Electric central heating

[Liz]

With the price of smokeless fuel up to nearly £15 a bag today I am really going to have to look for an alternative form of heating.

I was thinking of oil but wondered whether electric is okay and how much it costs to run?

Any advice most welcome!

[paris]

Hi Lizz,
Have you not got a builders near you that could give you all their scrap wood for burning? thats what we do and as long as we collect it we can have as much as we want. And its all free heating. jan x

[craig]

Hi Liz, I once worked that out, storage heating that is with the megaflo boiler like EAGA replace for the elderly, 3 full size storage heaters and the bolier use about £15/£25 a week depending on the time of year , but many dont use them right or set them wrong so they end up thinking there really expensive, also depends what tarrif the electric company put you on, for example hydro electric seem to have about 15/20 different tariffs, the tariff you end up on after eaga have fitted new heating is you pay about half the price per kw/h for the storage heaters/megaflo hot water and any convector or fan heaters they install, also an electric shower if you have one, the catch ? you pay twice as much for the rest of your electricity, so energy saving light bulbs for starters

[Hibeechick]

Hi Liz, I once worked that out, storage heating that is with the megaflo boiler like EAGA replace for the elderly, 3 full size storage heaters and the bolier use about £15/£25 a week depending on the time of year , but many dont use them right or set them wrong so they end up thinking there really expensive, also depends what tarrif the electric company put you on, for example hydro electric seem to have about 15/20 different tariffs, the tariff you end up on after eaga have fitted new heating is you pay about half the price per kw/h for the storage heaters/megaflo hot water and any convector or fan heaters they install, also an electric shower if you have one, the catch ? you pay twice as much for the rest of your electricity, so energy saving light bulbs for starters

You can come round and set my storage heaters then, dont think mine are set right! I only have two turned on and I seem to be paying a fortune :(

[NickInTheNorth]

Hi Liz

Electric central heating is something I am currently investigating as an alternative to my current oil fired heating system.

These two threads http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=73072&highlight=wet+storage

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=455293

give some good info. But are quite long winded.

I guess the summary would say Gas is the cheapest, if gas isn't an option then electric storage heaters are possibly the cheapest, but very much dependent on your own requirements for heating and the tariff you choose. For some a "wet" electric system may be better, either a traditionally plumbed system or plug-in radiators.

Lots of good links in the referenced threads.

[Liz]

Thanks a lot everyone! Really appreciate the advice.

Paris we can't burn wood I'm afraid.:(

Craig do you have storage heating then and, if so, how much does it cost in the winter and is your house warm?

Nick I would be ever so grateful if you could let me know how you get on with your enquiries re electric central heating please?

Would electric heating be less upheaval to install than oil?

[NickInTheNorth]

any central heating system installed from scratch is quite disruptive. Because I already have a "wet radiator" system the disruption will be minimal. For anyone installing for the first time the disruption can be lowered if you are happy to have surface run pipework. If you want it all hidden away (much better, particularly if you have all the pipework insulated as you should) then it gets real messy.

The advantages of electric over oil is you don't need an oil tank, there is no smell of oil anywhere, the boiler is silent, you rarely run out of electricity :) you can reduce costs by using an tariff with cheaper off-peak electricity and using a heat store to provide heating, and instant hot water. You can also if you wish add a solar heating element to the system which may well mean that in the summer you don't use any electricity for either heating or hot water (yes even here in Caithness!)

Will certainly keep you posted with any information and decisions as made. And when I have a clear idea of costs I'll let you know.

For an easy to install electric system you could go with a plug-in radiator system, but that is very expensive to run.

[Liz]

Thanks ever so much for that Nick. It's very much appreciated!

We have a 'wet' radiator system already so that is fine. I am liking the sound of electric and look forward to hearing how you get on.

[NickInTheNorth]

quite a good comparison here (http://forum.caithness.org/go.php?url=http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/housingbuildings/calculators/hardtotreat/heating/) of the running costs of different systems.

From memory a typical indoor oil fired combi boiler costs around £1200 to buy, an outside one (my prefered location for oil fired boilers) around £1500. Then you would also need an annual service around £60+

A typical cost for an electric boiler is around £700. In addition you would need a heat store (this allows you to advantage of cheap off peak electricity), in reality nothing more than a very thermally efficient hot water cylinder. A 250 liter tank would serve a house of upto 4/5 bedrooms and a couple of bathrooms. I haven't got a cost to hand just now, but I seem to remember something in the region of £400 (could be way out - will check costs tomorrow).

Some folks have electric wet systems installed, but then neglect to set them up correctly to use off peak electricity. Using normal peak rate electricity provides phenomenally expensive heating!

I should also have said that obviously all the above would require fitting by a qualified professional (in theory oil could be a DIY task, but the electric needs a qualified electrician).

[Liz]

Cheers again Nick for all the very useful info.

I would prefer the boiler outside as well.

I await your findings with interest.

[Bill Fernie]

Before changing your heating system why not check with the Caithness Energy Advice Project. See
http://www.caithness.org/community/environment/ormlie_renewables/index.htm

They give advice and also free low energy bulbs etc.

All heating types have increased in price in th elast 18 months so you have to be careful you do not base decisions on out of date ideas or information about costs. Changing systems might be expensive end end up no cheaper on running costs.

Caithness Energy Advice Project has been set up to give independent advice to people in Caithness on energy saving so it is worth a shot.

[Tony]

I have electric storage heating and it is expensive to run although you don't have the associated annual service costs with gas or oil systems. If I had a choice it would be gas followed by oil. The other thing would be double glazing and loft/wall insulation as this lowers heat loss which reduces running costs.

[Liz]

Thanks for that Bill!

Tony I already have double glazing and loft insulation. Cavity wall insulation as well!

It's just that to get the house really warm in this bitter weather takes a lot of coal which we can't really afford!
It looks as though other forms of heating (apart from mains gas which we can't get) might prove to be just as expensive.
Still other forms wouldn't be so messy and wouldn't have to lift heavy pails of coal (not that I do that!)

Nick thanks ever so much for your pm and for all your help.

Orgers are great!!!!!:D

[carasmam]

Liz, I was enquiring about wet electric heating. Try the Heat Centre, he explained it to me in laymans terms (even I understood !!) about about kw per hour and the prices. He was the most helpful out of all I spoke to.
We decided to update our storage heaters eventually as it would have meant starting from scratch installing pipes etc But he said it if we had wet central heating already it would have been a good option for us. :D