Electric Heating

[imdad]

Hi there,
Please help. We’re about to complete on a purchase of a 3-bed semi; built in about 1988 it’s not that old and has cavity walls etc.

Currently it has night storage heaters - they are Dimplex and probably date back to when the house was built.

There is no gas but it’s available in the road. The cost of connecting has and installing a whole new CH system will be around £5k.

Are there any cheaper electric alternatives. I really HATE pipes and would love to not have them but I’m reading reviews and articles that is suggesting electric is so expensive to run!

We do not want night storage heaters. I’ve looked at electric radiators but am fearful that they don’t heat that well, when they do heat it escapes very quickly too! The worst thing is that apparently it costs SO MUCH!

Would someone who has something please let me know electricity costs per month?

I’m so confused and just need to hear what amount others are paying. Appreciate that it depends on how much we turn them on , insulation of the house and a million other factors but overall, just some ideas of costs would be great.

Very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

When not burning wood in my multi fuel stove I use oil-free radiators [1.5kw in small rooms, 2kw in larger rooms £72-£95] which I find heat the room I am in quickly and it's a pleasant heat.

My bills are not horrendous but I tend to use the radiator in the room I am in and shut the door. So I'm not heating the whole house. I put one on in the bedroom about 25mins before I go to bed so the room is comfortable.

If you are taking out storage heaters change the tariff from economy7 or 10 to a normal tariff or the electricity you use in the day time will be a lot more per kw.

kilowatt is a kilowatt . Flashy German heaters are no more efficient.

electricity is between 14p and 19p a.unit. 3kw heater uses 3 units an hour. There you go.

Thanks for that. You’re right - a kw is a kw but I am confused whether it is all about the difference in radiators. I have read some that apparently are so effective that it runs at full power for 10/15 minutes then runs at reduced power until thermostat recognises more power is needed and repeats the cycle.... in just worried that convector heat rapidly goes away once turned off!

Aaahhh - my brain is fried!

Thanks

Imdad, we inherited Fischer Radiators with our house and would not recommend them at all. They are so expensive to run in our old house. We can spend over £100 a week in winter and the house isn't even warm (13 deg with periods of 16 deg before bed and mornings etc)

Also that is without the initial outlay! If you are keeping electric then they really are all the same. 1kw of electric converts to 1kw of heat. The ones that claim to heat for 15 then reduced power for 45 still use the same amount of electric over the space of an hour as any other radiator (It is just concentrated into the first 15 mins!)

You should look at gabarrion heaters my electrician friend suggested them we used to have storage in our place and the really large one we have is only 1.5kw and they are very heat sensitive and heat quickly we find them same price as our oil heating was at old house.

I don't have gas to my house, built around 1995 so well insulated etc.

I have underfloor heating in conservatory, and night storage heaters in Hall & 2 bed rooms, not in lounge - an electric fire.

Even on the coldest days last year I didn't need the heater on in my room, and only had it on low in the other rooms. Electric bills are no higher than the gas + electric at my old draughtier house which had log burners.
I do love blankets though which prob helps when it gets colder, but the house is insulated enough to keep the warmth in nicely.

Nemesia - this is what I’m afraid of. I have read some awful amounts of money being spent per week/month and some not so bad. Currently - gas and electric (in current House) cost about £150 per month for both fuels. That’s not too bad but anymore and I’d find that difficult!
Thanks again for ideas/experiences.

Palmer1983 - I’ll google them now!

We live in a relatively new town house with only electric.
Normal radiators but obviously the water is heated by electricity and its ridiculously expensive to keep the house warm.
When we first moved in last November and used the heating like we normally would the bill was almost £400 for a month.
We now use 1kw electric heaters in in 3 rooms and only to take the chill out of the room and only when we're in them and manage to keep the bill at about £200. Water heater is only on for an hour a day, dishwasher on every other day and washing machine 3 times a week.
I would stump up the price to get gas connected if you can afford it, you'll save money in the long run and after a winter being cold or skint I'm sure you won't care about the pipes!

