Night storage heaters or GCH

Livinonabudget

Hi,

I have a choice of 2 flats to rent. The rent is equal and distance from work the same. One is in a small city where I feel that as a single person in a new place it will be easier to meet people and make friends. The other is in a town that’s a bit quieter (less traffic etc). 

I like both and they are roughly the same size and I will need to buy white goods for both. The major difference is the energy costs. 

Both flats have mostly external walls, only one neighbour and an EPC rating of C, though the town flat has better insulation. 

City flat is heated using night storage heaters. The current tenant tells me she pays £100 a month to heat the flat in winter, which seems high to me for a single person in a 2 bed flat. 

Town flat has gas central heating, and while I don’t know last tenant’s the energy bill, gas is cheaper than electric so I imagine it’s lower. 

I work all day so only need to heat the house in the evening, but I have a cat who I don’t want to be cold in winter. I’m wondering if it is worth going with the city flat and instead of heating using the storage heaters, using an electric radiator instead for a few hours in the evening and have an electric blanket for my cat to sleep on to try and save the winter electricity bill. 

Or should I just forget it and go with the gas central heating? 

Anyone with storage heaters who have lower energy bills who can offer some tips? 

Cardew

Welcome to the forum

Gas - no contest!

Alter_ego

Cat has a fur coat - don't worry!

Gerry1

Gas is a no-brainer.  Per kWh it's about one fifth of the cost of electricity.

But it wins twice because the NSHs will keep the flat warm as toast during the night, in the morning and during the day when you're out.  Great at breakfast time, but wasting lots of your money at the other times.  Worst of all, it'll be running out of oomph late into the evening especially when it's cold outside, so that means using expensive daytime electricity to top up.  Come back after a weekend away or holiday and it'll be cold, so more topping up.

You also have to be a weather forecaster.  If the next day is warmer than you thought, you've wasted money.  If the next day is colder than you thought, you'll be shivering or wasting money by topping up.  The latest clever NSHs aren't quite so bad because they have High Heat Retention and use a fan to blow out heat only at times when it's needed, and can be programmed for holidays.  (Think of the new ones like a vacuum flask and the old ones like a hot water bottle.)   But even new NSHs will still be much more expensive than gas and still be relatively inflexible.  You can always get an electric cat blanket or whatever.

You need to register with the existing supplier(s) and send meter readings the day you take possession. You are then free to start a switch but you'll have to pay for what you used in the meantime. If it's PAYG make sure you get a new card in your own name otherwise you could be paying off the previous occupants' debt.

Start comparing tariffs with Citizens Advice and 'Which? Switch', entering your guesstimated annual kWh usage. Just compare annual costs, always ignore all projections and savings claims: they aren't realistic because of Ofgem's daft rules. Remember that separate suppliers are often cheaper than dual fuel, so do the sums for both cases. Also have a look at the customer service ratings on Citizens Advice and the 'Add your feedback on energy supplier xxxx...' threads here on the forum: Symbio are cheap but might not be the best choice ! Neon Reef for electricity and Zog for gas might be good choices if they are near the top of the results lists.

Then remember to send monthly readings, keep your own records and check that your DD payments are keeping up with your usage, it's not All You Can Eat: if you use more than expected your DD will be increased twice, once to reflect your higher usage and again to reclaim your arrears.

Livinonabudget

Hi all, thanks for the answers. Looking at all the research it does seem like gas is the obvious choice, and if that flat were in the city as well this wouldn’t even be a question, however being new to the area many people have recommended that I live in the city over the town for a better social life. I really like both flats, but prefer the landlady of the city flat over the estate agent of the town one. But I’m not sure if having to deal with storage heaters is worth the benefits as I’m already stretching my budget without expensive energy bills. 

The storage heaters are dimplex and are at least 8/9 years old, so I don’t think they’re a newer model. 

Since I don’t need heat most of the time, I’m wondering if I can make it cheaper by using a standard tariff instead of economy 7 and heating the flat with electric radiators in the evening instead. I think especially with me being alone and the flat being over 2 floors with mostly external walls the storage heaters are just going to be really wasteful. 

