Electric Radiators

mrchris

I live in a retirement home which has about 12 very old storage radiators running on economy 7
the management company say it will save money to replace them all with new storage radiators
which are more efficient, a spark told me that replacing with modern ceramic radiators or oil filled would be cheaper. has anyone had any experience with this? thanks

QrizB

the management company say it will save money to replace them all with new storage radiators
which are more efficient,

That's a good idea. Modern HHR storage heaters will give a more constant, comfortable temperature and will save a bit of money too.

a spark told me that replacing with modern ceramic radiators or oil filled would be cheaper.

That's a terrible idea. See this link (also in my signature) for why.

Never take advice from that electrician again.

daveyjp

If the electrician is willing to pay the difference in running costs when he fits electric radiators go ahead, otherwise he needs to get back to school and understand what E7 is and why this makes storage heaters the sensible option.

Management co are correct. Upgrade what you have.

AlvyLad

Electric heating costs twice or trice of gas heating, almost regardless of efficiency or age off.

Old electric radiators replaced with new ones would at best be 1/3 more efficient, but the cost of them AND actual REPLACEMENT would like to be at least five-fold+ of annual cost

"solution" is rather obvious to install regular gas heating system at a price of Ten-fold of annual bills or… just do the maths and put up with higher bills.

BUT, these days to retrofit Gas system is a nightmare to get approved off for/by building regulatory bodies, that are pushing "renewable" technologies at a perhaps twenty-fold the price on an old electric radiator heating annual heating bills

Needs very sensible calculation what's best solution, taking in to account ever so many variables, including an structure of the existing building and budget what's possible or worth to invest or not in.

Keep_pedalling

The electrician is correct about the capital cost involved, but is horribly wrong about ongoing costs.

born_again

a spark told me that replacing with modern ceramic radiators or oil filled would be cheaper.

Yes to buy (good sale for them)

But running costs will be far more expensive.

WiserMiser

The sparks seems a bit dim, to put it mildly: you might reasonably hope that he would have some familiarity with the relative costs of energy because it's related to his line of work. If he's unaware that a kWh of heat supplied by electricity costs about three of four times that of a usable one supplied by gas then he shouldn't be giving advice. He doesn't need any professional experience to know that, just a glance at the bills makes it clear. One hopes he doesn't think that the earth coloured wire of an appliance's mains lead should be connected to the plug's earth pin….

If he supplies panel heaters or oil filled radiators and isn't particularly dim, then that suggests he's quite happy to flog you unsuitable products to make a quick buck at your expense.

Either way, have nothing more to do with him.

Newbie_John

Example rates from Octopus fixed tarrif:

E7: Night rate 12p, day rate 29p.

Same rate: 25p.

Random example for 1 bed flat - 2500 units for heating and 2000 everything else per year.

E7: 2500x12 + 2000x29 = £300+£580 = £880 a year.

Normal tarrif: £1125 a year.

So you can see storage heaters are roughly £250 cheaper / year than any other radiators, although they originally cost more.

The difference can improve much more if you use more at night or less during the day, or pick better tarrif with bigger price difference.

You could also switch every 6 months between E7 and standard (E7 winter, standard summer).

Reed_Richards

You could also switch every 6 months between E7 and standard (E7 winter, standard summer).

I suggest that you (or the retirement home) don't try this without first getting confirmation from the supplier that they will allow it.

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6671402/electric-radiators

I would strongly suggest that when they come up with a final plan, come back here and ask for opinions, as there are a lot of products out there that claim to be 'more efficient' and claim to store energy but are not in fact real storage heaters at all and will end up over promising and under-delivering.

squirrelpie

If he's unaware that a usable kWh of heat supplied by gas costs about three of four times that of one supplied by electricity

I think some explanation of this claim is probably in order?