Storage heater recommendations

Gerry1

@JadeGurl

A heat pump is likely to cost more than a couple of Quantums, which are much more Plug and Play. You'll need wet radiators and pipes installed, so it may be quite disruptive, and you'll need the leaseholder's permission. Look at @matelodave's posts for useful info.

You can also get an air-to-air heatpump system (glorified air air-conditioner) but this won't qualify for grants. Look at @danrv's posts for useful info.

Look at @EssexHebridean's posts for useful info on using a heatpump.

A heatpump system with wet radiators may not be very responsive if you're out during the day and want a quick warm-up when you get back.  They need to be on most of the time during the winter, you can't expect to be warm as toast half an hour after switching it on.

Ask your neighbours what they have, but beware of comparing running costs because there are too many variables.

danrv

It’s possible that the E7 circuit is for the immersion hot water only. The small 2 bed property I rented a while ago had this setup with Dimplex radiators. 
I nearly went for three Quantum heaters for my 3 bed property but there were positioning and wiring issues. Aircon was the only affordable option left.

A small 2 way multi split aircon system may be suitable for the OP. No special wiring involved, just routing of the refrigerant pipes and outside inverter position. Possibly looking at £2.5-£3k if property’s suitable.
A couple of medium to large size Quantums would probably cost around £2-2.2k including fitting and any E7 wiring that may be needed.
 

EssexHebridean

Not me for heat pump stuff Gerry - I have a vague recollection that maybe @ariarnia has one though? Did you mean me for Quantum stuff though? Those I can talk about! 😁

Jade - have you by any chance been doing anything with any switches etc since you last used the immersion? Leaving it turned on won’t have done it any harm - I’d suggest trying the boost button to see if that brings it to life - assuming it’s not turned off at the main switch that is! 

ariarnia

not me! we looked into them but would need to get it as part of a much bigger bit of renovation that were not ready to tackle yet! 

@Spoonie_Turtle has one tho if i remember right (like playing pass the parcel )

Spoonie_Turtle

*receives the parcel* Hello, yes we have a heat pump - but my knowledge is rudimentary at best.  The various Matts and Reed_Richards are all far more knowledgeable …

[Though I can say that for someone coming from storage heaters the slow responsiveness of a heat pump would presumably be less of a shock than for someone coming from gas or oil CH.]

ariarnia

Spoonie_Turtle said:

[Though I can say that for someone coming from storage heaters the slow responsiveness of a heat pump would presumably be less of a shock than for someone coming from gas or oil CH.]

from reading some threads it would seem like if you were the type of storage heater user that kept an eye on the weather forecast and fiddled with your inputs and outputs as needed you might have less of a learning curve for the weather compensation needed for heat pumps as well? as i think that trips a lot of people up when there not getting the efficiency there supposed to. 

RedFraggle

JadeGurl said:

RedFraggle said:

this is my flat. I have a quantum 125 in the kitchen and lounge and a tsr85 old style storage heater in the hall that I run all the time. In the bedrooms I have a fan heater in bed 1 and a panel heater in bed 2. Neither are used much. It's warm and my night use is £100 a month and my hot water is an E7 thermal store. I'm home all day and it's always 19 to 21C. 
I'm first floor but have garages under the back half of the flat (RHS on this plan). 
I love the Quantums as I have heat for 15 hours a day and they monitor the room temperatures and only take on the charge they need. 
Hope that helps

Thanks so much, this is really helpful!
 I am wondering what you mean by a quantum, is that a dimplex quantum, and is there a certain model number? Sorry if this is a dumb question but I am wondering where you bought your two storage heaters , and how you find someone to install them?  

Also.. in my flat which walls would you suggest installing them on… again sorry if the answers are obvious, this is all really new to me! 
also wondering what an E7 thermal store is.. I think I’ve broken my immersion heater, I accidentally left it switched on for 20 hours (never did this in the 18 months I’ve lived here!) and now it won’t switch on so maybe I need a replacement 😓😓 . An E7 store sounds interesting 

Hi

Happy to help. E7 is new to me since buying this flat in December and moving in in January. EssexHebridian was super helpful to me going through that.
I had purchase and install through my nearest Dimplex registered electrician via the Dimplex website. I was lucky he's within 20 miles and brilliant (I'm in Yorkshire, he covers a fairly wide area so PM if that's relevant).
They are Dimplex Quantum 125RF model G which is the most recent version. They're not cheap but honestly it's like having gas central heating. You just have to not confuse them. They monitor all the time so if you use another heat source to top up like a fan heater they just see a warm room and think it's summer so don't take a charge the next day. I learned the hard way!! They're not cheap to buy and install and I paid I think £1200 each including removal of the old storage heaters. It was definitely worth it. I'm going to also get one in Bed 2 as that's my office as I work from home. 
My hot water is a Gledhill Puracoil that heats on E7. That's not costing much as I use an electric shower and keep it short.
It's a fairly big flat but there's just me in it. I can't tolerate cold as my arthritis says a firm no.
I'm pleasantly surprised with my running costs and pleased I invested in the storage heater upgrade to the living areas. For me it's working out well. 

