should be a consideration, keep your existing tins and invest you money this year in wiring for E7 then get the competitive benefit of 5.2p per night unit on SP's Help Beat Cancer Fixed Price Energy January 2018 Online [or any other].

NSCH generally

Next year go ahead with any new investment in new night store heaters having spent tasted one winter in your new home, and learned how to use NSCH. There will be very little wrong with your existing heaters than can't be fixed for little money, they can be repainted for about a £5 each with paint widely available form Screwfix. You buy NSCH and switch them on, leave them alone for 80 years and they just work maintenance free. All heating installed is always under-specified. That's particularly the case for NSCH. If 2x 3.4kW always has more then enough of the 5.2p cheap heat keeps you warm all 365/24 in all years and regions of the UK then you are lucky - most people suffer from under specified storage of the cheap stuff which makes your expensive day rate switch on to compensate. Your wiser investment would be to add more storage [0.85@£146.00/1.7@£190.00/2.55@£258.50/ or 3.4@£322.50] and be slightly over supplied.

Best of luck - questions - ask !

cazum

E7 switch

Currently the existing thtc heating and water are on their own circuits. Which go back to the fused board surely it's just a case of a swap out of meter and linking the fuse boards?.

We may just add more heaters and buy them one at a time so doing dimplex might be best idea,

The water tank is on the list as I would prefer an on demand system instead of constantly heating water I don't need

Just trying to be as energy efficient as possible due to electrical heating

coffeehound

cazum wrote: »

The water tank is on the list as I would prefer an on demand system instead of constantly heating water I don't need

E7 heated water is efficient if you have a modern well-insulated cylinder. If you don't use the hot water one day, it keeps hot all day and then uses less electricity to reheat the next night.

Richie-from-the-Boro

cazum wrote: »

E7 switch

Currently the existing thtc heating and water are on their own circuits. Which go back to the fused board surely it's just a case of a swap out of meter and linking the fuse boards?.

We may just add more heaters and buy them one at a time so doing dimplex might be best idea,

The water tank is on the list as I would prefer an on demand system instead of constantly heating water I don't need

Just trying to be as energy efficient as possible due to electrical heating

Your view on 'on demand' water makes very little economic sense my friend. You have a 150 litres of cheap on demand above 60°C water available [legionella] and you want to pay to change it. Your PartL domestic standard direct cylinder is already insulated to double the normal standard and your heat transfer loss over a 24 hour period is so low compared to the price per kWh of electricity. None of that heat is wasted, any fractional leeching from the water jacket transfers into the dwelling. Yes refurbing existing heaters is DIY, cheap, looks good. Changing an old small 2kW for a bigger 4kW is DIY.

Wiring, CU's and circuits IMO should be a sparkys job. The tariff and meter change facilitates the final move to E7 and is probably best undertaken in the summer. Many crap 1950's spinning meters, and CU's were still being installed instead of modern modular CU's. Most [but not all] responders in this forum have E7, and simple AMPY type meters, consumer units that deliver all cheap rate leccy to all circuits - its not rocket science, the meter does the switching.

If you read my back threads you will find I've been a solid supporter of Dimplex rather than alternatives since day one, but never evangelic and pushy, my usual line is if you can go the extra mile go Quantum ........ but make sure everything has a cost benefit. Example 20% more heat store than required, never allow the 13a expensive 'radiative' supplementary element to become the norm. Don't worry about your assumed water waste, the water costs of dismantling it will hardly pay for itself in [STRIKE]10 years[/STRIKE]100 years. If you are determined, just switch the water heating controller off altogether, but don't switch it on again after a year and use the contents for cooking or even washing without a good boil and flush out.

Best of luck !