Heating Advice Required..

TheFear

Hi all, I was wondering if you could give me some advice on the below..

The place I have is a three bed two lounge flat that is the top floor of a detached property (circa 1900).

The village is electric only and the as such the house is currently equiped with night storage heaters and economy seven.

Not with standing the fact that the house has thin double glazed UPVC windows and needs some more insulation in the loft I was wondering what the best heating option would be.

The night storage heaters (2.5 kw each) are costing around £250 per quarter to run and as they are pumping out heat all day (when at work) the house still tends to be cold in the evening.

So I was wondering if it would be better to replace them with 600w oil filled panel heaters that could be run off timed switched and set up not to be heating the house when we are not here.

Does this seem like a sensible way to save money? Or is there better ways to save heating bills?

Thanks in advance.

penrhyn

Using day rate electricity ( with any type of heater) to heat your property is the most expensive way to go.
You should be able to adjust the output control on the storage heaters to conserve some of the heat until the evening, if they are really old one you might do better by replacing them.
Some energy companies offer an economy 10 tariff which gives another cheap rate period in the afternoon to top up the charge.
You've already mentioned the cheapest way to cut costs i.e increase your loft insulation to a depth of 10 inches, go round draft proofing where you can, have thick curtains and draw them in the evening to keep the heat in, O and wear a jumper.

AnnieLee

I`ve just bought one of those little halogen heaters to supplement my central heating and to use in summer to take the chill out of the air so I don`t have to use heating. They are brilliant, very energy efficient - on the lowest setting (400w) it costs approx 3p an hour to run. On mild days even without the central heating on it adequately warms the room on the lowest setting. They are inexpensive (minecost £15 but shop around, bargains to be had). They are light, safe to use with animals and children as they cut out if toppled over.