Talk to me about changing to all electric heating

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Has anyone done this? I am on LPG at the moment - connected to a gas farm but the cost is eyewatering. Nearly 60p a unit plus daily standing charge whether I use the wretched stuff or not. My boiler is on the blink and then this morning I was talking to someone in my village who installed modern electric radiators earlier this year and loves them.

I have an open fire in the sitting room and get a fair ammount of free logs so use this a lot. I use the immersion to heat my water - I only need it on for half an hour a day unless I have someone staying. I generally only put heating on for an hour in the morning to warm it up for DS and then sometimes in the evening for an hour or two if I don't have time to light the fire. However when I moved in earlier this year and tried to go on a monthly standing order with calor the price they quoted me for a 3 bed semi was £170 a month... It's just me and DS and neither of us can cope with hot houses! I could disconnect myself from the LPG farm and just use tanks for my cooker.

Some of the modern electric radiators look fab - has anyone any advice/experience?

Thank you.

I have no idea, but I am bumping your thread. We are buying a flat which is buy to let and it has an antiquated ecomony seven heating system. The tenant is complaing he is cold.

I lived in a flat many years ago with economy seven night storage heaters, which were utterly shite. I used to wear a hat to bed! I gather the modern heaters are a completely different ballgame!

You don't seem to use your heating very much so I think getting rid of the LPG element is probably a good idea as it is outrageously expensive and it sounds as if electric heating might be cheaper. Is the house yours or rented? If you are an owner-occupier, have you thought about green measures such as super-insulating and/or PV panels (Ikea now do them very cheaply!)?

BTW, I was recently renovating a flat with no gas connection and looked into these "smart" radiators. They seemed to work by being much more sensitive to the ambient temperature than traditional ones and turn themselves off if the room reaches a certain heat and then turn themselves on again when it cools down so, in theory, use less power. I wasn't convinced that the savings would be as the manufacturers claimed.

I also thought about electric UFH which seemed quite an efficient way of heating small areas for short amounts of time but decided against it because I wanted to put in wooden floors and I decided to insulate very well instead and that made the biggest difference.

there are people selling very expensive electric heaters which they will tell you magically produce more heat for less money.

It isn't true, all electric heaters produce the same amount of heat from the same amount of electricity therefore the same running cost for the same output.

Good thermostats and timers improve the accuracy of your heating so can cut costs and/or improve comfort, whether they are used with cheap heaters or expensive ones.

No doubt the people who spend a thousand pounds on a heater instead of twenty-five must convince themselves the heat is "better" and the heater is more beautiful.

I don't know the cost per kWh of bottled gas, but this year my electricity costs me 11.2p per kWh, and my mains gas is 3.6p per kwh (all ex VAT and plus standing charge). Electricity is an expensive source of energy.

I Agree with Piglet (as always).

Aim for the best levels of insulation all round and use thermostats and timers to reduce heating bills (what ever the fuel including electric).

I was impressed by air to air heat pumps and would at least investigate this option if I were you. This is certainly cheaper to run than any electric radiators.

There is a youtube clip here main by Worcester Bosch but many other companies also supply & fit them:
taraheating.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/air-to-air-heat-pumps-for-air.html

I have no personal experience, but have heard that air heat pumps stop working in frosty weather.

I am owner occupier but mid divorce and strapped for cash. I really don't have thousands to spend! My LPG is 52p per unit (a "LT" is that a litre?!) plus 13.5 p per day standing charge.

Piglet John, that's interesting re your comment about all electric heaters doing the same thing for the same money. Had a quick google before work and there are heaters that cost £££ hundreds, or heaters for £80. Will it really not make much difference?

Due to divorce it is quite possible I will move next year to somewhere smaller and therefore I dont want to make a big investment.

We just had all our storage heaters removed and replaced with modern electric ones. Our bills are on track to go down, plus our house is warm when we need it to be. We paid a bit more for a nicer one in the living room, it's no more efficient than the ones we had put in the rest of the house, but it looks nicer

What sort if price range were your heaters in?

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if these figures are accurate, LPG costs about half as much per kWh as electricity, after allowing for boiler efficiency.

Will it really not make much difference?

It will really not make any difference.

