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Electric boiler vs new storage heaters
Hi all👋
We have a 2 bed house with 2 very old storage heaters (lounge and hallway) and we use 3 (2x bedrooms and 1 in lounge) oil filled heaters on the colder days.
The discussion has started again about what we could do to make things better. We had an electrician here the other day (doing a separate job) who suggested an electric boiler system but I have no idea what the running cost will be. I don't know if it's something we should consider or whether it would be better to upgrade our old storage heaters to something more modern.
Please help, I feel like if we don't make a decision soon we never will 😩
We have a 2 bed house with 2 very old storage heaters (lounge and hallway) and we use 3 (2x bedrooms and 1 in lounge) oil filled heaters on the colder days.
The discussion has started again about what we could do to make things better. We had an electrician here the other day (doing a separate job) who suggested an electric boiler system but I have no idea what the running cost will be. I don't know if it's something we should consider or whether it would be better to upgrade our old storage heaters to something more modern.
Please help, I feel like if we don't make a decision soon we never will 😩
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Comments
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What's wrong with the storage heaters - thermal links are easy to replace.
Avoid Electric Boilers and panel heaters (especially the magic dust ones) - they cost a fortune to run.Never pay on an estimated bill. Always read and understand your bill0 -
Robin9 said:What's wrong with the storage heaters - thermal links are easy to replace.
Avoid Electric Boilers and panel heaters (especially the magic dust ones) - they cost a fortune to run.
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Electric boilers are probably the most expensive way to heat a place, with electric panel heaters/radiators (whatever exotic unguents they've got in them) coming a close second as they use peak rate electricity when they are operating.
Replacing your existing storage heaters probably wont save much in the way of energy costs over the existing ones although they are a bit more controllable, are a bit prettier but quite expensive
TBH the only way to reduce your energy cost is by installing mains gas, oil or a heat pump driven central heating. All of which involve a high capital outlay and significant disruption.Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large numbers0 -
Make, model and size of your storage rads please..Never pay on an estimated bill. Always read and understand your bill0
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matelodave said:Electric boilers are probably the most expensive way to heat a place, with electric panel heaters/radiators (whatever exotic unguents they've got in them) coming a close second as they use peak rate electricity when they are operating.
Replacing your existing storage heaters probably wont save much in the way of energy costs over the existing ones although they are a bit more controllable, are a bit prettier but quite expensive
TBH the only way to reduce your energy cost is by installing mains gas, oil or a heat pump driven central heating. All of which involve a high capital outlay and significant disruption.0 -
Hi N_Pars.
A few things you might consider
Have an electrician (probably not the one who advised to get an electric boiler!) check your NSHs to make sure none of the heating elements has failed, which would reduce the amount of heat they store. Elements are quite cheap to buy for older NSHs.
Consider supplementing your existing NSHs with a modern high heat retention NSH in the sitting room. These retain most of their stored heat by the evening if not used during the day. Therefore that heat will be available to use if the older NSHs run out of heat in the evening, saving you from using very expensive peak rate electricty for fill-in heating with the panel heaters.
You could replace all your NSHs for new, but really the older NSHs work well during the day if you are at home giving radiant heat, or giving background heat (with the output control shut) if you are out. Whereas the output from modern NSHs is blown warm air which might not be as comfortable. Overall, just adding one new modern NSH would probably be the most cost-effective measure in the longer term.1 -
coffeehound said:Hi N_Pars.
A few things you might consider
Have an electrician (probably not the one who advised to get an electric boiler!) check your NSHs to make sure none of the heating elements have failed, which would reduce the amount of heat they store. Elements are quite cheap to buy for older NSHs.
Consider supplementing your existing NSHs with a modern high heat retention NSH in the sitting room. These retain most of their stored heat by the evening if not used during the day. Therefore that heat will be available to use if the older NSHs run out of heat in the evening, saving you from using very expensive peak rate electricty for fill-in heating with the panel heaters.
You could replace all your NSHs for new, but really the older NSHs work well during the day if you are at home giving radiant heat, or giving background heat (with the output control shut) if you are out. Whereas the output from modern NSHs is blown warm air which might not be as comfortable. Overall, just adding one new modern NSH would probably be the most cost-effective measure in the longer term.
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You can easily check yourself for a failed heating element. When it's chilly and after the E7 cheap rate has started, switch off everything except for one storage heater. Turn its input control to maximum then look at your IHD if you have a smart meter.The Dimplex XMS718N has four 840W elements so you should expect to see the instantaneous consumption at about 3360W. If one element has failed it'll be 2520W, and 1680W if two have failed.If you have a traditional meter, look at the LED marked 1000 Imp/kWh or similar and count the number of flashes (Impulses) per minute. If the LED is 1000 Imp/kWh then 56 flashes/min corresponds to all four elements working, 42 suggests one has failed and 28 that two have failed, otherwise it's pro rata.The test even works with spinning disk meters, just count the revolutions and note how many correspond to 1kWh.3
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Gerry1 said:You can easily check yourself for a failed heating element. When it's chilly and after the E7 cheap rate has started, switch off everything except for one storage heater. Turn its input control to maximum then look at your IHD if you have a smart meter.The Dimplex XMS718N has four 840W elements so you should expect to see the instantaneous consumption at about 3360W. If one element has failed it'll be 2520W, and 1680W if two have failed.If you have a traditional meter, look at the LED marked 1000 Imp/kWh or similar and count the number of flashes (Impulses) per minute. If the LED is 1000 Imp/kWh then 56 flashes/min corresponds to all four elements working, 42 suggests one has failed and 28 that two have failed, otherwise it's pro rata.The test even works with spinning disk meters, just count the revolutions and note how many correspond to 1kWh.0
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