Which electric heating system do tenants prefer?

Purplepenguin88

As long as your flat isn't on economy 10, and instead is on an economy 7 tariff it should be fine. The flat I rent at the moment is on an archaic economy 10 tariff (we are on the most competitive one, but it's ridiculously outdated) and it costs us a fortune.

We only have the storage heater in the living area on in the winter, and use an electric blanket in the bedroom if it's chilly. Since we got a dehumidifier we've not needed to have the dimplex in the main bedroom on at all. Our flat is only a small 2 bed, so the head from the large storage heater is more than sufficient to heat the flat most of the time.
We've personally never used the boost buttons on ours (before the dehumidifier we had a small fan heater that we could move around the flat - if we'd been away and the heating had been off or a sudden cold snap happened). Infact in all the electric only flats I've ever lived in I've never used the boost button - however housemates who havn't understood the storage heaters and enjoy twiddling buttons have).

wookie6

DaftyDuck wrote: »

Do at least briefly consider air source heat pumps. May not be appropriate in the circumstance, and cost to install is high, but it does cut running costs for heating in half or more.

wantonnoodle wrote: »

I'm another who would recommend Air Source heat pumps. My parents live in the countryside and have had over the years every type of electric and coal fired heating system. They have had an ASHP heating system for the past few years and would never go back to any other heating system. Its one of the cheapest and cleanest systems you could have, and is so cheap you can run it 24/7 without breaking the bank; in fact, that is what they do, just turning the temperature on the thermostat down when they don't need it quite so warm.

Thanks for the recommendation I had not previously looked at this option, having now read up on heat pumps they do look pretty good however I don't think they will be suitable in my case as its a third floor flat and lacks space sufficient space for an external heat pump.

wookie6

tacpot12 wrote: »

What about underfloor heating? Is there any landlord experience with it?

Fuzzyness wrote: »

yes. the house i let out has it but that is only because it was supposed to be my home and not a rental property (long story which i wont bore you with). my tenants have always enjoyed the benefit of it but i wouldnt recommend it as installing it on an existing property would be expensive and you wouldnt get the benefit of it.

I do have experience with underfloor heating as I had it installed in my own home, however again I don't believe it is a suitable option in this case.

wookie6

dannim12345 wrote: »

Hello, I've just left a flat with storage heaters. Luckily the building was pretty warm & they only were needed when the weather was pretty cold. They weren't great but I think the biggest problem is education, I knew they were storage heater and looked online and found out about economy 7 etc however the girl I moved in with hardly have a clue what they were. Leaving a manual & some basic guidance about how they work, economy 7 etc for tenants when they move in would really help.

Thanks very much for the reply, this is really useful info. I agree providing a manual / guidance to new tenants can only be a good thing.

tim123456789 wrote: »

If the costs of heating a house with SH is high, then either the tenants are using them wrongly or the house is so badly insulated that any form of heating will cost ££££££££££.


Modern SH are not going to be significantly more efficient than old ones, perhaps 10-20% improvement.


I don't know where you got the figures that direct panel heaters are 20-40% more expensive, for any given amount of heat output they are 200% more expensive (assuming that the SHs are on the correct Economy 7 tariff).


The problem with SH is that they provide "all day" heating and that the cost of keeping the house warm whilst it is empty makes them not very efficient for people who are out all day, but even so, keeping them on will cost less than just turning on a panel heater when you get home (or even an hour before if you have a smart timer) because the house will be so cold that the heater is on full blast all evening.


Do you know what the day/night time readings of the tenants bills are.


This will help us calculate if the problem is on of poor insulation and or poor use.


Finally, if you do put in a new system, you don't need to (I would go so far as to say shouldn't) put SHs in bedrooms, this makes them too warm overnight, and provided that tenants learn to keep their bedroom door closed during the day the day time heat is useless. Always put panel heaters in bedrooms.


Finally, finally, don't fall for the "modern" storage hearer con. SH that plug into a 13 amp socket.


