Has anyone used electric heaters ?

bigroundorange

Hi everyone, 

I am renting a flat that has storage heaters. They're very annoying - e.g., if I'm away, so can't set it the night before, then there's no heating when I'm back. On very cold days, it can start to run out of heating from about 9pm even if you charge it on highest setting the night before. 

However, because I'm only renting I don't want to change the heating system used.

I'm wondering if anyone has used portable electric heaters that plug directly into mains? Like these: https://www.argos.co.uk/browse/appliances/fans-heaters-and-dehumidifiers/heaters-and-radiators/c:29444/

My questions are:
1. Can these heaters be used on a regular basis, ie from now until next April? Or are they designed for occasional use only?
2. Can they be used as the only source of heating for a home? (Or are they designed to top up another heating system only)?
3. Do they work well or do they just blow hot air in until it gets too hot (like sitting next to a hairdryer)?
4. Will energy bills sky rocket?

Some of these questions may be a bit basic but I've always used heat sources that the property has, so not sure about other options. Any help would be much appreciated. 

Neil_Jones

1) Yes.  Probably not intended to be on all day every day.

2) Not designed for that.  Use them as supplementary.

3) Depends on the type you buy.  The advantage of electric heaters is that its 100% efficient - you plug it in, turn it on, it kicks heat out.  Convector heaters work on the same principle as radiators, ie air gets heated up, rises to the ceiling, spreads out a bit, cools and falls back down (hopefully on the other side of the room).

4) All electric heating isn't cheap.  But a 1kWh heater will cost one 1kWh unit to run per hour, so that's (tariff permitting) anywhere from 15p upwards per hour.

Living in an all electric property will never be cheap to run from an energy point of view.  Storage heaters running out of heat is par for the course but there should be nothing to stop you leaving them on, they'll just charge up overnight at midnight and start releasing heat from 7am or whatever your cut-off is.  There is only a finite amount of heat/charge they can hold (they basically boil down to being heat retention bricks which you can only heat up to a certain point) and once that point is reached, it's pointless charging them any longer.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

1 just use them as you wish,

2 as above,

3 if they have a thermostat they will cut out at whatever you set,

4 yes, because you will be using expensive day rate.

Are you using heaters correctly, have a look  HERE.

If going away leave heaters on a low setting (2), and keep output shut, always.

SPOWER

Hi.  I have a friend who uses these heaters as they don't have central heating.  The oil filled radiator goes in the bedroom and another one in the main living area during the cold months.  I just think the electricity meter dial must spin very fast when they are switched on.  I think they are better than nothing but I wouldn't want that type of heating.

Regardring the bit about White Meter heating, my mum told me that they were good at the time but you had to close something on the heater so that the bricks heated up during the day but most people left the vent open so it never got a chance to be effective.

The problem probably all boils down to people not being shown how to work them properly.

[Deleted User]

SPOWER said:

Regardring the bit about White Meter heating, my mum told me that they were good at the time but you had to close something on the heater so that the bricks heated up during the day but most people left the vent open so it never got a chance to be effective.

The problem probably all boils down to people not being shown how to work them properly.

Hi,

your mum's right, keep the output closed.

Look HERE for how to use.

Cardew

You don't even need to pay as much as £20 for a fan heater and yes they can be used as much as you wish.

Most have a rudimentary thermostat, but does it matter if it is a degree or so out?

You can plug them in via a plug-in timer so set them to come on when you want.

knightstyle

We used to have the old storage heaters and this is what we did to keep warm at minimum cost...
First switch off all the heaters except the main living room one. That one close the boost and set about 1/2 way input. Open living room and bedroom doors an hour before going to bed.  Just use it to keep the place slightly warm and use a normal fire or fan heater to heat the room you are in.  You may find you need another storage heater on in colder weather but never use them as main heat source, just background heat.
Modern Qtype heaters are different so follow their instructions.

Nebulous2

We have an old 3 bedroom house heated with gas. In a really cold (sub-zero) spell at the beginning of this year our boiler broke. It took 10 days to get a replacement delivered and fitted. 

We used a variety of electric heaters, fans, oil-filled, convector. The house wasn't as warm as it usually is and we managed to use £115 of electricity in 10 days. Utility prices for most people have gone up since then. 

They work, are effective, can heat fairly quickly, but are a very expensive option. 

wittynamegoeshere

We moved from a house with very good gas central heating to a bigger one with no heating and no gas supply.  We're going to get a super heat pump installed in the future but we're making do for now.  I wouldn't bother with storage heaters, as often the difference between day and night rates isn't big enough to make up for the loss in heating efficiency compared to direct heating, depending on how good or bad your tariff is.

We've been using £30-odd plug-in oil-filled radiators.  These are good in that they're silent and don't make any of the burning dust smells you can get with other heaters.  All electric heaters cost pretty much the same to run, so the type is personal preference.  Don't believe anything that the scam heating companies (e.g. Fischer) tell you about theirs being more efficient, it's rubbish.

However, oil-filled radiators are not that effective.  Ours are 2kW but, once they're up to heat, they're only on for a quarter to half of the time.  The radiator isn't big enough to deliver 2kW of the heat into the air, so the heating element clicks on and off to prevent overheating.  So a "2kW" heater is probably 500-1000W in reality.  This will cost you about 10-20p per hour to run.  We use two in our main fairly large living room.

Ensure that you have good insulation.  If you have an unused fireplace or stove or any vents for them, seal them up thoroughly.

Check how your electrical circuits are organised.  If you plug 3 or more reasonably powerful heaters into one circuit you could blow the fuse/circuit breaker or even cause overheating and a fire.  A single circuit often includes multiple rooms - be careful.  We're a bit exceptional as we had one of those scammy systems previously installed, and the one remaining benefit is that we have single spur cables from the consumer unit to each of them, so those sockets now power the plug-in radiators instead.  You may be able to do something similar with the cabling for your storage heaters.

Our house is only bearably warm, you'll definitely need to invest in jumpers.  But there's no need to worry that you'll get horrendous bills.  If you've got a smart meter then just keep an eye on it.  We'll probably be spending £10 per day in the depths of winter this year, but that's not vastly different to the amounts many people spend on proper heating systems.  Remember that £10 per day is not £10 x 365 days = £3000+ per year!  You'll only need this amount of power on a few days per year.

All in all it's not ideal but you'll survive and won't burn your house down or go bankrupt if you're careful.

wittynamegoeshere

Another thing... freestanding heaters anywhere within the room will be much more efficient than anything that's wall-mounted on an external wall, as a lot of the heat then goes straight out of the wall instead of into the room.  Sadly this is how many radiators and storage heaters are fitted as it often suits the room layout.

Putting one under a window is the worst possible place.  Many did this in the past, when energy cost much less and windows were draughty, as it was a good way of avoiding a cold spot.  But that's at the expense of throwing a lot of heat through the wall or through the glass.

Torry_Quine

Storage heaters to my mind are very underrated. 
I haven't put mine on yet but when switched on at the wall stay on until no longer needed.
They work well as the only heat needed unless very very cold and well under freezing. 
The important thing is only open the output when needed, most likely in the evening and remember to close it. 
I don't find the cost extortionate at all.