Replacing storage heaters with electric radiators

Lea8891

Does anyone have experience of replacing storage heaters with electric radiators? We have old storage heaters that are very expensive to run and are looking to upgrade. We have no access to gas and cannot get a heat pump as we’re in an apartment. We’re looking at German style Magmatic ceramic radiators, or electric oil filled radiators and would love to hear from anyone who has experience with these. We’re home all day so do need heat during the day and evenings, but we do not need heat over night or for it to be on all day every day. Does anyone know how these compare and what the running costs are like?

Newbie_John

Putting heat pumps aside - all other electric heaters cost the same (usage) but their price can vary as you can buy some for as low as £10.

Storage heaters are only cheaper as they run on Economy7 tariff which costs less at night and more during the day - and they use majority of electricity at night.

So it's really down to visual preferences if you want small, big, noisy one, quiet one, portable, expensive, cheap, with wifi, remote, app controlled.. 

molerat

We’re looking at German style Magmatic ceramic radiators,

Marketing hype to charge a ridiculous amount of money for what is otherwise an electric heater, don't be fooled and do a search on this forum.

Instant electric heaters are efficient but use electricity at whatever rate is relevant at the time of use.  Storage heaters store cheap electricity to use at at a later time.

Storage heaters may be expensive to run but instantaneous heaters possibly more expensive.

FlorayG

I had a couple of the German ceramic ones in my last house. Once they heat up they stay hot for a LONG time. I was very pleased with them ( in fact I've still got one here unused as my new house has central heating. would you like to have it? It's just in the way now  )

DullGreyGuy

Lea8891 said:

Does anyone have experience of replacing storage heaters with electric radiators? We have old storage heaters that are very expensive to run and are looking to upgrade. We have no access to gas and cannot get a heat pump as we’re in an apartment. We’re looking at German style Magmatic ceramic radiators, or electric oil filled radiators and would love to hear from anyone who has experience with these. We’re home all day so do need heat during the day and evenings, but we do not need heat over night or for it to be on all day every day. Does anyone know how these compare and what the running costs are like?

All electric heaters other than a heat pump are very expensive to run because electricity kWh prices are high. They all run at near 100% efficiency so replacement isn't going to make a material difference in running costs. You current storage heaters are likely to be "ceramic radiators" as that (along with unfired ceramic aka clay) is the most commonly used thermal mass inside them. 

A more modern storage heater can be a little better at releasing the heat when you need it but vaguely trustworthy sites that dont sell heating products only estimate a 10% improvement in electricity costs and that doesn't factor in the investment to get them installed. 

Economy 7 give you cheap electricity over night to charge up your thermal mass and hot water but as a tradeoff you pay higher rates for the other 17 hours a day. If you are having to run the boost function, ie day time electricity rates, on your storage heaters or some other form of secondary heating then you may find you are worse off but it'd have to be fairly extreme to offset the savings. In principle newer storage heaters could in part work as they are better at holding the heat but it's not going to be a massive difference. 


Having had many storage heater flats in the past the one thing that did help with the bills for us was our penultimate flat which had an outside weather/temp monitor thing and it would adjust the time the storage heaters charged up based on how cold it was outside. Didnt always get it right as sometimes you have a mild night and cold day but it was the cheapest system we'd used. 

mjm3346

I found storage heaters, particularly on cold days, would run out of heat when it was most needed (on their own circuit so could not run outside E7 hours) and they needed to be switched on the day before they might be needed. The trade off for lower cost E7 with the higher cost standard rate was nowhere near worth it. Last winter used the E7 heaters for about a day and half with a fan heater as required. This year will be looking at getting some other heaters but know that generally 1kw in gives 1kw out (despite the claims of a shopping channel) so it will come down to cost/look of the heaters.