Night Storage or Oil Central Heating

bivvyman

Hi there , we are currently converting / extending our attached garage into living accommodation for my father who is 86 years young . The area will be 24ft x 14ft - open plan with an enclosed wet room. We currently have Oil Central heating and the plan was for 4 radiators on a separate zone.

With the price of oil :mad: should we be considering night storage instead . The latter would be significantly cheaper to install as modifying our existing CH system is not cheap.

Is there a calculation ( easy to understand !) to show the comparison of both sources of heating - the flexibility of CH is understood though my father will need a higher mean temperature than most people

The accommodation will be well insulated.

Any input most welcome

Paul

Cardew

Economy 7 is generally cheaper for heating and hot water than oil when you compare the price per kWh.

However you pay more for your daytime electricity when you have Economy 7, so that will reduce/cancel any savings or even mean you pay more. It all depends on your pattern of Electricty comsumption.


There are so many variables that it is not really possible to answer your question accurately:-

Price of Oil

Price of Economy 7(varies by supplier/area of the country)

Price of daytime electricity(ditto)

Overall consumption of electricity

Efficiency of oil boiler.

It is also pertinent to point out that the big disadvantage of storage heating is that it can run out of heating during the day; and need topping up at high day rates. For your Father requiring a higher mean temperature this could really increase the running costs.

For me it would be a no contest - oil.

EnergyMan_3

Hi there

Do you already have an economy 7 meter, or just a standard meter?

From my experience, i have seen a lot of properties with oil central heating have economy 7 (dual rate) meters. If you do have one, but are currently being billed on a standard tariff, contact your supplier and get them to work out if you will be more beneficial on an economy 7 meter based on your current consumption - you may be better off, or just a tad worse off.

I have a 4 bed house with gas central heating, but some how am better off on economy 7?! prob because i use my dishwasher early in the morning and dont use much during the day.

If you find out you are a little worse off on e7 ( by £10-£15), then i would go for the storage heater option anway:

several reasons:

1) you can use dishwashers, tumble dryers and washing machines during the night time on cheap rate, therefore reducing your day time rate which is charged a lot higher
2) storage heater cheaper to install.

if you just have a standard meter, then maybe even consider converting to e7 if you dont use a lot of elec during the day anyway.

even one radiator on your oil central heating system can increase your oil consumpion by a lot!