Storage Heaters - Advice needed

gemlcoleman

Hi

Me and my boyfriend have been looking for a plce to rent and may have finally found somewhere within our (restricted) budget. only two cons - the windows look a bit dodgy (not double glazed, may be rotting?) and the place only has storage heaters and not central heating.

Has anyone got any experience with storage heaters? do they cost a fortune to run?

Any advice would be HUGELY appreciated

derrick

They do cost a lot to run and they are usually on an economy 7 type meter,they heat up during the night and emit the heat during the day wether you need the heat during the day or not, so if you have a warm day or you are out all day and do not need the heat then as you have already paid for the electric during the previous night,there is nothing you can do

MarkyMarkD

I don't agree that they NECESSARILY cost a huge amount to run.

If your room is adequately insulated (and you don't leave the doors and windows open) they can work very effectively. We had them in a student house years ago and the cost was OK compared to gas central heating.

Some of my fellow students were stupid and left their doors/windows open and their rooms were cold in the evening. My room was toasty all the time because I kept everything shut (cling film on the windows even).

All the above said, gas central heating is easier to control and slightly cheaper even if you use the storage heaters very efficiently.

Feisty_Fairy

Hi there!

I live in a 3 bed semi with only 2 economy storage heaters to heat the whole house! There is myself, partner and 2 children. We manage just fine, but we do have a small heater in each of the childrens rooms (oil heaters). these are generally on very low through the night if it is very cold, but if not too bad then we switch on for an hour when they go to bed and switch off again later.

Obviously we would love to have proper central heating but our village is all electric (out in the sticks!). so we have to make do.

Our bills are not bad but we are not at home during the day so you would have to think about whether you would be using heating a lot through the day.

hope this has been of some help to you, let us know what you decide to do by posting!

Bets of luck and take care

Regards

Feisty!

gemlcoleman

Thank you for your replies

Looks like were going to move in - i will just have to wait and see if we a) freeze to death, or b) starve to death from lack of funds from huuuuuge leccy bills!!

only joking, im sure it wont be that bad! (fingers crossed)

Anyway I really appreciate your replies, i know its not the most thrilling topic, so thanks again for making the effort!

by the way does anyone know if scottish power manweb have stopped that thing on economy 7 where you get a few cheap hours in the afternoon?

Gem xx

MarkyMarkD

I think you can only tell that by looking at your meter, which will have on/off metal tab thingies probably showing where Ec 7 starts and finishes.

We have only ever had overnight 7 hours economy 7 here.

djohn2002uk

I think Marky is correct here, there used to be provision for a boost between 2 and 4 in the afternoon but thought that finished 20 years ago. No mention here of a boost, just Day or Night tarrifs. http://www.uswitch.com/Energy/help/issues/economy7.asp?ref=