Just moved, have air source heat pump for water only, electric panel heaters - help?

merrylegs61

Small 1 bed flat. Has ventilation system which says must be left on 24/7, apparently sucks out stale air but keeps heat, solar panels on roof which heat hot water, and tiny electric panel heaters in each room, switched on individually. Flat built within last 2 years and supposed to be super insulated, economic etc. No idea how to get the best out of it and given previous property massive electric bills, keen to manage from the off. Any hints etc much appreciated. Thank you. 

Gerry1

Panel heaters use daytime electricity, so room heating will be expensive.  Your solar panels won't be much use in the winter, so you'll need to run the immersion heater for hot water.  Start saving up to pay those big bills !

Are you sure you don't have a heat pump?

merrylegs61

Definitely not. House pack is pretty clear. The panel heaters are tiny, to be fair. But still, dreading the bills!

tacpot12

You could check the KW ratings on the heaters and multiply this by 2190 (the number of hours in a quarter of a year) and the price per KWh, this will tell you what you worst electric bill you might receive if you had the heaters on 24 hrs a day. Calculating this might reassure you that you can afford to have the heaters on all the time, or at least have them come on early enough to warm the property before you get up in the mornings and before you come home from work? 

Do the heaters have timers and/or thermostats? 

I'm interested to know what the total rating of all the heaters in the flat is - do you mind posting this?

Efficient properties don't need much heat input. If you have a heat recovery ventilation system, which is sounds like you do, you will need even less input. It is worth getting a couple of thermostats for your flat so that you can see the actual temperature in the flat. Sometimes your mind can play tricks on you as to how hot or cold a room really is. 

Only time will tell if there are enough solar panels to heat the amount of water in the tank on a cold and cloudy winters day. 

merrylegs61

By rating of the heaters, do you mean max Kw for each? None have timers - all have on/off switch. Each has its own thermostat. Water tank so far, produces piping hot water. It has a timer/clock. Bumf suggests leaving on 24/7 or minimum 8 hours. What is running/heating that? I mean, of on 24/7, presumably not the roof panels in the dark?! Seems like black magic to me. God, I'd kill for a combi boiler. 

tacpot12

Yes, max Kw for each heater. Are all the heaters fed from a single dedicated circuit breaker in the consumer unit? The lack of timers might be easy to overcome by asking an electrician to add a contractor to the consumer unit and fitting a central time controller in the flat to operate the contactor. This would turn all the heaters on and off at times you would actually be occupying the flat. The fact that the heaters have thermostats is good news as you have direct control of the temperature in each room. This is better than most central heating systems! 

Good news about the water tank. It seems like the solar panels are large enough so far. I wouldn't mess with the water heating controls if it is working well.

merrylegs61

Recommend any good suppliers?

theoretica

With a new property I expect you have a smart meter, which would make it relatively easy to keep an eye on spending and work out how much running the heaters etc costs.  Look at your usage for a week (or a day first if you are impatient) and multiply up to the year to see what you can expect.

merrylegs61

No smart meter that I can see. Though plenty of switches and labels in cupboards I have no clue about.