Dimplex Duoheat - experience?

rathga

Hi all

I bought a 2-bed flat two years ago that came with 80s-era storage heaters and I am considering replacing them as they don't always work all that well. I have heard that modern storage heaters and Dimpex Duoheat radiators work far better, but has anyone had any experience of using duoheat? I have read the literature on the website (and a few positive testimonials on this forum) but still have some unaddressed thoughts.

Currently I have two issues with my storage heaters:
- Even if I leave them on max overnight the flat is oven not warm enough at 8-9pm when I get home from work on weekdays.
- In the autumn/spring (like now!) it is not cold enough to put the overnight on, but it would be good to have some 'instant heat' now and again in the evenings on cold days.

My questions with duoheat would be:
- Can they be controlled to the extent that they emit minimal heat during the day, and then automatically ramp up at 8-9pm each day? Does the controller allow this detail of control?
- Even if they have been off the previous night and day, do they heat up quickly if you put the thermo up? (Understandably they would likely be drawing the peak-time juice in this scenario, but that's ok.)

Many thanks to anyone with any insight!

Cheers
Rathga

high-rise_andrew

thanks for the thread Op. I'm interested in reading the replies.

mute_posting

OP

It is possibly (need to do some sums) worth considering an Economy 10 tarrif (I assume you are on Economy 7 at the moment) where you get 3 periods of off-peak / charge to the storage heaters at something like, midnight to 5am, 1pm to 4pm and 8pm to 10pm

E10 rates are slightly more expensive (and only available via a few suppliers) but may be just what you need to make your current system work without spending money on new heaters (all storage heaters are 100% efficient energy wise regardless of age)

Just something to consider.

MP

Cardew

mute_posting wrote: »

(all storage heaters are 100% efficient energy wise regardless of age)

I think that quote needs qualification.

All forms of electrical heating are indeed 100% efficient at producing heat; so the new type of storage heaters like the Dimplex Duoheat will produce exactly the same amount of heat(for the same cost) as the 40 year old storage heaters to be found in many homes.

The problem with the older heaters is usually that their heat retention is nowhere as good as modern heaters and they 'leak' heat during the day. So if you are at work all day you will have a warm house in your absence! and run out of heat in the evening.

beer_tins

If it's any help, I've got some new storage heaters (just turned them off), they don't have any "top up" settings, but are still hot at night. I don't have the output on during the day though. I think the modern ones are much better than the old ones, as the bricks are denser (store heat longer, less thick heaters) and the insulation is much improved. Mine are Stiebel-Eltron heaters, but I expect the same is true for most modern heaters.

mute_posting

Cardew is spot on, I should have qualified my earlier statement with the controllability issues.

Just to clarify the angle I was approaching from...

It may not be cost effective in the short term to replace the heaters if a different tarrif would better suit your usage patterns.

Also, something like an E10 tarrif provides some off-peak between 8-10pm which you may find useful for your usage patterns.

HTH

MP

blue_monkey_2

Hi,

We installed the Creda Profile Plus panel heaters in 2 bedroms and the bathroom before the winter. We have just had our electric bill and we are (and I am surprised) £300 in credit. we used the heating the same as last year other than these heaters.

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Heating_Index/Panel_Heaters/

We have them on upstairs for a couple of hours in the morning and the evening, within 15 minutes the room is warm and we only ever had to have them on half heat, I beleive we have PLX1000 in the bedrooms and PLX750 in the bathroom. If we had been stying at the house (we rent and it is being sold) then we would have installed these all round as they look great and I think the worked a treat. You can get the same range that works from a control box and you set the zones up so that it is like central heating in that it works form a thermostat but you can set the bedroom to be cooler than the front room for example. The ones we have there is a front panel and it has a timer that you set up when you want it to go on and off. They are great, you can also switch them to all day if you want (we did this when it was snowing) but the 1000 seems to warm the bedrooms nicely.

I hope that helps. I would give them a thumbs up, they are not cheap but the saving on the electric has paid for itself in 6 months!!

Cardew

blue_monkey wrote: »

Hi,

We installed the Creda Profile Plus panel heaters in 2 bedroms and the bathroom before the winter. We have just had our electric bill and we are (and I am surprised) £300 in credit. we used the heating the same as last year other than these heaters.

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Heating_Index/Panel_Heaters/

We have them on upstairs for a couple of hours in the morning and the evening, within 15 minutes the room is warm and we only ever had to have them on half heat, I beleive we have PLX1000 in the bedrooms and PLX750 in the bathroom. If we had been stying at the house (we rent and it is being sold) then we would have installed these all round as they look great and I think the worked a treat. You can get the same range that works from a control box and you set the zones up so that it is like central heating in that it works form a thermostat but you can set the bedroom to be cooler than the front room for example. The ones we have there is a front panel and it has a timer that you set up when you want it to go on and off. They are great, you can also switch them to all day if you want (we did this when it was snowing) but the 1000 seems to warm the bedrooms nicely.

I hope that helps. I would give them a thumbs up, they are not cheap but the saving on the electric has paid for itself in 6 months!!

It should be pointed out to anyone who mis-understands this post that these Creda panel heaters are not storage heaters; like the Dimplex heaters in this thread.

Thus the running costs are equally as expensive as any other form of electrical heater running on a daytime tariff (for the same heat output).

That said, with their excellent controls and the relatively low installation costs, it can make them a sensible proposition for rooms that are not used a lot.

They make much more sense than the hugely overpriced electric CH systems that are marketed with such misleading information.

blue_monkey_2

Sorry, yes these are panel heaters and not storage heaters. They are so easy to use, set up and change the time that I would recommend them, they seem to have saved us a fortune this winter and that was with the price increase too as we was on capped rate last year. The place quoted above is local to us so we collected them but here are loads of other places that sell them. The ones we got are splashproof too and we have one in the bathroom. You can get them with or without timers and ours are the ones with the timers.

rathga

Thanks blue_monkey - good to have a decent recommendation

I have considered just getting panel heaters for the bedrooms (currently using oil-filled delonghi plug-in heaters in the winter at the moment) as these might work out cheaper vs storage heaters given the limited times heating is required.

Although it goes back somewhat to my original questions: can you control duoheat radiators to act in a similar way? Ideally they would function both as storage heaters and alternatively as big panel heaters, as and when required.

blue_monkey_2

I am not sure on the Duoheat to be honest. We had the same as you and used to use the flat panel oil heaters as well as the 2kw ones - they did make the room too hot at times so we wanted to switch and because I had them on low in the bedrooms I felt it was daftto have electric heating on in a room that we was only using at night. Creda do have the same sort of heaters and there are some generic ones about as well, the link above should give a list of them but there are so many to choose from. I would suggest giving Dimplex a call and asking them for advice.

There is one very good site and you can spend hours on there looking at all the heating options for electric based heating: http://www.dealec.co.uk/acatalog/Panel_Heaters.html

and: http://www.dealec.co.uk/acatalog/electric_central_heating.html

You might like this one: http://www.dealec.co.uk/acatalog/Creda_Eco_Response.html seems to work the same as the Duoheat http://www.dealec.co.uk/acatalog/Dimplex_DuoHeat_Radiators.html

Give them a call and see what they recommend but it is a very thorough site and there are so many ranges available for electric now. choose what you want and then Google the part numbers and see if you can get them cheaper