HELP PLEASE:ELECTRIC PANEL HEATERS/STORAGE HEATERS

[JDM1985]

apologies if this question is stupid!!

I have recently bought my first flat (am still at home).

The flat currently has electric storage heaters but they do not work well at all...

Unfortunately installing central heating isn't an option-so I need to decide on electric panel heaters or storage heaters.

Having looked at prices-storage heaters are clearly much more expensive? Is this becuse they are much better than a standard electric panel heater?/cheaper? etc.

Thanks in advance

 

[flameport]

Storage heaters will be much cheaper to run, as they charge at night using cheaper rate electricity.
Panel heaters will cost a small fortune as they will be on in the daytime at the full rate.

Before buying new heaters, what is actually wrong with the existing ones? Most storage heaters are simple devices and can be repaired for much less than buying new ones.

 

[electronicsuk]

I have recently bought my first flat (am still at home).

The flat currently has electric storage heaters but they do not work well at all...

Sadly if you're used to gas fired CH then you will probably never be happy with electric storage heating. I purchased a fairly large 4-bed house in January, it's a fairly recent church hall conversion and so pretty well insulated, but was fitted with storage heaters as gas was apparently too expensive to have installed at the time. They all worked, but they were expensive to run and unless you want to go around the house adjusting them every night in preparation for the next day then you'll never have the heat when you need it.

I went ahead and installed gas CH (although I'm still not quite finished...) but if you have no option then I'd suggest looking at something like the Dimplex DuoHeat range. They will be cheaper to run than panel heaters, but behave more like CH than storage only heaters.

Worth checking first that all the elements are working properly in your existing setup and that none of the cutouts have gone, although the latter would be noticeable as the entire heater would stop working.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Storage heaters work on the following assumptions:

1) You are in during the day when they release their heat.

2) You can accurately predict the day before how much heat you need to store for the next day.

3) You don't mind being cold in the evening when they've run out.

 

[stem]

Don't change the storage radiators for panel radiators unless you want to double / treble your heating bill.

A storage heater is full of bricks which heat up during the night when electricity is cheaper and then slowly release the stored heat during the day.

A panel heater uses normal price electricity during the daytime.

Storage heaters usually have two controls, one determines how much heat they store at night, and the other how much heat is released during the day and when it's released. to get the best out of them, it is important that you read the operating instructions to understand what the controls do, how they relate to each other, the weather and your lifestyle. If you don't have instructions a search on the web will likely find some for you.

A note here is that some manufacturers have tried to automate the control functions with varying amounts of success.

Storage radiators do take some forward thinking and are not completely flexible as the posts above suggest, but if you learn how to operate them properly you can get by with them. The big advantage is that the cheap rate electricity is much cheaper than standard rate used by panel heaters which typically are about 3 times more expensive per Kw.