These are not storage heaters, they are clever, and overly expensive panel heaters. The claimed costs savings are fictional.

Thanks for the informative reply. I got the figures that direct panel heaters are 20-40% more expensive than storage heaters from http://www.dimplex.co.uk/assets/Running_Costs.pdf

Unfortunately I never saw any of the tenants bills, this was just their feedback. I'll try and look at insulation also. Whats the best way to get a survey / advice on your current level of insulation and what you could do to improve it?

I'm thinking about installing Storage heaters in the Lounge, Kitchen and hallway / landing and then having direct heaters in the bedroom and bathroom.

Can anyone recommend a particular Storage Heater or direct (panel) heater they have been pleased with?

wookie6

beeg0d wrote: »

Unfortunatly im away from home for the next week so i cant give you the manufactures names. The storage heaters ive got are new and work really well, though on colder days they do loose most of their heat by around 10pm. Mine have both an input and output setting cold days input is on max and output is on 6 of 9 (if i turned it down it would proberlly stay a bit wormer later, but then the mornings would be colder. I find the convestion heaters make up for the last few hours of heat needed. I dont find it too costly (though more then gsh) and i recon with newer more efficient convestion heaters that cost would come down somewhat. Oddly enough it took me and 4 plumbers nearly a year to convince the LL he coulnt have gsh installed unless he wanted to pay £40`000 to dig up the main road and communial carpark outside.

Another benefit for you as a landlord (though as i tennant i shoulnt be giving ideas like this to LL) is if one of the heaters fails as there are convestion heaters in the other rooms you will unlikey get a mandoroty repair notice from the council as you have provided other heat source.

Just to check as this could be the souce of your previous tennants problem with costs (it took me a couple of months to realise it). If you have a twin mode emersion heater make sure the tennant knows which switch is for the main water heating (the economy 7 switch) and which is the boost (eco 7 should be on all the time, boost only when boost is really needed). When i first moved in i thought the lower element had failed as the red active light was never on and so always had the boost mode on untill 1 evening when i had to grab something from the airing cupboard and noticed the other light was on. If you dont have a twin mode emersion heater why not? and secondly make sure that is wired into the econ7 ring ruther then mains.

Thanks again for the reply, in particular the bit about the immersion heater, this could well be the cause of the problems.

PeterPanic

As has been said, heating with electric is going to cost 3.5 times the amount it costs to heat with Gas due to the difference in cost per KWH. The first property I bought in 2000 had night storage heaters (even though there was gas, kudos to the person who sold them to the previous owner!) and they were utterly useless and never gave off any heat. They got turned off permanently when the first electricity bill arrived for £500 for the quarter (in 2000!) and replaced with Gas central heating.

Not much help I am afraid, but when I am looking at property as soon as I see a night storage heater in a photo I stop looking and move onto the next one. You know they are basically a load of bricks heated at night with a heating element that are expected to store heat for the whole day?

Useless things.

richardwilson1984

PeterPanic wrote: »

As has been said, heating with electric is going to cost 3.5 times the amount it costs to heat with Gas due to the difference in cost per KWH. The first property I bought in 2000 had night storage heaters (even though there was gas, kudos to the person who sold them to the previous owner!) and they were utterly useless and never gave off any heat. They got turned off permanently when the first electricity bill arrived for £500 for the quarter (in 2000!) and replaced with Gas central heating.

Not much help I am afraid, but when I am looking at property as soon as I see a night storage heater in a photo I stop looking and move onto the next one. You know they are basically a load of bricks heated at night with a heating element that are expected to store heat for the whole day?

Useless things.

How on earth did you spend that much? If I'm right, lets say you are using a 2000W heater and paying 15p a unit that's only 90p for three hours heat a day, which is less than £7 a week. Now unless you have four or five of these and have them all on for several hours, how did you clock up such hefty fees? Leaving an electric heater on for an hour is a long time!