Storage Heater

AWWWWW97

Swipe said:

AWWWWW97 said:

I don't have the biggest budget to add a NST to my front room currently, should I stick with my current plan and get a panel heater for the bedroom or keep my NST. Should I pay the £75 exit fee and move to say EDF on the below plan or stick with my current plan? Sorry I'm a new time home owner doing this by myself and none of this makes sense. 

Current Plan OVO - Standing charge

41.76p per day

Peak unit rate 

27.10p per Kilowatt hourkWh

Off-peak unit rate 

27.10p per Kilowatt hourkWh

EDF - Electricity supply

Monthly estimate £64.94 per month

Day rate36.41p per kWh

Night rate16.66p per kWh

Standing charge 44.01p per day

Annual estimate £779.23 per year

Why EDF? There are much cheaper E7 suppliers out there. EDF raised their prices above most others from 1st Jan

Just a comparison but I can see Octopus is cheaper, I will keep looking but just unsure if it will be worth the swap with the £75 exit fee I have to pay.

AWWWWW97

QrizB said:

AWWWWW97 said:

Should I pay the £75 exit fee and move to say EDF on the below plan or stick with my current plan?

Slow down.

Currently, you're using hardly any nighttime electricity. Switching to Economy 7 will increase your bills.

First decide on what changes you are going to make to your heating arrangements, if any.

Then make the changes.

Only then will you be in a position to change to E7, assuming that you have fitted more storage heaters in your home. If you choose to stick with panel heaters, or fit a heat pump, you'll be better off with single rate electricity.

Thank you for your reply! This is all so overwhelming and as you say I need to slow down and decide what route to go. 

I just cant decide if I should keep my NST in the bedroom or swap it for a Panel heater. 

The flat is well isolated and I rarely do put the heating on which is why I thought panel heating might be better as I can turn it on and off when I need the heat, unlike the storage heater that needs to be pre heated and works better on the E7 tariff. 

QrizB

Assuming you only use your bedroom for sleeping, it is one of the rooms least in need of a storage heater. I can see how swapping it for a panel heater (or similar) could be appealing.

If you rarely need heating, it could be that panel heaters throughout will be adequate.

You will have received an Energy Performance Certificate, EPC, with your flat. What does that say regarding annual energy use?

EssexHebridean

We never used the NSH in the bedroom in our old home as it would simply have been too warm for us with it on. A panel heater would have been a far better choice for us in there, but I definitely wouldn't have wanted to heat the rest of the flat using panel heaters! 

AWWWWW97

QrizB said:

Assuming you only use your bedroom for sleeping, it is one of the rooms least in need of a storage heater. I can see how swapping it for a panel heater (or similar) could be appealing.

If you rarely need heating, it could be that panel heaters throughout will be adequate.

You will have received an Energy Performance Certificate, EPC, with your flat. What does that say regarding annual energy use?

It says an average household will spend £666 per year on heating, hot water & lighting in this property, it is a band C, the Estimated energy needed in this property is 1,847kWh per year for heating & 1,722 kWh for hot water. 

If I kept the NST in the bedroom would I be ok to use it on a low setting with my current tariff or would it be crucial for me to swap to an E7 tariff.

I am just trying to avoid my bills spiking, I can live with this NST regardless of its appearance, as people have suggested it would be better in the front room but I don't think that would be an easy change as I only have single sockets.

QrizB

AWWWWW97 said:

If I kept the NST in the bedroom would I be ok to use it on a low setting with my current tariff or would it be crucial for me to swap to an E7 tariff.

Your NSH will work on your current tariff, but is almost certainly wired such that it will only store heat during the night-time period (the bit that would normlly be cheap rate). You'll have the disadvantage of storage heaters (bulky, having to plan ahead for when you want heat) without the cost savings they normally bring.

AliceBanned

I agree it takes a while to work out these issues in an electric-only flat OP!

