Could anyone advise if these are serious issues?

[Aragorn84]

Isnt all electric heating essentially 100% efficient by its very nature?

The issue isnt efficiency, its simply cost per kwh.

Economy7 gives you a better price per kwh, but storage heaters are somewhat inconvenient things, and still dont come close to gas in terms of cost.


Nervous: Yeh, fair enough, this is why i asked if it was the norm. If its all thats available theres little you can do about it. I was just raising the point as you may not have been aware of the cost implications!

 

[crystal ball]

Reading the trade mags theres some quite efficient ways of electric heating nowadays, you must remember not paying a gas standing charge will also help offset the cost a little.

How are they more efficient?

 

[crystal ball]

Isnt all electric heating essentially 100% efficient by its very nature?

The issue isnt efficiency, its simply cost per kwh.

Economy7 gives you a better price per kwh, but storage heaters are somewhat inconvenient things, and still dont come close to gas in terms of cost.


Nervous: Yeh, fair enough, this is why i asked if it was the norm. If its all thats available theres little you can do about it. I was just raising the point as you may not have been aware of the cost implications!

E7 or E10 tariff and maximise the off peak rates by heating water and running appliances like driers during the night

Also another plus for storage heaters, very little or no maintenance, no boiler servicing or repairs

I have never seen a true cost analysis comparing gas and electric heating which took account of all the outgoings

 

[JohnW2]

Isnt all electric heating essentially 100% efficient by its very nature?

Yes, in terms of the efficiency of conversion of electrical energy into heat, that's obviously essentially true. However, the heat produced (particularly by storage heaters) may not be introduced into the environment at the times, and at a rate, taht one really wants, so there is scope for it to be 'inefficient' in terms of heating a building as one would like it heated.

Kind Regards, John

 

[OwainDIYer]

Storage heaters might not be economical if you are out at work all day; they store overnight heat and are (if sized correctly) adequate for releasing the heat during the day, but often require some top-up heating eg decorative electric fire in the lounge during the evening.

If you're out during the day and just need to heat the house in the evening and briefly in the morning, ordinary electricity may be no more expensive - there's less competition in the E7 tariff market.

Fan assisted storage heaters are bulkier and more expensive to buy, but better at storing heat.

 

[OwainDIYer]

Do not be tempted by 'magic German clay filled heaters' - they cost £hundreds and are no more economical to run than a £20 convector heater from Argos.

 

[Iggifer]

I've had some (limited, I try not to use electrical heat where possible) success with the oil filled type radiators.

Some of the benefits of storage heaters and radiators combined I guess.

I would never use a straight convector heater as the main source of heat though, you may aswell get £1 notes from Scotland and burn them to keep warm!

 

[ericmark]

It sounds as if your describing my mothers house. With old rubber wire and wired 1952 with loads of alterations.

As to real danger clearly we lived without RCD's for many years and there is no need to install them but if you do any DIY or have any dodgy equipment then there may be danger.

As long as you don't use heavy usage equipment the 2.5mm cable with 32A MCB/Fuse would not cause a problem by easy way is to swap MCB/Fuse for 25A or less then that is made safe.

The non earthed lights will require non earthed fittings so a couple of lights to change to Class II.

So you could do some minor work to make it reasonably safe but you would need to at some time in the near future need to do a full re-wire. It would mean until the re-wire no decoration or alterations to the house. All DIY projects on hold until rewire completed.

With my mothers house a part rewire was done kitchen only which now has it's own consumer unit you may need to consider doing the same if you want to change cooker.

You would have to not add any electric heating to what already exists as it could overload a system.

 

[Nervous]

Thanks again everyone, very helpful to hear all your opinions on different heating methods

With regards to E7 - there will only be me and my partner in the house & we're both out 8 - 6 during the week so we only really need the heating on during the morning & in the evening and at weekends. So it sounds like E7 probably isn't the way to go for us?

I've had some (limited, I try not to use electrical heat where possible) success with the oil filled type radiators.

Some of the benefits of storage heaters and radiators combined I guess.

I would never use a straight convector heater as the main source of heat though, you may aswell get £1 notes from Scotland and burn them to keep warm!

Thanks for this, sounds like it might be something we should look into! I had a feeling that the convector heaters would be the same as burning money so hopefully we can replace them with something more cost effective.

 

[Taylortwocities]

With regards to E7 - there will only be me and my partner in the house & we're both out 8 - 6 during the week so we only really need the heating on during the morning & in the evening and at weekends. So it sounds like E7 probably isn't the way to go for us?

Correct

 

[Aragorn84]

Wether you heat the oil in a radiator, or heat the air directly with a convector/fan heater, you'll still use exactly the same amount of electricity to produce the same amount of heat.

Both will be like burning £1 notes and neither will be any cheaper than the other to run, assuming you want to get the room to a similar level of warmth.

 

[seasickstevie]

The obvious question that's always baffled me, is why do they put oil in radiators?

I presumed on one hand it's to give an even temperature all around the appliance, but I also thought it would somehow transfer the heat into the air more efficiently.

 

[JohnW2]

The obvious question that's always baffled me, is why do they put oil in radiators? I presumed on one hand it's to give an even temperature all around the appliance, but I also thought it would somehow transfer the heat into the air more efficiently.

I would imagine that many/most liquids would probably 'do the job' reasonably well, but that it is desirable to use a liquid which does not introduce corrosion issues, which is not too volatile at the temperatures concerned and (in case of leaks) is not electrically conductive.

Kind Regards, John

 

[Iggifer]

Wether you heat the oil in a radiator, or heat the air directly with a convector/fan heater, you'll still use exactly the same amount of electricity to produce the same amount of heat.

Both will be like burning £1 notes and neither will be any cheaper than the other to run, assuming you want to get the room to a similar level of warmth.

yes but once you turn off the oil filled radiators, they stay warm for a long time, a convector heater will be cold in a matter of minutes

 

[OwainDIYer]

yes but once you turn off the oil filled radiators, they stay warm for a long time, a convector heater will be cold in a matter of minutes

But the oil filled radiator will take a correspondingly longer time to warm up when you switch it on.

That's thermal inertia, not energy efficiency.

Either type of heater is near-as-dammit 100% efficient.

I prefer oil-filled radiators (especially the old Dimplex Mk1 type)
http://www.dealec.co.uk/acatalog/Deal_Electrical__MK1_Thermostatic_Range_145.html
which I think have the most 'authentic' radiator appearance) as I think they avoid the 'burning dust' effect of hot wire elements in cheaper convector heaters, but they are no more energy efficient than our favourite £20 convector heater from Argos.

Even at peak rate electricity prices you can still buy quite a lot of heat for the difference between £213+VAT (Dimplex) and £20incVAT (Argos)