All electric heating....

[NikNak]

Hi all.... had my sister and bro-in-law asking the other day what they thought was the most 'effective' form of heating for their home.

Bearing in mind they are ALL electric, and have put up with night storage heating for donkeys years, any thoughts or views please.?

They've only got a small end terraced 3 bed, which is tile hung on the top. Only 3 'night' storage heaters throughout, and 'lecky bills are around £200 per month :shock: (no gas, obviously)

They've had a couple of quotes for new 'more efficient' storage heaters. Again just 3 heaters.... around the £3k mark :shock: :shock:

Bro-in-law is kinda liking the idea of oil filled rads that hang on the wall, that can be either on a timer or switched on when needed.

Anyone else out there whose all electric.? and what system of heating do you have/use, and are you happy with it and the running costs.?

Cheers guys'n'gals


Nick

 

[Beau]

Yes we are all electric but its a ground source heat pump so a bit of cheating. Electric heating is 100% efficient so someone offering more efficient night storage heating system is telling porky pies. They may hold the heat better for when it's needed but same amount of heat into the property per kWh. Sounds like they want to start by insulating as well is feasible and take it from there.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Might be an idea to attempt to work out how much is spent on water heating before working out other costs - we spent more on that than household heating, so any expected saving from a different or better system might not anywhere near as great as it would first appear.

 

[Droogs]

Funnily enough, about an hour after reading this thread, I saw an advert for a company called the "Electric Heating Company" EHC for short. They seem to specialize in wall mounted oil filled radiators tht you just fit and plug in. May be of help, I have no connection or experience of them but coculd be what you'r looking for

hth

 

[flh801978]

A friend of mine has an all electric property and he has conventional wet system fed from electric boilers that are about 100mm dia and 750mm long 2 of these on his system...very large airy conversion in a old victorian swimming pool !!!
the boilers from memory are about 15 kw each i have repaired both boilers in 6 years for him and one for a neighbour

 

[Fitzroy]

If you look at this from the point of view of physics a house at 20°C will loose a certain amount of heat to the environment, independent of how the house is heated the heat loss will be the same. Storage heaters are premised on the idea of thermal mass and the ability to heat them during a time of day when the electricity is cheaper, then release this heat into the house when the electric is more expensive. I could see heaters that have a greater thermal mass, or some kind of improved control system to allow this heat to bleed back in the house more efficiently, may marginally improve the situation but there is no physical basis on which a drastic improvement could be achieved.

The problem with electricity is that on an energy basis the price per unit energy is 2-3 times that of gas, so a similar energy usage on gas would be c. £67-100 per month, which is still high but not dramatically so, I'd suggest that the house is either kept very warm or is very inefficient at retaining the heat. I'd be considering improved insulation, windows, draft proofing, heater timers and nighttime tarrifs etc, before thinking of spending £3 on cleverer radiators.

F.