Overnight Storage Heaters

amtrakuk1975

Dispite living on a new build estate (EPC-C) with a gas boiler and unvented hot water tank.   The politics and spiraling installation costs meant I had to pull out of the Octopus Install of a Heat Pump.

Still interested in going electric and accepting other options are less efficient, would modern storage heaters be viable?  Talking to somoene at work who had the early ones said they got bad press mainly because they were manual and involved planning rather than convinience.  But once you knew how to use them they were ok.  They got into a routine of shutting them down when they turned in for the night.

I assume newer storage heaters are more automated with charge timers that allow charging in sync with the cheap rate such as Octopus Go.

TheElectricCow

Assuming you’re comfortable configuring them for your needs, modern High Heat Retention storage heaters (Dimplex Quantum are a popular favourite around here) are about as good as it gets for direct electric heating.

These new ones tend to be very flexible and able to manage themselves automatically quite well. They can compensate for changes in weather by adjusting their overnight charge to ensure they charge enough to stay hot without using excessive energy. And they of course also have timers that can be set manually to dictate charging periods, with some models also now including smart device integrations. 

They also retain heat far better than the older storage heaters and if properly sized shouldn’t go cold in the evenings, plus as well as better controlled output they can boost on peak rate energy if necessary to supply extra heating if they for any reason hadn’t charged enough.

Take cure to ensure the wiring is done correctly if you want to have full manual timer control, as you’ll want the main supply on a permanently live circuit rather than a more traditional E7 circuit which gets switched on overnight by the electric meter. 

If you can get a tariff with a good off-peak rate the running costs can certainly reach comparable levels to gas heating, and in some cases can beat gas (albeit less so now prices have reduced from recent highs). If you’re committed to switching away from gas for reasons beyond cost alone, then storage heaters are definitely a viable option. 

You may find that the installation costs for a full suite of the best HHRs could end up in the same region as a reasonable heat pump install though, especially if factoring in the need for any additional work done on top of the basic purchase price (which is likely if the property wasn’t designed with storage heaters in mind and already has a full central heating system).

bob2302

If you have a working gas boiler then I'd stick with it until you can go to a heat pump. They only way it would work financially is if your heating needs are so low that gettering rid of the gas meter and its standing charge would compensate for the installation costs and higher running costs.

lohr500

I would consider very carefully moving from gas central heating to storage heaters for several reasons.

Firstly, I am guessing your gas price will be around 6p per kWh.
Usually if you have storage heaters, you would go with an Economy 7 type electricity tariff. The off peak Eco 7 rate is likely to be around twice the cost of your gas per kWh.
So in broad terms your heating and hot water costs will nearly double as well. (Yes, gas boilers aren't 100% efficient and you will be paying two daily standing charges, plus annual service costs for the gas boiler if you keep the gas, which skews the calculation but nevertheless the energy cost is double.)
If you don't pay to have the gas meter removed, you will have to keep paying the standing charge anyway.
You may be able to get a lower off peak tariff if you go with one of the Octopus type tariffs, but you need to be sure there are sufficient hours during the off-peak window to reheat the storage heaters each day. 

Secondly, you will probably devalue your property, relative to others on the estate. Many buyers will be put off by storage heating when gas heating is fitted to other properties nearby.

Thirdly, the installation costs and capital outlay for modern storage heaters is not insignificant. Depending on size, each Dimplex Quantum storage heater for example will be in the region of £650 to £950. Then you have to have dedicated wiring and an additional consumer unit. If your meter isn't already compatible with Eco 7 it will need changing (possibly FOC if you are moving to an ECO 7 type tariff, but not sure about this).

Just my own thoughts and others may think differently.