Purchasing a new home with electric heaters

ButterCheese

My parents have the same sort of house i.e. rural, no gas, brick walls.  You get used to it, but you also have to get used to dressing for the appropriate temperature and only heating the rooms you are in.

Log burner - yes it keeps the end of the house warm (if you are in the lounge or an adjoining bedroom).  But, do not get one unless you can source logs for free or cheap.  Paying £8 per net at a supermarket is a total rip-off, and these days even a "load" is very expensive; there is often very little regulation on what weight certain companies call a "load".  Plud you have a lot of locals who will charge you £80 for a load but you never know how much you are getting.

For what it's worth, my parents have a Rayburn in the kitchen which keeps that end of the house warm.  They converted it from solid fuel to oil about 20 years ago.  It costs them about £400/year in oil.  It needs refilling once a year I think, probably a 400L tank IIRC.

They have recently had a quote for a new type of Rayburn/Range type thing which uses oil injection rather than a "wick" style, which would half their costs, but unfortunately the company only operates in Cornwall and the owner is near retirement.  But that was £13k, plus they'd need to get someone to install all the pipes and radiators throughout the house so you're talking thousands more in labour and pipework.  That's if you want to consider central heating.

In summary - an old style of house requires an old style of living.  None of this "watching TV in the bedroom" malarky - you sit in the lounge when the fire is on and then go to bed with a hot water bottle.  it's quite a luxury to have gas central heating which we all take for granted.

Gerry1

If you go for oil, install oversized radiators so that an eventual upgrade to a heatpump will be relatively painless.

EssexHebridean

Storage heaters - you re looking at in the region of £1000 each installed for reasonably sized brand new high heat retention Dimplex Quantums I would think, but they are very good indeed - far more akin to "central heating" in use, and as I understand it that applies even more to the recent models. 

You probably wouldn't want them in bedrooms, as even the most heat-retaining NSH's will lose some heat while charging, and you may find that makes bedrooms too warm, a straightforward standard panel heater  in each bedroom is probably the way to go, with timers so they can be set for a brief period morning and night to take the chill off the room. 

You can get bathroom friendly storage heaters, but a reasonably sized electric towel rail might be as good a bet there as it has the advantage of being able to warm/dry towels on it them too. 

MeteredOut

OP, have you asked to see the last years worth of electricity bills from the current owners. Whilst it won't tell you what you will use, it should give an indicative cost. And if they refuse, I'd be wondering how high they actually are...

hrm1987

MeteredOut said:

OP, have you asked to see the last years worth of electricity bills from the current owners. Whilst it won't tell you what you will use, it should give an indicative cost. And if they refuse, I'd be wondering how high they actually are...

This is on my to do list. It’s been a long time since I bought a house (2013) so not sure if it’s done through the conveyancers or directly to the vendor, but thanks for confirming this is also a way to go!

FlorayG

What KW output is the logburner? That was pretty much all the heating I had in my last 3 bedroom brick house ( plus an electric blanket and a small electric heater on a timer for an hour before I got up if it was really cold) and the whole house was toasty warm when it was going, plus it would heat the chimney bricks and therefore the house would stay warm even after it went out overnight. This was a big 7kw fire and I would often have to open all the interior doors and a window it would get so warm. In really, really freezing weather I would burn coal which would stay in for 12 hours untouched. So you can do without central heating; we've only thought that essential for the last 50 yeas, before that everyone used fireplaces. I agree old style house requires old style living!
I agree about the Fischer, my friend lives in an absolutely tiny bungalow with this heating and it's always cold.
Have you looked into air source heat pump? There are huge grants available for these just now have a look Get A Heat Pump | Heat Pumps Explained | Octopus Energy this will tell you how much it would cost you

Gerry1

You can find out the annual electricity usage from comparison sites such as Money Supermarket.

lohr500

Firstly your mum's situation : I'm with everyone else that she needs to cancel within the cooling off period.

Secondly, your potential house purchase : 

Generally speaking, log burners are hard work and unless you have access to free wood, they are expensive to run. Depending on the size of the property, the heat from a single log burner probably won't be sufficient to spread through the entire house.

If you are planning on staying in the property for a long time, I would be tempted to bite the bullet and get quotes for the installation of either a heat pump or oil based central heating system. And do so before you commit to buying the property so you know what extra expense to expect. Knowing the cost might also help in negotiating a price reduction on the house.I think you should qualify for the £7500 Govt grant as my understanding is that electric radiator based heating systems are eligible for replacement using the grant. (But seek professional advice on this as I am not 100% sure).

Storage heaters are an option and it is possible that some of the wiring may still be in place if the new Fisher system replaced older storage heaters. There might also be an Economy 7 or smart meter in place that would support a move back to storage heaters. The house could still be on an Economy 7 setup for the immersion heater. But modern high efficiency storage heaters are not cheap to buy and ideally need two sets of wiring to each unit for optimal operation. So total cost to go down the storage heater route might get close to a grant supported heat pump option anyway. 

No grants for oil and an oil based system would need an external oil tank installing which adds to the cost. At today's oil and electricity costs, the running costs for oil or a heat pump are broadly the same. (Very broad statement and depends on several factors, the most important being that the heat pump system is well set up so it can convert electricity to heat at a ratio of at least 1:3 or better and that it has suitably sized radiators to allow the system to dissipate enough heat into the rooms whilst running at temperatures lower than traditional oil or gas based central heating.) 

I have no direct experience of heat pumps, but the reality is that they are not inefficient per-se. If the house leaks heat like a sieve, then any heating system will burn energy for fun trying to keep the place warm. 

MeteredOut

Gerry1 said:

You can find out the annual electricity usage from comparison sites such as Money Supermarket.

In my experience, you cannot rely on that.

hrm1987

Thanks everyone. I guess my question on the new house (as it already has Fischer) is why would I replace them if the house is inefficient anyway (which is only from the assumed things on the EPC - I also love the suggestion of improving things through a wind turbine)?
Is the money better spent on internal insulation? Or is the only long term solution a combination of this and a new heating system?