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Original poster

Storage heaters?

20 replies

LittleMissPeggySue · 20/06/2022 20:11

Night storage heaters - would this put you off buying a property? I've never really thought about it before as we have a gas boiler but I'm currently house hunting and have seen a lovely looking house in an area I like which appears to have night storage heaters. I can definitely see the upside of not having gas but are these a good alternative? Interested in opinions, good and bad.

OP posts:
Sharpkat · 20/06/2022 20:13

I have them and they are ridiculously expensive to run. However, I am unable to have Economy 7 due to my meter system. Would totally put me off buying a house with them ever again. Feels like you set light to a £20 note every time you turn one on.

Plump82 · 20/06/2022 20:16

My last place had them and id never buy a place with them again. I know you can get ones that can be over ridden so heat up instantly ( I think) but with the ones I had you had to know in advance if you would need the heating on so they could heat up over night with an Economy 7 tariff. They were also ridiculously expensive and didn't give off much heat at all.

RampantIvy · 20/06/2022 20:20

I would never have storage heaters. We had them in a holiday rental once. The first few days were cold and wet, and by the time the heaters started to work it had warmed up a lot.

They are worse than useless.

Noodledoodledoo · 20/06/2022 20:30

I had them in a house for 11 years, no gas to the property so the only option - oil also not possible.

I replaced them with new storage heaters, and if managed well do not cost that much - taking into account you don't have a gas bill as well.

I used the one in the downstairs hall to heat the majority of the house, upstairs ones were barely needed - took 24 hours to heat up as newer and so if the weather looked bad then I just switched it on in advance.

CoffeeWithCheese · 20/06/2022 20:30

They're my big non-negotiable in terms of housing these days after I rented a flat with them.

bloodywhitecat · 20/06/2022 20:31

I would never buy (or rent) a place with them ever again, they are useless and bloody expensive to run to boot.

GinIronic · 20/06/2022 20:32

I’ve got storage heaters. They work well for us. We have them on maximum input and minimum output. We have 8 - but we rarely put them all on at once as it’s too hot.

Orangesare · 20/06/2022 20:34

I lived in a recanted cottage with storage heaters and they weren’t great. It would have been fine if there had been a wood burner as well.
Now I live in a house with an ASHP and would much rather have storage heaters!

Pinkbonbon · 20/06/2022 20:37

Would never rent a flat with them again that's for sure. They never work and they burn a fortune.

But they'd only put me off buying a place if I couldn't afford to change them out for gas ASAP.

ILoveAllRainbowsx · 20/06/2022 20:37

My ex had them. They are rubbish. I would see if there is any way you could install gch. Ask if other people have done it or ring the National Grid.

ElizabethCaroline · 20/06/2022 20:39

We've currently got storage heaters in our flat and as others have said they are pretty terrible and expensive. However, we've decided to replace them with more modern storage heaters before winter. The newer versions are supposedly much better as they still run off the cheaper nightime electricity but have much more control over when the heat is released during the day. I think if they are new heaters and you know how to use them properly they can be efficient. We have to have electric heaters in our flat, no gas, so don't really have other options.

SecretVictoria · 20/06/2022 20:42

They are terrible. Way too expensive and don’t heat the same as a radiator.

bellac11 · 20/06/2022 20:45

We've had them in holiday cottages, awful things, useless

I would buy a property with them in, if the price took into account the need to rip them all out and install gas central heating but thats a lot of work.

Calmdown14 · 20/06/2022 20:49

I have them but I live in an area without gas so choices are more limited. I wouldn't choose them over central heating.

They can work okay if you are in a lot through the day but I think if you are used to the responsiveness of gas you'll struggle.

If the house is really well insulated I might consider it but once you lose your heat (open a window or door) it's hard to replace.

They also never quite get it toasty, it's more background warm. We haya woodburner so that's our main heat source. I keep the kitchen one on as that's where I work but I don't bother with the others unless it's about minus 10!

Haribosweets · 20/06/2022 20:59

I rented a house with them and they are awful. These were like 1950s heaters though so very old. We had 3 in the whole house and heated up over night. But we were at work all day so by the time we got home about 5pm they were hardly warm. Not great in winter. Also if you turn them off, the heat will still come out its not like a normal heater and it stops. We were economy 7 and our electricity bill was through the roof.

Original poster
LittleMissPeggySue · 20/06/2022 21:08

Thanks everyone, many of you said what I was thinking. I'll have a look at whether gas is possible in the area and what the costs are of getting it installed.

OP posts:
burnoutbabe · 20/06/2022 21:18

modern flat, with storge heaters, the flat is nice and warm (and we have people above, below and either side)

So depends on the property how well they work.

picklemewalnuts · 20/06/2022 21:24

They are great, I miss them. Ideally you want another heat source as well in case of an unexpected change in the weather.

They keep a great constant background heat. The older ones tended to leave you over hot in the morning and a bit cool in the evening.

If you understand how they work, the more modern ones are great.

SarahShorty · 20/06/2022 21:26

My first rental properly had them on economy 7. They are basically a stack of bricks with electrical coil running through them with a metal cover. The idea being that the coils heat the bricks up and the bricks store the heat and gradually let it off, hence the name 'storage heater'. They weren't perfect, though in their time electricity was readily available, cheap and thus more economical. Nowadays they are very expensive compared to gas-heated water and only really helpful in off-peak times because electricity is generally more expensive than gas.

RamblingEclectic · 20/06/2022 21:34

I bought a house last year with storage heaters. A weird mix of storage heaters - this place's heating seems to have been bolted on as and when (some by a company that hasn't existed in a while).

Originally, the heating was the first thing we were going to update, but then we decided to go through that first winter to get a better idea of what we needed. We were expecting a larger electric bill and budgetted accordingly, as I read a lot of things like the comments on here.

We found the planning the night before not really an issue. The cost of most of ours are fine, or at least weren't as bad as I feared and their heating worked well - it was actually better than the shit central heating we'd had in our old rental -
but one of the oldest ones out in the conservatory is a guzzler & some of the dials are damaged and once we spotted that, it got switched off entirely so I would suggest having a plan to montor usage.

We are planning to replace them in the next year or so for other electric radiators, but first we want to boost the energy efficencies/warmth in other ways to use less heating in general.

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