Dimplex Vs German Ceramic Core Radiators

DaveGain

MWT said:

What is actually wrong with your current storage heaters?

Are they poorly sized for your needs?

It is close to impossible to get a more efficient solution unless what you have is the wrong size and is forcing you to top up using day rate electricity.

The currant heaters are over 30 years old and completely inefficient, they draw a tremendous amount of power.  In addition to that they are programmed to have an 'afternoon boost' which I use but only a couple of energy suppliers will do the associated tariff which leaves me stuck with no choice of suppliers and they can charge me what they like

DaveGain

The Elkatherm are not night storage heaters, they are ceramic core radiators, that this the toss up. Whether to go with more efficient night storage or ceramic core radiators.  My old night storage are drawing a ridiculous amount of energy when I look at the kwH per month.  The issue is not that they are losing heat (as I have the afternoon boost) but the amount of energy the current ones are drawing (and therefore my bill is stupidly expensive for the size of house) and being stuck with one energy supplier (as no-others or maybe one other offers the tariff I am on to get the afternoon boost).  The current night storage heaters are over 3kw whereas I have now been quoted 1.6kw heaters on electric and 1.5kw or less on the Dimplex as replacements, so they new ones will obviously be cheaper right?

DaveGain

I am also thinking that obviously the night storage need to be on for 7 hours each night to get the heat required for the next day whereas I can just turn the electric on and off as required, surely that is better isn't it?

appreciate everyones comments so far

DaveGain

Also there isn't much difference in installation costs between both different types

Gerry1

DaveGain said:

MWT said:

What is actually wrong with your current storage heaters?

Are they poorly sized for your needs?

It is close to impossible to get a more efficient solution unless what you have is the wrong size and is forcing you to top up using day rate electricity.

The currant heaters are over 30 years old and completely inefficient, they draw a tremendous amount of power.  In addition to that they are programmed to have an 'afternoon boost' which I use but only a couple of energy suppliers will do the associated tariff which leaves me stuck with no choice of suppliers and they can charge me what they like

They will draw a few kilowatts (as will any NSH) but, as previously stated repeatedly, all the energy will be turned into heat.  In fact, by modern standards they are too small because the need for an afternoon boost suggests they lack the storage capacity to last into the evening.

You need to program them to omit the afternoon boost, switch to E7 and mimic the E7 overnight hours.  Better still, install E7 circuits switched by the meter if that's not already the case.  You may also need to increase the storage capacity by adding another NSH or two, or replace them with Quantums or similar.  Instead, you are considering going in completely the opposite direction by changing to radiators with minimal storage that would need to use expensive daytime rates.  That would be a catastrophically expensive mistake.

Gerry1

The NSHs won't necessarily charge for the whole seven hours.  They will top up as necessary depending on how hot they are when they start and whether you have set them to be temperate or tropical.  Your 'on demand' heaters may be only 1.5kW but they'll need to be on for far more hours per day:  as previously stated, you'll need a certain number of kWh to keep a room X degrees above the outside temperature and there's simply no getting away from that (except with a heat pump that 'robs' heat from the air or the ground).

And, just as any dodgy energy supplier can offer you a quotation of a fiver a month (only to dramatically hike it after a few months when you turn out to be using far more than a trickle), any salesman can offer you the smallest heater knowing that it will turn out to be underpowered and you'll have to come back for another one.

Remember that there's no such thing as a free lunch and that any form of electric heating will be expensive to run.

Talldave

DaveGain said:

I am also thinking that obviously the night storage need to be on for 7 hours each night to get the heat required for the next day whereas I can just turn the electric on and off as required, surely that is better isn't it?

appreciate everyones comments so far

As has been said again and again, leaving yourself with ONLY peak time electric heating is insane.  The benefit of the Quantums is that they come with a peak daytime heating facility built in.  Whilst their marketing information doesn't use buzzy phrases like "ceramic core", it's still a peak time heater.  So you could install the Quantums, disable their off-peak storage capacity and use only peak rate heating, wait a week or two, read your meters and then come back here and thank us all for the wise advice and switch to E7 night storage mode!!

DaveGain

daytime rates are currently the same as my existing off peak rate which is why I need to get off my tariff, can only do this by changing heating system

Cardew

DaveGain said:

The currant heaters are over 30 years old and completely inefficient, they draw a tremendous amount of power.  In addition to that they are programmed to have an 'afternoon boost' which I use but only a couple of energy suppliers will do the associated tariff which leaves me stuck with no choice of suppliers and they can charge me what they like

In what way are they 'completely inefficient'.?

As said previously your 30 year old heaters are as efficient as any modern storage heater in the amount of heat they store, i.e. for a given input and hence cost. Any savings will be down to the ability of modern heaters to retain more heat during the day, if you don't need that heat. If people are at home all day the savings, if any, will be marginal.

Should you decide(unwisely IMO) to have 'normal' electrical heaters, don't be fooled by thinking that the 'filling' of the radiator will make them more efficient - it won't. Just buy oil filled radiators or similar.

I assume you cannot get gas in your 3 bed house? Gas or Oil CH will be much cheaper to run and enhance the value of your property.

macman

DaveGain said:

The Elkatherm are not night storage heaters, they are ceramic core radiators, that this the toss up. Whether to go with more efficient night storage or ceramic core radiators.  My old night storage are drawing a ridiculous amount of energy when I look at the kwH per month.  The issue is not that they are losing heat (as I have the afternoon boost) but the amount of energy the current ones are drawing (and therefore my bill is stupidly expensive for the size of house) and being stuck with one energy supplier (as no-others or maybe one other offers the tariff I am on to get the afternoon boost).  The current night storage heaters are over 3kw whereas I have now been quoted 1.6kw heaters on electric and 1.5kw or less on the Dimplex as replacements, so they new ones will obviously be cheaper right?

No, because a 1.5kW heater produces half the heat of your 'inefficient' old 3kW NSH. To produce the same amount of heat will take twice as long, so will use the same amount of electricity as a heater twice as powerful. In fact, rather more, as heat loss must be factored in with the longer delivery period. 1kWh of energy is 1kWh of energy, however it is delivered.
The point about an NSH on E7 is not that it delivers more or less heat, or more or less efficiency, per kWh, but that it runs on cheap rate power that is around one third of the cost of single rate or peak rate power. You don't seem to have grasped this at all.
Your other issue is that you are on an old E10 tariff, or similar under another name. Only the legacy suppliers support these now very uncompetitive tariffs, so you need to move to a competitive E7 one instead, with a change of metering.