Electric Heating/Hot Water Conundrum

Callyb69

Hi all, hoping for a bit of advise, my mom has just purchased an all electric bungalow with storage heaters and a vented water cylinder. The place needs an overhaul to update, but a heat pump and gas are not options.

The consumer board is being replaced as no RCDs, so would like to get everything done at roughly the same time while it's empty(ish) to save on disruption and me having to lug things about for her multiple times!

She's considering ditching the eco10 and replacing old storage heaters with newer electric heaters (e.g. Ecostrad iQ Ceramic WiFi Controlled Electric Radiators), unless anyone thinks this is a terrible idea! 
She doesn't want a wet heating system so the only hot water requirements would be for a max of two people and two taps (kitchen and bathroom sinks) as the bathroom has no bath and an electric shower rather than a mains one.

Does anyone have any idea if an electric combi boiler would be the best solution (used for water heating only) and what kw output would be required? Most calculations mention taking rads into consideration, which doesn't apply to this situation.

Sorry it's a long post 

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Spoonie_Turtle

Stick with storage heaters.  Or if they're not that grand, replace them with newer storage heaters which are reportedly much better.  Single rate electricity heating would be awfully expensive, the only more expensive form is running it at peak rate on an Economy 7/10 tariff.

And Economy 10 is often a bargain nowadays, with that afternoon off-peak.

Robin9

Agree with Spoonie  -  and learn how to use the storage heaters.

If you are doing any wiring ensure there are sockets next to the heaters. 

Reed_Richards

I think it's a terrible idea!  The whole rationale of storage heaters is that you charge them up with cheap night rate electricity then use the heat throughout the day.  You can do the same thing with your hot water tank, run the immersion heater using cheap night rate electricity then use the hot water throughout the day.  Any form of heating that turns the electricity directly into heat, like electric radiators (however fancy) or an electric boiler will be much more expensive to run because it runs on full price electricity.  The only exception to this rule is a heat pump because that would give you approximately 3 kWh of heat for every 1 kWh of electric power  

QrizB

Callyb69 said:

She's considering ditching the eco10 and replacing old storage heaters with newer electric heaters (e.g. Ecostrad iQ Ceramic WiFi Controlled Electric Radiators), unless anyone thinks this is a terrible idea! 

I think it's a terrible idea. Those with their "ceramic plates" sound far too much like the magic clay that you find in overpriced panel heaters with German-sounding names.

Callyb69 said:

Does anyone have any idea if an electric combi boiler would be the best solution (used for water heating only) and what kw output would be required?

An electric combi boiler, used without wet central heating, is also a waste of money. (Wet electric heating is a differnt bad idea). Something like this is simpler and considerably cheaper to buy.

https://www.plumbnation.co.uk/ariston-aures-multi-95kw-electric-instantaneous-water-heater-129-7278

Callyb69 said:

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Another vote for sticking with storage heaters, if a heat pump (even an air-to-air one like this) is out of the question.
If the existing storage heaters are ancient, replacing them with high heat retention (HHR) models will be a worthwhile upgrade. A popular model range is the Dimplex Quantum, but other makes and models exist.

Swipe

For some strange reason, people love to change things that are currently working fine just for the sake of it.

christineperseus

If no bath no need to store hot water. Electric shower and electric water heating

matelodave

Pulling it all out and replacing it with what you are suggesting is a TERRIBLE IDEA

As everyone says, any sort of hot water or electric heating that uses full price leccy on demand (like instantaneous water heaters, electric showers, or heating using magic dust, ceramic plate, infra red, fan, oil filled , flow boilers etc) will cost a lot more to run than heating your hot water and storage heating using off=peak tariffs.

Assuming that you mum might well be indoors during most of the day and evening then heating with full price leccy  will cripple her, whatever the advertising blurb says about ceramic heaters or magical wifi controls - the place still needs the same amount of heat to keep it warm

Mstty

So as to not jump on the (don't get rid of the storage heaters but replace them vibe) and some good pointers to cheap instantaneous hot water but........

Don't believe the hype that storage heaters are bad. The newer high retention heat ones are much better at delivering the heat you need charged up on cheaper electricity. Any panel type electric heater is just so bad that's why you have received the responses you have.

FreeBear

Spend money on adding more insulation. Do the loft and aim for a minimum of 300mm fibreglass.rockwool. Put insulated plasterboard up on the external walls (minimum of 65mm thick). Depending on the age of the doors & windows, consider replacing them.

Plug all the cold draughts.

Callyb69

Thanks for all of the replies.

I had originally advised my mum to stick with storage heaters and see how she goes as she will be at home during the day to take advantage of them, but she's never had just electric, so doesn't really understand how it all works and obviously prefers the idea of instant heat (that she would have been used to with her gas boiler).
I can only try to advise and support her, but having multiple people on here say the same thing really helps!

She'd already contacted a few heating companies and one quote was £14K for removal and replacements with the 'magic clay'. It was an obvious NO!
Another company recommended the heating I mentioned above.

The consumer board definitely needs replacing (it predates the Ark!) and there's no RCDs so shes concerned about safety but the electrician seems to think he can only change over some of the electrics to the new board if we keep the eco 10/storage heaters. 🤷‍♀️ I think this is what prompted her to want to change them. 

I'll definitely show her this info and hope it will convince her to give the storage heaters a go. 👍

It seems really difficult to get heating advise, without someone trying to sell something!