Electric Heating

nesk21

Hi,

I'm looking at buying a new flat and weighing up the costs of everything...

Wondering how much electric heating costs, i've been told some scary stories regarding storage heating and costs...

Looked at flat today and its all electric the only source going into the flat, I wondered how much fuel costs would be per month.

The sales patter was good and explained the heating was not the same as the old electric heaters and much more efficient... I guess what I'm asking is, are electric heaters for flats anygood and how much roughly can I budget paying each month...

Any ideas be most grateful

kellymundy

It depends on a number of things. How many bedrooms does the flat have? How many heaters does it have? Are they storage heaters or ones you switch on when you need them?
I sold a 2 bed flat last year that had 2 storage heaters and 1 switch on heater and my monthly spend in the winter was around the £50-£60 mark which I don't think is to bad but then prices have gone up a little since then.
Hope this helps.

Cardew

nesk21 wrote: »

Hi,

I'm looking at buying a new flat and weighing up the costs of everything...

Wondering how much electric heating costs, i've been told some scary stories regarding storage heating and costs...

Looked at flat today and its all electric the only source going into the flat, I wondered how much fuel costs would be per month.

The sales patter was good and explained the heating was not the same as the old electric heaters and much more efficient... I guess what I'm asking is, are electric heaters for flats anygood and how much roughly can I budget paying each month...

Any ideas be most grateful

Do a search on this forum and you will get loads of answers.

Essentially all electrical heating from the oldest to the latest is 100% efficient and all this sales patter is rubbish - these modern heaters give out exactly the same heat, for the same cost, as your grandmother's old 1/2/3 bar fire.

The reason they install electrical heating is that it is very cheap to install - period!!

That said non-storage electrical heating(i.e. running on a daytime tariff) is the most expensive form of heating available. Roughly twice the cost of oil and 3 times the cost of gas.

Storage heating is much cheaper, but is not particularly user friendly.

The one advantage both forms of electrical heating has, over gas and oil, is that it is virtually maintenance free.

nesk21

Thank U :-)

nesk21

It has 2 bedrooms. there are about 6 heaters, said you can switch them on as and when you need, or put a timer on so that they work overnight...

nesk21

Ah just found it, they are Creda electric storage and panel heaters...

Bongedone

I have a brand new all electric one bed flat. Being brand new it has good levels of insulation.

I have one Credanet storage heater in the living room and one Creda panel heater in the bedroom. A heated towel rail/heater in the bathroom. My hot water is a thermal store.

The Creda panel and bathroom heater use on peak electricity.

My electricity bill is £32 a month.

There is a difference between old heaters and new. The old heaters leak more heat during the day when you may be at work. This is wasteful. New heaters are much better insulated.

EDIT: I should point out that the flat is also low energy lighting throughout except the bathroom.

mute_posting

Bongedone wrote: »

I have a brand new all electric one bed flat. Being brand new it has good levels of insulation.

I have one Credanet storage heater in the living room and one Creda panel heater in the bedroom. A heated towel rail/heater in the bathroom. My hot water is a thermal store.

The Creda panel and bathroom heater use on peak electricity.

My electricity bill is £32 a month.

There is a difference between old heaters and new. The old heaters leak more heat during the day when you may be at work. This is wasteful. New heaters are much better insulated.

EDIT: I should point out that the flat is also low energy lighting throughout except the bathroom.

Does £32 pcm cover your usage over the year or just the suppliers estimated usgage?

Bongedone

Usage over the year. I have been in the flat for 18 months. It was originally £35 but they reduced it to £32.

I put that down to replacing the kitchen spot lights with CFL equivelents. Originally 200w now 28w. The OH likes to use them as back lights.

mute_posting

Bongedone wrote: »

Usage over the year. I have been in the flat for 18 months. It was originally £35 but they reduced it to £32.

I put that down to replacing the kitchen spot lights with CFL equivelents. Originally 200w now 28w. The OH likes to use them as back lights.

Sounds all good stuff - I need to do similar myself. When I was renovating my flat all the new fittings came with bulbs, I now need to start replacing these with more energy efficient ones.

Bongedone

mute_posting wrote: »

Sounds all good stuff - I need to do similar myself. When I was renovating my flat all the new fittings came with bulbs, I now need to start replacing these with more energy efficient ones.

The bulbs are still quite expensive though. I got some from eBay and a couple came as free samples.