I have a small 2-bed flat, not so well insulated. This is what works for me (I am careful with bills but do feel the cold and wfh most days).

I am on E.on Next Pledge E7 tariff. One NSH in living room, one in hallway and panel heaters in bedrooms. Electric radiator which I had put in bathroom. If you don’t want a NSH in living room it’s probably not worth you going on E7. But if you want to be cosier you would be better off getting an electrician to move the NSH to living room. A panel heater or electric radiator is better for the bedroom. Though I had to buy a mega-warm duvet and add electric blanket as my bedroom is freezing. It’s my main bugbear in the winter as it’s not a relaxing room but I’m cosy in bed. I also had to buy a dehumidifier due to condensation and this really helped. 

I mostly use the NSH on E7 and leave door open to living room overnight when it comes on - set hours - it is wired in to only come on on E7 tariff which is probably same for yours. It is an old NSH but like you I don’t intend to stay for long term so am not changing it. It’s chillier than GCHand I miss this. Electric will always be expensive and pay around £140pm in Jan and Feb. Includes hot water from immersion - I have no electric shower. It’s an expensive way to run things and I would probably upgrade the NSH which is 30 years old, if I wanted to stay for a few years. 

In the winter I wfh in the living room because it’s comfortable, about 20 degrees if I have storage heaters on medium overnight, and still warm in the evening. So my solution was make one room comfortable and put up with cold in the rest. My bedroom was 11 degrees during the last cold spell. I have the panel heater in there on for half an hour morning and evening.

I find the NSH a good option for electric only properties- not cheap but effectively it is on about 24 hours including the heating of bricks overnight.  It gives a lovely ambient heat that is too much for a bedroom but enough on its own just about. I add the hallway one overnight on low when it’s below zero outside.  I’m aware of condensation as well as cold. Having said that my flat has 3 outside walls and a Juliette balcony so I think it is colder than some. It all depends. My neighbour who has neighbours both sides says he hardly ever has the heating on and only has panel heaters! 

I hope this helps. I do recommend NSH and E7 but depends on your needs.

AWWWWW97

AliceBanned said:

I agree it takes a while to work out these issues in an electric-only flat OP!

I have a small 2-bed flat, not so well insulated. This is what works for me (I am careful with bills but do feel the cold and wfh most days).

I am on E.on Next Pledge E7 tariff. One NSH in living room, one in hallway and panel heaters in bedrooms. Electric radiator which I had put in bathroom. If you don’t want a NSH in living room it’s probably not worth you going on E7. But if you want to be cosier you would be better off getting an electrician to move the NSH to living room. A panel heater or electric radiator is better for the bedroom. Though I had to buy a mega-warm duvet and add electric blanket as my bedroom is freezing. It’s my main bugbear in the winter as it’s not a relaxing room but I’m cosy in bed. I also had to buy a dehumidifier due to condensation and this really helped. 

I mostly use the NSH on E7 and leave door open to living room overnight when it comes on - set hours - it is wired in to only come on on E7 tariff which is probably same for yours. It is an old NSH but like you I don’t intend to stay for long term so am not changing it. It’s chillier than GCHand I miss this. Electric will always be expensive and pay around £140pm in Jan and Feb. Includes hot water from immersion - I have no electric shower. It’s an expensive way to run things and I would probably upgrade the NSH which is 30 years old, if I wanted to stay for a few years. 

In the winter I wfh in the living room because it’s comfortable, about 20 degrees if I have storage heaters on medium overnight, and still warm in the evening. So my solution was make one room comfortable and put up with cold in the rest. My bedroom was 11 degrees during the last cold spell. I have the panel heater in there on for half an hour morning and evening.

I find the NSH a good option for electric only properties- not cheap but effectively it is on about 24 hours including the heating of bricks overnight.  It gives a lovely ambient heat that is too much for a bedroom but enough on its own just about. I add the hallway one overnight on low when it’s below zero outside.  I’m aware of condensation as well as cold. Having said that my flat has 3 outside walls and a Juliette balcony so I think it is colder than some. It all depends. My neighbour who has neighbours both sides says he hardly ever has the heating on and only has panel heaters! 