Thanks piglet John! That link is interesting. If LPG is so much less per unit then why does it seem to cost so much to use? Is that where a boiler cones in? Will a plug in heater be more efficient as there is no boiler in the equation and therefore use less?! Hmmm.

btw also look into replacing the open fire with a multi-fuel burner. 20% efficient goes to 80%.

listen to the good PJ - and all those on storage heaters, make sure you are on the right tariff. Modern storage heaters are more controllable but the laws of physics rule.

if you are using a boiler and radiators, you are presumably heating several rooms, and maybe the hot water cylinder as well. This will use more energy than heating a single room and sitting next to an electric heater. They have already allowed for boiler efficiency. CH also takes time to warm up, and continues to give out heat after it is turned off, which when heating a house is usually no bad thing, and you use the timers to turn on and off before you get up/go out/come home. Half an hour is fairly typical. A modern programmable thermostat for your CH is a great aid to comfort and economy (back to timers and thermostats again).

If you tried to heat the entire house using electricity, it would cost you far more.

What sort if price range were your heaters in?

We paid just over a grand for heating for 3 bedroom, hallway, living room and towel heaters in the bathroom and downstairs loo. Could have paid less for less attractive looking ones though.

Noarmani - from what Piglet John has said before I thought the "modern electric heating" was no cheaper than storage heaters, and depending on tarif could be more expensive? We use storage heaters to get the cheap heat at night - and looked at changing over to the day ones but from what piglet said it sounded more expensive. Looks much better though!

Pigletjohn is that right? Presumably"modern electric heaters" run on the day rate - whereas the storage heaters use the cheap night heat. Modern electric heaters wont be any more efficient than the old argos ones we have in the loft will they?

The only room in our house to get cold is the children's bedroom at night for some reason. We're thinking of a putting a cheap argos radiator in there, with its thermostat, and a timer on the plug.

We keep wondering about changing to gas, we'd love the controlability of it and gas cooking, but we are managing quite cheaply now we know how to use the storage heaters - and its warm all day, with no real matinence costs. From a different thread though we wondered if we ought to change over before selling.

Electric heaters are all equally efficient. If you pay hundreds of pounds extra you will perhaps get extra comfort from the warm glow of pride.

Storage heaters are rather tiresome if you are out all day, because they will be running down by the time you get home. They are not so annoying for people who are at home all day, and the night-rate electricity is cheaper than day rate.

Noarmani - from what Piglet John has said before I thought the "modern electric heating" was no cheaper than storage heaters, and depending on tarif could be more expensive?

Well they've worked out better for us as the storage heaters we had churned out all the heat by about 3pm and by the time we were home from work between 6-8pm the house wasn't warm enough. To be honest even if the new system does cost us more I'm happy to pay to be warm and not have to look at those nasty shit brown boxes stuck to the wall anymore. It's only been just over a week, but last week our electricity cost £20

Ah we changed tariff when we were thinking of changing to gas (they don't advertise it bizarrely) so we have a surge in the afternoon, so its still just under 21o even now. When we first had them we were cold in the evening too! Now luckily its always warm, I'm home much of the day so works out well.

They are massively unattractive - although ours our off-white so not as bad as brown!

I think our monthly payments are between 70 and 80 a month. I don't know weekly as we are on a direct debit. Next door to us got the normal-looking radiators (hence we posted on here to ask Piglet about them!) and they do look much better.

Wow, £20 is good.

I'd love to change my fire to a burner at the moment don't have the cash for the flue especially as I don't know if I'm going to have to sell the house or not.

I think for me part of the lure is getting away from calor and worries about boiler maintenance etc. there is no chance of getting natural gas where we are.

I have storage heaters. Part of my house is well insulated (mid terrace) and they work great. Part is poorly insulated (60s cavity wall, empty cavity) and they don't do well.

I would emphasize what has already been said that all electric heaters deliver the same amount of heat per kilowatt in. Night storage heaters you put loads in overnight (into bricks) when it's cheap, making the room a little hotter than you may choose first thing, and if you have good insulation it will last until night.

I'm having building work done soon and will be switching from night storage to Haverland radiators, which I was recommended (no idea if they are any good yet though!). There is a special electric tariff around here that I could get 18 hours at only slightly more than e7. I'm hoping it will be a little cheaper as you don't have to overfill them overnight to get them through the day.

Ours were like the first pic bloody hideous. I like the way they refer to it as vintage instead of old and shit.

Wow! Did you get any money for them on ebay for "vintage" value!!! I've not seen them before... Ours aren't at all attractive but look more like the ones on the right.