Electric Storage Heaters

[Valo]

My Mum lives in a flat with Dimplex Electric Storage Heaters, which are becoming increasingly temperamental to keep operating. She is on an Economy 7 Electrical Tariff with Scottish Power (Duel Meters)

She’s keen to get the storage heaters replaced with something that is more energy efficient and crucially gives her more control as to when and how her flat is heated.

Currently the storage heaters produce and store heat during the night using the cheaper rate electricity, provided on Economy 7 and expel the heat during the following day regardless if your in the flat or not. Ideally she would like thermostatic control over the system to produce heat when she wants it and shut it off when she doesn’t.

Has anyone gone down this route themselves or got any advice?

 

[Maccapacca]

She's either going to have to accept the additional cost of flat panel convector heaters for the convenience or look at more modern storage heaters with a thermostat and instant convector heating

http://www.dimplex.co.uk/products/domestic_heating/installed_heating/duoheat_radiator/index.htm

 

[LOAM]

Depending on what level of installation your Mum would accept you could look at some of the wet system electric central heating. We've used megaflow systems before by http://www.heatraesadia.com/373.htm and they are very good especially in flats where there is no gas supply. They will allow you to install a traditional wet system with radiators or underfloor heating if that's achievable. They aren't cheap though.

Other than that its as macca above.

 

[Valo]

She's either going to have to accept the additional cost of flat panel convector heaters for the convenience or look at more modern storage heaters with a thermostat and instant convector heating

http://www.dimplex.co.uk/products/domestic_heating/installed_heating/duoheat_radiator/index.htm

She has come back to me with this: http://www.economy-radiators.com/ as a way of giving her thermostatic control over the heating. I'm not to sure about it if I'm honest, but I have no idea about electric heating as I'm on Gas.

Depending on what level of installation your Mum would accept you could look at some of the wet system electric central heating. We've used megaflow systems before by http://www.heatraesadia.com/373.htm and they are very good especially in flats where there is no gas supply. They will allow you to install a traditional wet system with radiators or underfloor heating if that's achievable. They aren't cheap though.

Other than that its as macca above.

Thanks for the advice but that's a non-starter in this instance.

 

[Jonny69]

I used to have a flat with Eco 7 and storage heaters and it was eye-wateringly expensive to heat. Like you say, they're on all night and dump the heat in the flat during the day whether you're in the flat or not. By the evening, even if you had them shut during the day, they'd lost all their heat and you'd have to put them on boost on the peak electric rate which was ridiculously high. Same for the hot water, it had invariably gone cold by the evening and needed boosting on the peak electric rate.

I think it works well in offices etc where people are there during the day and out at night, but it doesn't work out cost-effective in domestic residences.

I always felt the answer was to ditch the Eco 7 and the storage heaters in favour of conventional electric heaters and a conventional electric supply. On a high-usage rate you pay a chunk up-front and you get a much-reduced unit rate. To confirm if it would work for her, you'd have to look at her consumption in kWh on both the meters and re-calculate it using one of the energy switching websites.