Would I regret renting this house?

[SpeedyGonzalez]

Seen a lovely house online, in a good area, great schools, near friends, within our price range. On paper it ticks all the boxes, except that it doesn't have central heating - it has 'efficient storage heating' instead. It gets rather cold down here in winter - massive snowfall and all that. Will we freeze our tits off with storage heating?

Storage heaters are very expensive. There were 3 in my old house, the electricity bill was so high I asked for it to be checked, £400 for the winter (this was 7 years ago so the price would have risen alot since then), this was an old house though with old storage heaters, the new ones are more energy efficient and cheaper to run.
It may be cheaper to buy convector heaters.

My Dsis has storage heaters - they are expensive and crap too.

I think you would want to check either the Energy Proficiency thing which gives an idea of how much it will cost to run/heat the house.

I wouldn't - don't foget we have been having colder than usual winters recently - think you will all either be really cold or broke!

Hmm, yes I am concerned about the cost as well. Think I'll have to check that with the landlord, maybe ask to see last year's winter fuel bill.

We have storage heaters, and haven't found them that bad. In our old house, we used to have gas, and I was really frugal about how long I had it on. In this house, I don't have any choice! Does the house have economy 7? Ours does, and the storage heaters heat up at night, which makes a difference to cost. Our electricity bill is about 1200 a year.

Economy 7 is a lower electricity cost at night, if there's 2 readings on your electricity meter then it's economy 7.

We have done the same thing and have been living in a central heating free house for nearly 3 years. The electricity bill does seem to be high - we pay £84 a month electric!!!! And the storage heaters are not brilliant. BUT we live in a lovely albeit cold (in the winter) house and the dds have never really known any different. We pay cheap rent in an expensive area and the dds go to a really great school.

Saying this, I am not looking forward to the winter again - our 3rd - and will be getting the landlord to look at the damp - again.

I would say go for it.

Should have said that the £1200 a year is for a 5 bed house - so not small... (in case you think I'm boasting, we live in a cheap area, went for size rather than location!)

We don't have gas here, only electric, so our bill naturally is high, but I haven't found the storage heaters hugely more expensive than radiators on gas. They are a bit more expensive though. And the ones we have (do they all work like this?) are a PITA - you have to turn them up/down 24 hours before you need the heat up or down, because of the way they store heat overnight. Grrr.

Can't wait to leave them behind, frankly - for lack of convenience as much as cost. But in terms of heating the house, they are fine, honestly. Not freezing at all.