I’ve lived abroad most of my adult life so am really not sure what I can expect to be paying in the U.K. as this will be the first time I’ve had to manage the bills here. What is a normal winter electricity bill? Is £100 per month reasonable or high? 

Gerry1

It'll be difficult to have much of a social life if you're always broke, and if you have to work from home because Covid-19 goes pear shaped then single rate electricity in a gas-free property would really be a pain.  GCH will mean you'll have significantly more disposable income and that will help with building up a savings pot for a rainy day and/or a deposit on a property.

BTW, make sure all immersion heater(s) are left switched off if you have gas.  Make sure the boost immersion heater (halfway up the tank) is always switched off if you do choose NSHs.

Reed_Richards

Assuming the Night Storage Heaters make use of an Economy 7 tariff (they should but check) then you can charge them with electricity that is about half (?) price compared to the day rate.  If you have them on low when you are out then turn them up in the evening it might still work out cheaper than electric radiators.  And the cat can snuggle-up next to one.  

Neil_Jones

Personally I wouldn't base the decision on what the cat wants, even though they probably think they rule the roost anyway.  A cat's natural temperature is above the human natural temperature which makes them for the most part a living heat blanket for you. 

Gas central heating is no brainer solution, the cat will be happy if it can lie in the sun in the middle of the floor somewhere.  You can get one of those over radiator cat beds for the cat, which will probably be better than an electric blanket, as if a claw damages the radiator bed, not the end of the world.  If it damages part of the electrics in the blanket it may never work again.

Re: the social life, as above if you have no money you won't have a social life, and if you have to travel further to go "clubbing" or whatever via taxi, bus, or whatever, then so be it.

Livinonabudget

That’s a valid point @Gerry1. I’m a virologist so it’s highly unlikely I’ll ever be able to work from home for longer than a few days even if everything does go back into lockdown as my job requires me to work in a lab, therefore I will almost certainly only need heating during the evenings except on weekends. 

However, being skint is not going to help matters. There is an economy 7 meter installed, but even with that the current tenant paid £100 a month in winter to stay warm. I read that they work better if you heat the whole house rather than just a single room, so trying to run just one or two probably wouldn’t help much. 

In winter is the gas bill significantly cheaper?  

Gerry1

It's a lot, lot cheaper with gas.  Don't forget the hot water, that's also cheaper than electricity (and much cheaper than a peak rate electric shower) and you won't run out of HW should Virology FC happen to stay overnight.  If the cooker is gas, so much the better.

NSHs in bedrooms aren't a great idea, especially the older box-of-bricks type without a fan (which might be too noisy).  Probably uncomfortably warm overnight and mostly wasted during the day.  Consider leaving the doors open during the day to get heat from the hallway and then use a panel or fan heater to warm the room(s) when going to bed and getting up.

If you look through the forum threads you'll see scores of threads from all-electric forumites wailing about massive bills, especially those who were conned into replacing NSHs with magic dust radiators that cost a fortune to install and are prohibitively expensive to run.  You won't find anyone saying 'If only I didn't have GCH'.

QrizB

Gerry1 said:

If you look through the forum threads you'll see scores of threads from all-electric forumites wailing about massive bills, especially those who were conned into replacing NSHs with magic dust radiators that cost a fortune to install and are prohibitively expensive to run.  You won't find anyone saying 'If only I didn't have GCH'.

My previous house (small 1970s 3-bed semi) had E7 heating & HW. I lived there for several years and learned to deal with its foibles but two of us (self & wife) were using around 6000kWh of E7 plus 3000kWh of day rate electricity per year. I think that would be around £1000pa at current rates (plus standing charge).

We moved when we had kids (to a larger 1950s 3-bed semi) with GCH. Four of us were then using around 10000kWh of gas plus 3500kWh of electricity*. Around £800pa on my current tariff (plus standing charge) despite using 1/3rd more energy.

* - this is how much electricity we were using before I had solar PV fitted, it's less now!