Combi Boiler for Electric Only Flat

coffeehound

@tsears:  What heaters are installed now?

MWT

tsears said:

I believe the electric heaters are quite new as the vendor mentioned they have just been put in.

Can you check the make/model of those heaters?
A lot of people were conned into replacing good working night storage heaters for so called ‘more efficient’ heaters that were a much worse solution.

tsears

Unfortunately, I'm not sure what heaters are currently installed. I'll try and find out.
Looking at photos on Rightmove they are slim black, wall mounted panels if that helps at all!

MWT

tsears said:

Unfortunately, I'm not sure what heaters are currently installed. I'll try and find out.
Looking at photos on Rightmove they are slim black, wall mounted panels if that helps at all!

That nudges it towards 'bad' not 'good'.

Sounds like simple panel heaters in which case when you move in find the cheapest single rate electricity tariff you can as it is unlikely you'll be able to make use of E7 night rates enough to compensate for running panel heaters at the increased day rate.

tim_p

tsears said:

I'd normally go for flat with gas as well, but this is the probably the most I can afford.

Whilst I’m sure you’re right, by not factoring in the cost of the electricity you may end up paying more overall than you would if you’d upped the rent budget to get a place with gas. 

Mister_G

tim_p said:

tsears said:

I'd normally go for flat with gas as well, but this is the probably the most I can afford.

Whilst I’m sure you’re right, by not factoring in the cost of the electricity you may end up paying more overall than you would if you’d upped the rent budget to get a place with gas. 

But the OP is purchasing.

tim_p

Mister_G said:

tim_p said:

tsears said:

I'd normally go for flat with gas as well, but this is the probably the most I can afford.

Whilst I’m sure you’re right, by not factoring in the cost of the electricity you may end up paying more overall than you would if you’d upped the rent budget to get a place with gas. 

But the OP is purchasing.

Hadn’t spotted that, thanks. Still needed to have factored in the cost of electricity over the alternatives though. Could make the difference between being affordable and not. 

mwarby

Not seen it mentioned yet, but an instant hot water heater providing volumes equivalent to a gas combo boiler would be 20-30KW would be some 80-120 amps, this is more than most electricity supplies can take.

Its possible that a heat pump would cut that demand down, but think they are generally based in a hot water store.

Now I have lived in a couple of electric only places, while storage heaters aren’t ideal, a normal immersion heater overnight worked fine

matelodave

Electric "combi" boilers aren't like gas combi's. They are flow boilers together with a hot water tank to enable a decent flow of hot water, some of them will have an inbuilt tank and others just heat a hot water tank when they aren't providing space heating.  Consider the flow hot water you can get out of a 10kw shower unit, it's not a lot, especially if you want to fill a bath. Possibly enough to to fill a basin or sink so might be acceptable in a small studio flat with a shower but not much good for a family.

Regarding heating water with a heat pump, this also needs a hot water tank with a high heat output coil to store the heated water. They need a high flow rate through them and so couldn't raise the water temperature quick enough to be practical as a flow boiler.

tsears

Before posting on here, I had messaged a couple of local plumbers to get some advise and idea on costing. They said it would be cheaper to run as its running on-demand, but now after reading these comments I just have a feeling they were trying to get the work