I hope this helps. I do recommend NSH and E7 but depends on your needs.

Thank you this was really helpful, do you keep your input setting on medium, day and night or do you change the input during the day? I think I am still trying to get my head round how to work them properly. I put the input and output on the highest settings for 9 days and had the biggest spike which was my fault for not researching how to use them correctly and not keeping an eye on my usage.. I have had it off for the past two days as the flat is well insulated but it is getting colder and I want to avoid any risks of mould.

Do you keep your hot water on all the time or do you have it timed for your off peak rates?

I will look into moving my NST into the living room but I'm still unsure if using this will shift enough electricity to night time to benefit from an E7 Tarif due to only having the one heater. As previous comments have suggested I need to shift 30% more usage to night to benefit from an E7 Tarif. If I had two NST maybe this would work..

Does anyone know if having the one storage heater on a single rate tariff which I am on now would be the same cost of having a panel heater instead or still be cheaper with the NST? 

Thanks! 

TheElectricCow

AWWWWW97 said:

Thank you this was really helpful, do you keep your input setting on medium, day and night or do you change the input during the day? I think I am still trying to get my head round how to work them properly. I put the input and output on the highest settings for 9 days and had the biggest spike which was my fault for not researching how to use them correctly and not keeping an eye on my usage.. I have had it off for the past two days as the flat is well insulated but it is getting colder and I want to avoid any risks of mould.

The storage heater will only be drawing power at night, and the input setting will determine how much energy the heater should store during that nighttime period. Changing the input setting during the day would only affect the amount of heat stored up in the next night’s charging period, so this would only help if you need more or less heat for the next day (e.g. if it was going to be especially cold tomorrow you might need to turn it up, or if it’s due to be an unseasonably warm day you could turn it down to save energy). Changing the input between day/night should not have any impact if it’s set back to the same level each evening.

The output will adjust how quickly that stored heat is released, so a higher output will make the room hotter faster but will use up the stored heat quicker too. A lower output will release less heat over a longer period of time, which might keep the room warmer later into the day.

AWWWWW97 said:

Do you keep your hot water on all the time or do you have it timed for your off peak rates?

For an E7 tariff you ideally want the hot water to only ever be on during the off-peak times. Any hot water heating during peak hours will be unnecessarily much more expensive and should only be done if the tank has gone cold and the water needs a boost in the evening.

On single rate tariffs the timing doesn’t make any difference to the cost, so it’s best to heat the water shortly before it’s needed so that it’s still at its hottest at the time it’s used. For households with smaller tanks and/or higher hot water needs there may be no benefit to having a timed immersion heater if the tank needs reheating multiple times per day (although for that much hot water the energy demand may be enough to make E7 worthwhile).

AWWWWW97 said:

Does anyone know if having the one storage heater on a single rate tariff which I am on now would be the same cost of having a panel heater instead or still be cheaper with the NST? 

Thanks! 

Yes, on single rate the cost would be the same as long as you were heating the room the same amount for each. 

The difference would be that as this is an older storage heater it may not still be warm enough later in the day, meaning extra heating could be needed. The panel heater can put out heat as and when needed, so it wouldn’t have the same issue of potentially not being warm when you need it to be. You may then be able to get away with heating less overall if it’s only turned on when heat is actually required.

Alnat1

@AWWWWW97 You've said your shower is electric, so the water for this doesn't come from the hot water tank, it's simply heated as you use the shower.

What are you using the water for that you are heating in the tank? Is it simply for washing dishes and your hands after using the bathroom? If so, is it worth heating the tank at all? Could you manage to wash your hand in cold water and boil a kettle when you want to wash dishes. This could save quite a bit on your bills.