Mstty

Spoonie_Turtle said:

*receives the parcel* Hello, yes we have a heat pump - but my knowledge is rudimentary at best.  The various Matts and Reed_Richards are all far more knowledgeable …

[Though I can say that for someone coming from storage heaters the slow responsiveness of a heat pump would presumably be less of a shock than for someone coming from gas or oil CH.]

I think unless we all have ten years of heat pump ownership under our belts we are all in the novice camp.Every day is a learning and fiddling day.

For the OP first hurdle is to ask if it is allowed to fit a heat pump to your flat. 

Then consider on your outside walls have you got room for the unit circa 1.2m high and 1.2m wide and 1m depth includes space behind(I think you are ground floor from memory) you would have to have wet pipes and radiators installed in every room which would likely for a cheap install be visible on top of walls running along skirting boards.

Financially this will be a bid upfront coet but personally come time to sell your flat would stand out having an ASHP for all the right reasons and I would hope you would recover those costs come sale time.

It certainly wouldn't hurt getting a free quote from Octopus

EssexHebridean

ariarnia said:

not me! we looked into them but would need to get it as part of a much bigger bit of renovation that were not ready to tackle yet! 

@Spoonie_Turtle has one tho if i remember right (like playing pass the parcel )

I debated which of the two of it it might have been and made the wrong choice then! Doh! (I always was rubbish at pass the parcel!) 

littleteapot

Having lived in electric-only houses since the age of 10 (over 30 years!) I've had experience with several generations of NSH's from the extremely old, basic Dimplex XL, the Dimplex CXL, Dimplex FXL, some Creda model I don't remember, Dimplex Duoheat, and most recently the Elnur EcoHHR.

The dimplex XL were awful throughout my parents house - even when set up correctly I always used to go to a cold bed and then wake up sweating at about 05:00. The lounge would be nice and toasy for breakfast but we had to use an electric fire to maintain the room at a comfortable temperature after 5pm.

Then moving into my own properties, the first was a flat which had a Dimplex CXL in the lounge and master bedroom, and panel heaters in other rooms. The CXL like the XL had lost most of its stored heat by 17:00 and needed the convector element turned on a moderate setting all evening.

Second and current property is a 1930's 2 bed mid terrace which had old creda NSHs in the lounge, kitchen and master bedroom. Nothing in 2nd bedroom or bathroom. The creda's heat retention was fairly good, though the one in the bedroom was too small for the size of room in extremely cold weather.

I replaced the two Creda's downstairs about 8 years ago with Dimplex Duoheat, and despite being quite slimline they do retain heat well throughout the day, and compensate for changes in weather automatically within 1 night. They do have also have a thermostatically regulated front panel for additional peak-rate heat if needed, but we leave this off unless the weather suddenly turns from warm one night to very cold the following evening. We are still happy with these given that wife and 2 very young children are home all day and mostly occupy the sitting room.

Upstairs, I initially replaced the creda in bedroom 1 with a larger Dimplex FXL. This retained heat reasonably well, and had a fan which could be set to operate thermostatically to discharge additional heat from the core in the evening before going to bed. In extreme cases there was also a peak-time element which could be enabled for additional evening heat.

I installed a Dimplex Duo in bedroom 2, but this rarely got used until the 'work from home' mandate in 2020/2021 where I used this room as an office. Again it worked well for this purpose with no manual intervention.

However in 2021 I picked up two (barely) used Elnur ECOHHR's locally very cheap from someone in a newish build who had fell for the Fischer' Futureheat' magic clay scam. I fitted the larger one in bedroom 1 and the smaller one in bedroom 2 replacing the dimplex duoheat.

The Elnur ECOHHRs are generally very good and highly configurable. I have them set to 16c throughout most of the day and night, and 19c for a while before bedtime and around morning 'wake-up' time. However they have two minor flaws in my view;
1. The default setting allows the boost element to be used for up to 6 hours per day, and the software seems to prefer using this rather than the more cost effective option of increasing the overnight charge. However I reduced this to the minimum (1 hour) to discourage them from using too much expensive peak rate electricity. If you set it to zero they effectively turn into dumb units which just charge to the same configured % (default 80%) every night, so I didn't do that. This however highlights their next weakness;
2. The software seems to limit the change in overnight charge to about 20% per night, so when the weather turns colder very suddenly they can take 2-3 days to reach the optimum overnight charge, which can mean the bedrooms are not always as warm as we would like when going to bed.
However these are minor issues which we can live with given the low price we paid for them. If I were to ever replace them again, I would go for Dimplex Quantum if the budget allowed, or failing that the almost identical Creda branded item which is made by the same company (GDC group) but is much cheaper and has a few less bells/whistles (e.g. wifi).

I hope this information/experience proves useful to some people following this thread.

I suspect the preferred technology for the future is heat pumps, but to install a wet system would basically need the house to be completely gutted, which isn't viable when we children and no alternative accommodation. So the NSH's will be staying for a few years yet.