Most economical form of electric heating

spiritus

My friend lives in a small 1 bed flat and was shocked with his winter bills last year (one month was £ 180!!) though I should add he is retired so is at home most of the day.

He currently has 3 storage heaters which are reasonably old but in working condition.

Gas is not an option as the estate will only allow electricity (common practise I think).

Am I right in thinking that his options are fairly limited in trying to get his heating bills down?

I always thought storage heaters were the gold standard when it came to electric heating. Fan heaters, panel heater, oil filled heaters all draw electricity at more expensive tariff rates.

He's looked at replacing the old storage heaters with new ones but the cost is approx £ 3k and he's not convinced this will actually save him much money (if any). Also, the newer storage heaters are less powerful i.e. lowe KW output so would use less power but also would output less heat.

Anyone have any ideas what his best options may be?

coffeehound

A big problem with economy7 can be ensuring that everything is properly set up to charge/heat up during the off-peak 7 hours. 

Do you know if his meter controls when the heaters and hot water heat up, or is it relying on timers, or perhaps even instant water heaters?

spiritus

coffeehound said:

A big problem with economy7 can be ensuring that everything is properly set up to charge/heat up during the off-peak 7 hours. 

Do you know if his meter controls when the heaters and hot water heat up, or is it relying on timers, or perhaps even instant water heaters?

I'm not entirely sure. I think his heaters have timers on them

Gerry1

Modern NSHs are slightly cheaper to run because they are better insulated and don't waste so much heat in the middle of the night when it's not needed.  However, the payback period may be quite lengthy so doing nothing may be the best option.  There's no gold standard with electric heating, only the least worst.

Far more important to make sure that:-

• he's on a competitive Economy 7 tariff (difficult these days !)
• the storage heater circuits are switched by the meter
• the heat output control is set to minimum when going to bed and only increased if the afternoon or evening becomes chilly
• the immersion heater is switched by the meter
• if there's an upper immersion heater on a 24 hour circuit (possibly labelled Boost) that it's left permanently off
• plug-in room heating is never used (apart from very limited use in bedrooms when getting up and going to bed)
• meter readings are sent every month and statements checked

spiritus

So storage heaters are the best of the worst?

matelodave

Just about

Gerry1

spiritus said:

So storage heaters are the best of the worst?

Least worst of the worst !

Other methods such as heat pumps are available but they're probably impractical for a 1-bed flat because of high capital expenditure, etc.

If renting, moving to a property with GCH would be the best option but of course this may not be realistic.

There's probably no magic bullet, it really comes down to optimising every aspect of what he already has, and to think about better insulation.  Also check that he's getting all the benefits to which he is entitled, e.g. via Citizens Advice, and is on the Priority Services Register if applicable.

danrv

spiritus said:

He's looked at replacing the old storage heaters with new ones but the cost is approx £ 3k and he's not convinced this will actually save him much money (if any). Also, the newer storage heaters are less powerful i.e. lowe KW output so would use less power but also would output less heat.

Cost sounds about right for three new storage heaters including fitting.
The newer ones are similar power to the old ones but as mentioned, are better at retaining heat.
They use a fan for heat delivery, both stored heat and boost.
Quantums or Elnur HHR NSH’s can be used on either a switched E7 circuit (2 supplies) or 24hr (single supply). Timers for charging are built in.

My property is all electric and have just had multi split aircon installed. I did also look at installing three Dimplex Quantum storage heaters as an alternative.
On a competitive E7 tariff and correctly setup, I would have thought bills could be reduced with these fitted.

Cardew

It is important to understand that his old storage heaters produce EXACTLY the same amount of heat, for the same cost, as any other storage heater including the most modern versions with all the electronic bells and whistles.

As said above it is probable that they are better insulated, so leak less heat when that heat is not required. However I have not seen any source that quantifies that reduction in leakage.

Obviously, as again stated above, he needs to optimise the controls.

However personally I think the potential savings will be small and never justify the £3k replacement cost.

spiritus

Cardew said:

It is important to understand that his old storage heaters produce EXACTLY the same amount of heat, for the same cost, as any other storage heater including the most modern versions with all the electronic bells and whistles.

As said above it is probable that they are better insulated, so leak less heat when that heat is not required. However I have not seen any source that quantifies that reduction in leakage.

Obviously, as again stated above, he needs to optimise the controls.

However personally I think the potential savings will be small and never justify the £3k replacement cost.

Thanks and that is EXACTLY what I am thinking. I don't think any possible savings will justify the outlay.

When he's had quotes the sales people have spoken about new storage heaters being more economical to run but if the kw output is the same (presumably he needs the same kw output to heat the flat upto the same level) then the only difference is likely timers, thermostats, etc which he already has. 

I rang a heating engineer up and he was talking about liquid filled radiators which he says are cheaper to install (probably true) and cheaper to run (I doubt this).

I've read up a little about this and oil needn't be the only type of liquid. They also have gel filled radiators but like I said, they will be consuming electricity on demand rather than accessing off peak tariffs so I'm struggling to see how they are cheaper.


The only way to feasibly bring the bills down is to use lower output heaters but he then has the problem of wondering if they will be warm enough for his comfort.

Thanks for all your suggestions anyway

spiritus

spiritus said:

My friend lives in a small 1 bed flat and was shocked with his winter bills last year (one month was £ 180!!) though I should add he is retired so is at home most of the day.

He currently has 3 storage heaters which are reasonably old but in working condition.

Gas is not an option as the estate will only allow electricity (common practise I think).

Am I right in thinking that his options are fairly limited in trying to get his heating bills down?

I always thought storage heaters were the gold standard when it came to electric heating. Fan heaters, panel heater, oil filled heaters all draw electricity at more expensive tariff rates.

He's looked at replacing the old storage heaters with new ones but the cost is approx £ 3k and he's not convinced this will actually save him much money (if any). Also, the newer storage heaters are less powerful i.e. lowe KW output so would use less power but also would output less heat.

Anyone have any ideas what his best options may be?

How would he be able to identify if the storage heater circuits are switched by the meter?