Storage Heater alternatives on a small budget?

[Gibbsbasement]

Hi,

I moved into a 1950's house that has storage heaters that I think were installed in the 1980's.

They are really inefficient, bloody expensive to run, and so, so enormous and ugly.

There is no gas in the village so that's not a viable alternative, nor is the installation of an oil fuelled wet system (oil tank placement would be problematic).

Do I need to just suck it up or is there a cost effective way to heat my home with electricity, that is both easier on the eye and on my pocket?

In terms of finding something more discreet, I was quite impressed by the infrared panel heaters I saw in a local restaurant. I believe you can even ceiling mount them, if you want to; or have them like a piece of artwork or a mirror on the wall.

Presumably you have E7 or one of the other overnight tariffs?

We were in the same position, in an all electric (nothing else possible) flat that we refurbished a couple of years ago. In the end, we purchased new storage heaters which are pretty good. Much more controllable and effective - and a lot smaller. Bills are reasonable and still less than our combined gas/electricity bills in our previous small house.

They were quite expensive to buy though. Your other option I guess, is electric heating using standard plug in heaters. More expensive to run but cheaper to buy (some of our neighbours do this). You could have them on a timer to control costs and in case you forget to switch them off.

There's an amazing, helpful and knowledgeable MN user called PigletJohn who might have good advice if you give them a shout out?

Thanks for replies.

Persipan - I've not looked at infrared heaters before, will do some research.

RedRosie - yes, E7, so the storage heaters are charging over night, house too warm in the morning, then cooler in the evening when you want to sit down and relax in the warm, so am also using an oil filled radiator and sometimes from mid afternoon when i minus temperatures during the day like it was here last week.

The replacement/ new storage heaters still look quite bulky. Do they emit heat overnight as they charge? (My current ones do).

New storage heaters allegedly have better bricks inside. I'll leave you to research that one. Do the controls on yours work? They will leak some heat as they charge but you should be able to block it off.

Electric heating is expensive and unit prices will continue to rocket. That's renewables for you.

New storage heaters now have to have both a peak and off peak supply I believe, so this may require additional wiring from your consumer unit to each heater, and this can be costly. You could look at programmable heaters (Rointe do some, but there are plenty of others available). You'd then have to switch off an economy 7 tariff to a normal one or they would be very expensive to run.

I think old ones are just less efficient. There is much less leaking heat with the overnight charge (but a little I guess). We have them in the bedrooms but don't use them (like a cool bedroom). They also have a built in normal heating function if you need it/get caught out by weather ... We haven't used this I don't think, but there is instant heat for emergencies.

They are quite neat and overall they are fine actually - but were expensive so you have to weigh it all up. You might be better with modern panel heaters and they'll be cheaper/better looking.

We actually have E9 which along with E10 is a crazy tarrif for heating and water heating (only) that you can't get anymore but that we can remain on if we choose to. So we get 7 hours overnight and another 2 in the afternoon (meaning you get a boost for the evening). This has worked really well for WFH. It is a modern, well insulated flat though. We've never had to turn the inputs up high and the temperature in our living room hasn't gone below 20 degrees in the late evening this winter. Hopefully I can turn them off in April.

Yes - as @hotchocdrinker notes above ... Ours have a peak and an off peak supply. We just don't use the peak supply.

The price of new storage heaters is so enormous that I doubt it is worth buying new ones.

Are you sure you are on an E7 - type tariff, with cheap night time electricity? Have a look at the price per kWh.

Some suppliers may offer an improved tariff with an afternoon top-up

the trouble with storage heaters is that they give off their heat during the day, which is no good if you are usually out at work, though they are popular with families having small children, or older retired people who like to get up and go to bed early.

For a bedroom, I suggest an oil-filled radiator. It will run at the cheap rate during the night, and in most cases you will not need the bedroom to be heated during the day.

We installed electric panel radiators by Millheat in a couple of rooms that we don’t use often, they’re WiFi controlled so completely programmable, and work really well.

You could switch to electric heaters and change your tariff to a normal one. This way you're only paying for the heat when you need it and your day rate price will be lower.
I find that the weather has become so changeable from week to week/ day to day that often you've got heat that you don't need on that day (or that time of the day).
So over the year you may use less electric on heating than you would with storage heaters.
I don't think you'll ever find out which is best/cheapest until you switch methods.

... oh, and when you're looking into different non storage heaters don't get swayed by all the stone filled/holds heat longer/efficiency nonsense. A kw of heat uses a kw of power to produce. They may hold the heat longer, but they take longer to heat up than convectors and vice versa.

I wasn't aware that new storage heaters needed two supplies, that would be too large an additional cost for me as would require new consumer unit and major works to channel in wires, plastering, and making good the decoration in every room.

Looks like panel heaters or similar and a change of tariff are the way forward. Ideally programmable, slim, and effective for size. Does anyone have any recommendations?

We had this put into a small modern flat. It is an oil filled panel radiator, unfortunately I can’t remember the make, but it is fully programmable for on/off across different days. I think it cost about £350 all installed, but that was all they did, so if you were doing more and it was a days work, per unit price would be better if you see what I mean.
There used to be a huge storage heater there. I had to have the wall redecorated after, but we were re doing the whole flat anyway.

I understand that it is very reasonable to run, and works very well.

Another vote for oil filled, we have no central heating in the loft (yet) and it's freezing as poorly insulated. We have an electric oil filled radiator (about £30) plugged in - I switch it on in the morning and leave it to run for a couple of hours (then switch it off, and on again for a couple of hours in the afternoon) and the whole room is warm for the rest of the day while I work in there. Surprisingly efficient and doesn't cost as much in electricity as you'd think.

@Gibbsbasement

I wasn't aware that new storage heaters needed two supplies, that would be too large an additional cost for me as would require new consumer unit and major works to channel in wires, plastering, and making good the decoration in every room.

Looks like panel heaters or similar and a change of tariff are the way forward. Ideally programmable, slim, and effective for size. Does anyone have any recommendations?

they don't all need two supplies. This is in case you want to have a storage heater, and a ordinary panel heater, inside the same case. The second heater/supply just runs off an ordinary untimed socket, such as you already some somewhere in the room.

We've got Dimplex Q-rad's in our bedrooms (still old storage heaters in the main living parts). I think they were better value than the Rointe/Fisher alternatives.
Shop around as you might be able to save quite a bit.
They're easy to install (just put a plug on and you can plug it into a socket) and wall mount.
www.dimplex.co.uk/q-rad

PigletJohn I would still need to put in an extra supply/ socket in each room as none of the existing power sockets are close to the storage heaters, and there aren't enough sockets in each room to spare. For example in each of the bedrooms there are just two single sockets at present, with fused individual switch extension leads snaking across the floor.

Food for thought, thank you everyone.