Installing a Fischer electric heating system has nearly quadrupled the energy bill!

snowangelmrsp

My 90 year old father in law paid for installation of a new Fischer electric radiator heating system. This included radiators in 3 bathrooms, a lounge, sitting room, 2 hall,  and 1 bedroom, 1 office and 1 craft room. After 2 months of using the system, the electricity usage has risen considerably. There was then a bill that was almost quadrupled. At this point, the system was turned off and all that is used now is 1 bedroom/ensuite bathroom and occasional use in 3 other rooms. We have contacted our energy provider and they agree the hike in charges is extortionate and they are conducting an investigation for us. There may be no other option than to take out the Fischer installation and replace it with a more cost effective system, meaning more cost and disruption whilst this happens. 
Does anyone else have experience of electricity cost hikes with Fischer? 

Veteransaver

Any electric heating is going to be expensive, unless using storage heaters with a good E7 tariff.

doodling

Hi,

Direct electrical heating is expensive (of mainstream heating methods only electric boilers are worse).  All electric heaters are 100% efficient so it doesn't matter if they are fancy wall mounted panel heaters or £20 fan heaters.

If you are going to use electricity for heating then heat pumps are the cheapest option, followed by storage heaters on a suitable tariff.

MeteredOut

Unfortunately, it looks like your father has fallen for the downright disingenuous advertising from that particular company. Other than burning cash to heat a home, I doubt there's a more expensive way to do so.

So many people removed old-but-still-working storage heaters for apparently "more efficient" panel heaters and had the same result.

I doubt there's any quick fix here. 

Robin9

I do hope he didn't rip out storage heaters and then pay £10,000 or more for the privilege. 

EssexHebridean

Ouch - it makes me want to cry when posts like this come along. I assume the heaters were sold to him as being "super efficient" or some-such?  As you can see from the replies here those of us who are regulars here aren't surprised at your FiL's increased bills - and by the time you include the exorbitant cost of the heaters themselves it's even worse isn't it. Unfortunately I suspect the wording used will have been very careful to ensure that there isn't any fall back on the company he dealt with over the heaters, either.

daveyjp

They are only cheaper for heating a home if your usual way is an open fire burning £50 notes.

Make of this statement what you will.  

"The 100% efficient electric boiler from Fischer." 

If a gas boiler is 90% efficient, but gas is one third the price per kwh, which is cheaper to run?!

GingerTim

These people are just predators.

lohr500

So sorry to hear about this.

What heating system was used in the house prior to the installation of the Fischer heaters?
If he had storage heaters, then he probably had an Economy 7 electricity supply.
Without the storage heaters, if still on Economy 7, I would be looking at switching to a single rate tariff if he hasn't done so already.
The cost of cheap electricity to heat the water overnight will be more than offset by running electric heaters at the peak day rate.

I'm not sure if your FIL can get anywhere by claiming he was missold the new system.
Aside from fitting heaters that run on peak rate electricity, it sounds like they have gone overboard in fitting as many radiators as they could possibly cram into the property to maximise their profit.
Might be worth contacting Citizen's Advice to see if he has any options.

DullGreyGuy

daveyjp said:

If a gas boiler is 90% efficient, but gas is one third the price per kwh, which is cheaper to run?!

It would need to be a fairly modern gas boiler to be 90% efficient, older boilers were more like 60% efficient which will still work out cheaper but not as markably 

mmmmikey

Sadly your FILs experience is not at all unusual. If you search the forums you'll find lots of posts from people who've had similar experiences. I moved into a bungalow where the previous occupant had had them fitting and had the reverse experience - I replaced them with old, secondhand storage heaters and massively reduced my bill. I'd suggest having a look through the forum posts on this and seing if anyone else has had success with the mis-selling route.