We rented a electric only property for 6 months. Quarterly the bill was £400 as it was mostly over the colder months. Didn't help that it was a really old property so the minute you switched off the heaters, it was freezing again. I wouldn't recommend it.

29 kwh = 1 Therm.
29 kwh = £4.06, at an average of 14p for 1 kwh
1 Therm costs between 35 and 53p, average of 44p.
So gas is around 11% of the price of electricity.

In the long term it would make sense to invest £5k in getting gas.

I've got the new electric ones and they are good, cost about £6000 to install and keep the house toasty, they switch off after they reach the optimum heat then switch back on when the heat drops. In winter I can spend about £20 to £30 more a week on heat but there is no gas in my village and couldn't afford the outlay for oil which is also expensive.

We have a similar age house that had night storage (ex local authority). I investigated all the electric heating (Piglet John on here was v helpful!). There is no way to use electric on a normal rate that is not expensive. Our next door neighbours installed an electric "central heating" system that promised the bees knees pretty much in order to sell the property - the current people have found it craxy expensive...

We managed to use night storage efficiently (theres an electric rate with an extra afternoon hour "boost" that varies day today but is what saved us from cold evenings. A friend told us to ring and ask for it though as its not advertised. That was worth it as we worked out how to "manage.")

However installing central heating is still the best thing weve done. We initially did it for resale value but it has been invaluable and winter is a completely different experience. We got several quotes and we dont have any visible vertical pipes. I'd have to check what he did - another house has them and they look awful. We specifically asked the people who quoted about seeing pipework.The only place we have pipes that stand out arealong thehallway and they've been boxed in but its worth it!

Also when we changed to these ones we came off economy seven and had one flat rate all day I think it was about 11p per kWh we have six of these in ours 3 at 1kw one is 1.5 and the other two 0.75 so 6 kw but we don't have them all on at once we time them to come on when we would be using those parts of the house..but I must admit to have central heating would be nice just gas wasn't available in our village and oil I think is too pricey.

Ive just checked and there are water piped running up a corner in our kitchen but its not visible as we have shelving! I had to ask partner where they were. Different installers had given us different options and it was important to me I didnt have lots of visible pipes. Upstairs its run in the floor (dont have floorboards - have concrete so he ran a channel for them and it pops up by the radiator)

Any more views? Opinions? Experiences?

First question is, can you easily add more insulation? This will always give you the biggest 'bang for buck'. In most cases this means put as much extra into attic as possible.
An 80s house probably won't have insulin below the floor - if there is a crawl space you could perhaps greet some insulation in there. Walls could be tricky/disruptive to improve but take advice.
Then check draught seals on windows and doors and check around skirting boards and floors for any gaps and fill with Pu foam caulk.
Once you've reduced the potential energy usage wherever practical then think about heating system.
I'd personally live with existing system initially to see if it would work for my family lifestyle and to monitor usage but assuming it doesn't suit you, you could consider an ASHP (air source heat pump) or GSHP (ground source heat pump) ASHP works like air conditioning in reverse - draws heat from outside air, GSHP draws it from the ground (but needs a coil or borehole in the garden so may not suit you).
This website www.greenmatch.co.uk/heat-pump
gives a decent summary of systems but I can't vouch for their quotation service.
You can get between 2-4kw of heat output from 1kW of electricity input.
You can also get RHI payments for each unit produced for the first 7yrs - I think it's around 10p per unit but the scheme is tweaked by govt periodically so check here www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-programmes/domestic-rhi/about-domestic-rhi/changes-scheme
A few bods in our village (no gas) have installed either air and ground source and all are happy with returns/savings.
NB the heat pumps work best with low temp heating over a longer period (compared with gas boilers which use higher temp for shorter cycles) so need either bigger surface area radiators or underfloor heating. This isn't an issue for you because you're not trying to work with existing rads. You could use rads or an overlay UFH system fitted on top of existing floorboards. (E.g. www.polypipe.com/housing/polypipe-underfloor-heating/underfloor-heating/overlay-system )
I've got no affiliation to any of the links and there will be other similar suppliers / sources of info.
Hope this helps, good luck