Oil filled radiators vs storage heating?

rob16d

I have two 1 KW oil filled radiators and some storage heaters...which is cheapest to room long term?

Cardew

Storage heaters

rob16d

Really I thought oil ones.....cos I dont heat the whole house....and I'm out till late afternoon so wouldn't benefit from day heat?

peeedoffandskint

i'd go with the oil rads myself, storage heaters are crap. yeah they may be cheaper to run but at least with oil filled ones theres heat when you want it and you can turn them off when youre warm

samtheman1k

rob16d wrote: »

Really I thought oil ones.....cos I dont heat the whole house....and I'm out till late afternoon so wouldn't benefit from day heat?

You didn't say that in your OP so was/still is impossible to say really...

spam-man

Ok, here is your answer.

First, Important Assumptions for this scenario:
i) With storage heaters you are on an Economy 7 tariff (no point having them if you are not!)
ii) With oil radiators you are on a Standard tariff.
iii) You have sufficient power in your storage heaters to last all day without using the "boost" during the day (i.e. at premium rate).

I have surveyed a number of energy suppliers*, and typically Economy 7 offers:
i) half price electricity for 7 hours during the night (vs Standard tariff)
ii) more expensive electricity (+20%) during the day (vs Standard tariff)

Hence, if you have a 3.4kw storage heater in a room, you would run this for up to 3-4 hours during the night, (i.e. with electric at half price if on an Economy 7 tariff).
This would give you heat in the room all day.

Alternatively, you could run the 2kw oil radiators system for roughly 3.5 hours at the same total cost.
This would give you heat for around 4 hours or so as the radiators cool down.

Please note that if you are using a storage heater/Economy 7 solution, you will pay a 20% premium on all the rest of your electricity usage. Hence this only works out really cost effective if you make the most of the cheap rate night-time electricity by heating a hot water tank during the night at the reduced rate.

If using this solution, I'd suggest you double-insulate your hot water tank with an extra jacket to help avoid the need to boost the hot water in the afternoon/evening. An extra hot water jacket costs around £10-£15 in most DIY stores.

Hope this helps,
Mark

N.b. For more info on hot water jackets, have a look at the Energy Saving Trust website, under:
Home Improvements > Heating and Hot Water > Hot Tips

* Energy Companies surveyed in this study were Southern Electric/ Scottish Hydro/ Scottish Power

spam-man

I've just spent the last 3 hours working out if I would save from moving from oil-filled radiators to a storage heater solution (using Economy 7).

I live in a 3 bedroom house (solid brick walls, which suck out the heat). I use the dining room as an office, so am planning storage heaters in four rooms (living room/hall/dining room) with oil-filled radiators in the bedrooms and bathroom.

My current electricity bill is around £2,000 - it looks like I will save around £400 per year by switching to storage heaters (using Economy 7).

In order to run storage heaters (certainly the bigger 2.55kw and 3.4kw ones) requires separate wiring as they would risk overloading the standard circuits. I've got a sparkey coming round tomorrow to give me a price to have the wiring put in.

As far as I know, it's free to ask your electricity company to change your standard meter to an Economy 7 meter.

For £400, it's worth investing in some new wiring and storage heaters.

Looking forward to the savings.

Best,
Mark

P.S. If you live in a solid brick property, I've found insulated wallpaper called Sempatap (insulated wallpaper) that can really cut down your heating costs.