Panel Heater, Economy 10 Query

fatpoo

I have just purchased a 1.5KW Creda panel heater with a timer to go in my freezing cold bathroom (fairly large) bathroom as there is no heating in there at the moment. There is no GCH. Elsewhere in the flat i have storage heaters on Economy 10 I believe.

What is the best way to set this up for the most economical way of heating the bathroom for most of the day? it needs to be on between 7.30am and midnight. Do i have any options? can i set this up to use the Economy 10 heating tarrif? How much is it likely to cost to run? I dont need it like a sauna just an ambient temperature throughout the day.

Any help will be much appreciated

Cardew

Apart from using the heater during the E10 periods(if you know exactly when they are) the cost is exactly the same whenever you use the panel heater(approx 15p an hour - assuming it has no thermostat)

Without any storage capability, it doesn't make much sense to use the panel heater in the middle of the night, however cheap the electricity is.

If you own the flat and/or intend staying for a long time, it might make economic sense to get another storage heater to run on E10.

fatpoo

thanks for that Cardew, i didnt realise it would be that expensive to run; some panel heaters quote 2p per hour to run - will it still be approximately 15p per hour if i set it on the lowest temperature or will it be cheaper to get another storage heater no matter what?

Cardew

15p an hour(approx) is when the heater element is on.

The latest models have a thermostat(this switches the heater element on and off as the room reaches the required temperature)

So if the heater element was on 50% of the time, the average cost would be approx 7.5p an hour.

However 1.5kW is not a lot of power to heat a 'large freezing bathroom.'

The lower you have the heat setting the less it will cost to run. How much it costs to run depends on how warm you want the bathroom, how well the room is insulated and how cold outside.

Obviously you want to use as much of the daytime E10 period as possible.

fatpoo

so would it be correct to calculate the cost as follows:
1.5Kw x 17 hours per day x 23.83p = £6 per day?
(assuming 23.83p per kWh Economy 7 day price for the first 728 kWh's per year)

and then assuming 12.97p per kWh (Economy 7 day price after 728 kWh's have been used) will be 1.5Kw x 17 hours per day x 12.97p = £3.30 per day?

can i sensibly compare the above figures to getting another storage heater which will just use Economy 10 prices of circa 5p for 10 hours ie 50p x whatever kW rating the storage heater will be- probably 2 i have no idea, and stay warm all day?

is it possible to gage how many kW's i will use if the 1.5kW panel heater is on the lowest heat setting?