I can't believe they built blocks of flats without central heating in the 1980s..

[SpottyGreenFrog]

Does anyone else know about this & what the rationale was at the time? I can't believe they got away with it. I've recently started helping a friend refurbish flats and we're now on our 3rd flat (all in purpose built blocks) that has no provision for heating, I just don't understand it. It's not like they're old enough to have had open fireplaces to heat the place, there's nothing at all! The floors are solid concrete, the outer walls brick and the inner dividing walls are studwork on battens. In each case we've stripped back to the bare bones and there's no evidence of previous surface mounted pipework, nor anything buried. The blocks were all built in the 80s, one of 12 flats (4 stories high) & two of 18 respectively (6 stories). Privately owned I should add. Did developers routinely not put central heating in back then & you'd 'choose' to have it fitted? I just don't get it. It goes without saying that there were damp issues in each of these flats. I should add there were no grills nor provision for a hot air system either. I'm flummoxed.

Electric storage heaters were the norm in the 80s for flats, or possibly wall-mounted electric radiators. It was the era of Economy 7 electricity.

My first flat which was built in the 90s had electric storage and panel heaters.

Storage heaters on Economy 7? We quite liked them actually, not expensive to run in our little flat.

It was all storage heaters back then.

That makes sense, electric wall heaters... Although I don't know why they aren't still in position now? Come to think of it, there were no power points on the wall where you might expect a radiator to be -under the windows. Very strange.

My first flat that I bought in 1999 didn't have central heating - it has only become expected within the the last 20 years max

I lived in an 80s built flat in the mid 90s - the storage heaters weren't under the windows iirc.

No ours were on internal walls.

They were on the back wall not under the window

I think they weren't put under Windows because 1. they were bulky; and 2. You weren't supposed to cover them or dry washing on them, etc so curtains hanging over them were a no-no.

That's me told then! You learn something new every day!

I've clearly lived a very sheltered life

It is a bit odd that 3/3 have had heaters ripped out and not replaced though, unless they've all been ransacked.

I've lived in a few places and only ever seen central heating radiators under windows. Never realised it til now! All flats with electric heaters have been on non-window walls. Also I never even realised, I've only ever seen central heating in houses. All flats I've lived in have had electric heaters.

I viewed several new build flats around 2008-9 which had electric storage heaters. No gas supply at all. I assumed it was either to do with cost or safety.

Heating systems are going to reflect whatever is economical and/or popular at the time
if in the future we have renewable electricity say from super efficient solar cells then we may go back to ubiquitous electric heating

gas supplies to certain types of multistory flats were ripped out following a disaster when one partly fell down after a gas explosion in one of the kitchens.

(the corner nearest the photographer in this pic

so maybe gas fell out of favour.

There were complaints about the safety of the gas pipes in Grenfell Tower.

Or it might just have been that the developers didn't want to spend on installing it, when it's the tenant who has to pay for electric heating.

Electric heaters (including storage) must not have anything flammable on them, such as towels or curtains, maybe that's why they're placed on blank walls.

better pic

the missing corner is not part of the design, it fell down.