Storage heater vs electric radiator

Spanishomelette

My 91 year old mum lives in a 2 bed flat which previously had warm air heating.  When that heating unit failed and could not be repaired about 12 years ago, she had storage heaters installed in both the bedrooms and the living room.  Last winter we had electric radiators installed in the hall and kitchen, and a wall mounted fan heater in the bathroom.  Having these additional electric radiators and the fan heater has made a big difference to how comfortable she is.  As the radiators are thermostatically controlled, they require no fiddling with to maintain a decent temperature, which is quite important to my mum.  She says she has never got to grips with the controls on her storage heaters!

The storage heater in her living room has now stopped working and I don't know whether it would be better to replace it with another electric radiator.  I like electric radiators because they are so much more controllable, but don't know how expensive to run they would be in a 5x3m living room compared to a storage heater.  As my mum is on a fixed rate Economy 7 tariff until August next year, I guess we would have to stay with that - I don't think they would change her to a single rate tariff at the same price she is currently paying.

 An electrician has tried replacing a couple of parts on the storage heater, but it is still not working, so would probably need replacing rather than repairing.  I know this is probably asking "how long is a piece of string", but would be grateful for thoughts and advice about replacing a storage heater with an electric radiator. 

I did ask for advice about this earlier in the year, but since then we have found that the storage heater cannot be repaired and obviously energy costs have rocketed (although this won't affect my mum's bills yet), so I'm not sure whether the advice I received then would have changed.

[Deleted User]

Storage heater with E7 is usually better than electric radiator with single-rate tariff for cost.

Running electric radiators on an E7 day rate is the most expensive of all options.

macman

She can change from E7 to single rate any time she wishes (it's the same tariff, just the E7 version), but, unless the supplier will totalise the 2 registers, then she may have to pay for a replacement meter, unless it's already a smart meter, which can be changed remotely.
What is crazy is to mix NSH's and convectors. While on E7, all the non-NSH's will be running on very expensive E7 peak rate. So the extra cost will be the ratio between her E7 cheap rate and peak rate.
Single rate electric heating is going to be a lot more expensive than E7, but it looks like she's already crossed that bridge unfortunately.
Unless you change it, I suggest you get a competent sparky in to fix the NSH: all they have inside them is a stack of bricks, and element and a fuse-there is not much that can go wrong with them.

ChaunceyGardiner

It seems odd that you installed storage heaters in the bedrooms, and a panel heater in the hall. Usually, it's the other way around.

Spanishomelette

ChaunceyGardiner said:

It seems odd that you installed storage heaters in the bedrooms, and a panel heater in the hall. Usually, it's the other way around.

Because my mum was elderly and with only a very small amount of savings, the storage heaters were installed free of charge, but she was only entitled to three.  It seemed most sensible at the time to have them in the bedrooms and living room.  As she has got older, she has felt the cold a lot more, particularly in her north facing bathroom and kitchen. We did get quotes for storage heaters as well last year, but the sizes she would have needed for the kitchen and hall would not have fit into the space available.

I do think the electric radiators have worked out much better for her as they only come on when needed, rather than having to charge them every night just in case it is cold the next day.  Obviously with the changeable weather in this country, there are many just in case days and weeks! And the number of times I have visited her on a sunny winters day and found she has the patio doors open because it is so stonkingly hot with the storage heaters working is alarming!

Spanishomelette

Thank you macman. Yes, I agree, it would be lovely to be able to use just cheap night rate electricity, but unfortunately storage heaters weren't an option for the additional rooms because they were too bulky.  It doesn't seem to have made a huge difference to her electricity bills having the electric radiators.  I guess this is because they are thermostatically controlled and on a timer, and are really only replacing things like fan heaters she was using to boost the temperature before.

We have tried to get the storage heater fixed, but the things the electrician thought may be causing the problem have not solved it.  I didn't know whether it was flogging a dead horse to try to repair a night storage heater of that age, though.

EssexHebridean

If it can be managed then I’d suggest replacing the failed unit with a more modern high heat retention model. They are hugely more controllable, suffer less heat leakage while charging so you get more useable heat than with the old models for the financial input, and they still have the ability to boost the heat level on peak-rate electric if absolutely needed. With all-electric heating, the key is to really learn your day around the storage heaters. Once you understand them properly, even the older models can be surprisingly cost effective.

Coffeekup

Spanishomelette said:

It doesn't seem to have made a huge difference to her electricity bills having the electric radiators.  I guess this is because they are thermostatically controlled and on a timer, and are really only replacing things like fan heaters she was using to boost the temperature before.

That could be because the prices were/have been and still are cheap. Only real way you're going to know the real cost, is her use in kWh's the bigger the history of readings you have the more of the picture you will see to what is costing what.

as you know with your bill's, it'll start to sting next August when the tariff ends.

However that being said at that age we feel the cold more, if it's going to cost a £2 more a day to keep her warm in the height of winter I'd pay for the electric radiator. If it does a better job of balancing the heat, and made her feel more comfortable with no fiddling I'd say it's a no brainer, especially as it's in the living room, where I'm guessing she spends a good 25-40% of her day.

[Deleted User]

macman said:

Unless you change it, I suggest you get a competent sparky in to fix the NSH: all they have inside them is a stack of bricks, and element and a fuse-there is not much that can go wrong with them.

Hi,

agree, it would be unusual for all elements to fail at the same time, so suggests supply problem, fuse or thermal link, could try switching one from bedroom heater if same model.

Any idea what your electrician tried?

Spanishomelette

frugalmacdugal said:

macman said:

Unless you change it, I suggest you get a competent sparky in to fix the NSH: all they have inside them is a stack of bricks, and element and a fuse-there is not much that can go wrong with them.

Hi,

agree, it would be unusual for all elements to fail at the same time, so suggests supply problem, fuse or thermal link, could try switching one from bedroom heater if same model.

Any idea what your electrician tried?

I know he checked the power supply and fuse, and replaced one part, which didn't fix the problem.  He did say there was one more thing he could buy to try to fix the problem, but didn't specify what it was.  He is an experienced electrician, but did say he hadn't worked with storage heaters before.

Thank you for the suggestion about swapping parts from one of the bedroom storage heaters.  Mum only uses one of her bedrooms so I will suggest that to the electrician.

macman

I suggest you find someone who is experienced with NSH's: they're one of the simplest heating devices imaginable. Just swapping out random parts in the hope that something will work is not the sign of a good electrician.