Heating debate (again)!

[jocelyn plummer]

Any recommendations /advice about full electric central heating for a 2 bed, 1 bathroom, kitchen and 1 reception small Grade 2 cottage would be gratefully received.

Absolutely no experience whatsoever of that sort of system! There is no gas supply and to site an oil tank will be well nigh impossible.

Many thanks in anticipation!

Jocelyn

 

[biffvernon]

What's it got at the moment?

 

[sarahj]

I live in a G2 house a fractionally bigger than yours with no central heating. We have a log burning stove in the main reception room, nothing in the dining kitchen (using the cooker heats the kitchen!), nothing in our bedroom above the reception room, and a penny-an-hour portable electric panel in the bathroom, and our daughter's room. My husband has a portable electric radiator in his double bedroom study. The bathroom is lovely and warm and the heater doesn't have to be on all the time. Our electric costs about £35 pmonth for this, plus two tonnes logs a year, and propane gas for the cooker. However, if this is a part-time home you might want central heating to stop it getting too cold.

Our house is lived in all the time, and we are delighted that all of our visitors (who brought extra woolies expecting to be cold) said how cosy it is.

Friends up the road who have converted their hemel as a retirement home for themselves have gone for night storage heaters, which some of energy advice websites recommend as the most efficient electric heating.

 

[MdB]

... have gone for night storage heaters, which some of energy advice websites recommend as the most efficient electric heating.

All electric heaters are all exactly the same at being 100% efficient in converting electrical energy into heat. Don't believe any advertising gumph that says otherwise.

Night storage is not good at outputing heat at the time that you want it but it does have the big advantage of running off cheaper electricity so is cheaper to run than normal electric heaters. However, they will use more energy due to energy losses overnight so are overall less green than a heater you just switch on when heat is required.

If gas and oil are out of the question then wood / coal / pellets are another option as is a heat pump.

Heat pumps are good for under floor heating systems in houses with very good insulation and can have efficiencies of 300% to 400% so running costs are far lower than NSH. If you want radiators and / or your insulation isn't that good then they aren't as a good option. If you have a large garden and are happy digging a long trench then a DIY install could be £2k to £4k not including under floor heating costs (this figure is from what I have read - do your own research to confirm). With a small garden, bore holes are possible but installation costs go through the roof.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Thanks for advice so far!

There is no form of heating at all! Sadia I think for hot water over the sink!!

Insulation will be seen to as part of the renovation.

 

[rogerh]

and a penny-an-hour portable electric panel in the bathroom

You have a portable electric fire in the bathroom? That doesn't sound good.

 

[sarahj]

It's a panel radiator plugged in outside the bathroom, I don't think its a risk as its not like a fanheater.

 

[biffvernon]

There is no form of heating at all!

That's a pretty cheap to run kind of design. Didn't the builder even include a fireplace or two? Look outside and see if there are any sticky-up bits on the roof, known in the trade as chimneys.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Ouch, Biff------- of course there are chimneys----- I cannot see any new fangled appendages on the wall that's all.!

Joking apart, it will need to have some form of 'artificial' heating apart from the log fire/burner hence getting feedback about electric.

 

[NT]

Heat pumping is the most energy efficient form of lec heating, Air source heat pumps are quite cheap, but the 300% or so heat pump pseudo-efficiency falls as source temp drops.

Storage heaters are next best, and work all year. Theyre greener than daytime heaters, because the latter need more peaking plants.

Plugin heaters are the worst, very high run cost.

Solar space heating is low cost & high yield, but it needs a fair bit of wall space, is no go for listed, and doesnt usually supply all the needed heat.
http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Solar_Thermal


NT

 

[biffvernon]

of course there are chimneys

Ah. Progress.

it will need to have some form of 'artificial' heating apart from the log fire/burner

Why?
If you are considering the next several years, the price of electricity will rise much faster than the price of logs IMHO. Even our dear Government has realised there is a problem with future electricity generating capacity, though it hasn't got round to finding a solution yet.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Agree Biff, but it was (auction bid not successful) not going to be a principle residence, so some form of heating with a switch would have been needed.

Anyway thanks folks, the costing of electric heating has been a useful pointer in budget making for whatever eventuality we find ourselves in.

Onwards and upwards!

 

[biffvernon]

Ah, auctions. In my experience there is always someone else willing to pay more than me

 

[Geoff Flegg]

Personally I wouldn't touch storage heaters with a bargepole, having lived before in a house with them. You get up in the morning to a nice warm house, shut all the heat output controls down to preserve as much heat in them as you can, and go to work.

Then you come back in the evening to heaters that are at best lukewarm, have little stored heat in them and get colder throughout the evening, so you progressively freeze.

Also, if a day is suddenly colder than expected you've had it - because you had to decide the previous day what setting to put the heaters on to store the heat in the first place.

Of course, all of the above may have been due to:-

1) Tight landlord clinging on to geriatric heaters
2) Daft tenant not knowing how to work them properly.
3) Being in Scotland on a windy hill where it was bl*&dy cold most of the time.
4) Not having any other form of heating to supplement them.

 

[NT]

Storage heater technology has improved to some extent. I've heard some heaters can now set themselves by the weatherforecast, but dont know if its true.

More installed capacity would have helped.


NT