Cheapest way to heat an apartment?

bazza76

Hi all,

Another question.
I live in an apartment, foolishly I bought it and can not move at the moment, so am stuck here.
The apartment has electric storage heaters,, which are not very economic or friendly to the environment.

Was looking for some ideas for heating the apartment without it costing me a fortune.
Any ideas welcomed.

Regards,

Baz.

homer911

Super Ser? Fan Heater?

CJhaughey

bazza76 wrote: »

Hi all,

Another question.
I live in an apartment, foolishly I bought it and can not move at the moment, so am stuck here.
The apartment has electric storage heaters,, which are not very economic or friendly to the environment.

Was looking for some ideas for heating the apartment without it costing me a fortune.
Any ideas welcomed.

Regards,

Baz.

If it was my place I would consider installing an Air-Air heatpump.
Scanhome.ie sell Panasonic ones and they are supposed to have a COP of 4.4 which is 4.4 times the amount of input.
The advantage with these is that they sit outside and run off standard 230v supply.
They can also cool as well as heat which would be a nice thing to have in a hot summer.
The main problem with storage heating is that it heats up at night and by the time you come home from work the place has lost all it's heat and is cold again.
Installing an Air-air HP would allow you to run it as needed.

bazza76

homer911 wrote: »

Super Ser? Fan Heater?

Super Ser? not sure what that is

bazza76

CJhaughey wrote: »

If it was my place I would consider installing an Air-Air heatpump.
Scanhome.ie sell Panasonic ones and they are supposed to have a COP of 4.4 which is 4.4 times the amount of input.
The advantage with these is that they sit outside and run off standard 230v supply.
They can also cool as well as heat which would be a nice thing to have in a hot summer.
The main problem with storage heating is that it heats up at night and by the time you come home from work the place has lost all it's heat and is cold again.
Installing an Air-air HP would allow you to run it as needed.

will check that out mate, thanks.
With these air to air heat pumps, you need access to outside air right?
Any nice compact ones that could heat a room of say about 15sq.m

quentingargan

Hi Baz, That link I sent you on your previous post is an air-air heat pump for under STG£700. The problem is that you are running them at peak time.

Usuallly the first line in energy costs is conserving the heat, not how it is generated. A gas fired system usually costs about 7c per KwHr, about the same as storage, but at least it is on demand, and not keeping your appartment warm while you are out earning the mortgage!

In an appartment, most of your walls, and your ceilings and/or floors are party walls, so you get less heat loss than in a detatched house. Most of your heat loss is through windows. In the USA, they use window-quilts as blinds. These have a magnetic strip stitched so you can roll them down and then clip them into the window to completely close it off. I'm surprised they never caught on here.

The big problem with an air-air heat exchanger is that it uses energy during the peak time of 5.00 to 7.00pm. Wholesale energy prices at that time are in the region of 25c per KwHr at times, and with smart metering, it is only a matter of time before ESB passes on this peak rate, so you need to look towards systems that don't use electricity at those times.
Q

RandomAccess

Eh but wouldnt an air-air heat pump be very in-efficient in cold weather?

321654

I doubt you'll be able to get heat pump in an apartment. There is part of it that needs to be fitted outside.

Believe it or not Storage heating is actually a very economical way of heating an apartment.

The big problem is that most people dont know how to use them properly.


Make sure you are on night time dual meter with ESB.

Get timers fitted to your storage heaters.

Set them for about 3 hours before the cutover to daytime prices. Say 5am - 8am. and then off after that. This is different in winter and summer so check it out.

When you go to bed make sure the output is set as low as it goes. You'll find experimenting with the input will help you get the best value for it too. When you come home from work you can turn the output up to whatever you need.

If you follow those instructions you will find your heating bills will plummet.

quentingargan

Storage heaters have become more efficient at closing down when not needed, but they still waste heat at times when they are not needed.

The fact remains that storage heaters cost 8c per kwhr, while gas or oil is about 7c per kwhr, except that the latter supplies on demand. You don't need to check the weather forecast.

On another building, I recently considered putting in a large buffer tank heated by an immersion off-peak, and only distributing its heat when called on. Most appartments could take the weight of a 1000L buffer tank, which could feed into radiators when the pump is run, controlled by timer and thermostat.

With smart metering there is likely to be a few other time zones and rates, with a super-cheap rate between 2.00am and 5.00am or thereabouts. The buffer tank can be open vented in mild steel, surrounded by Kingspan panels. It needn't be an expensive project for a DIY enthusiast.

Heroditas

quentingargan wrote: »

and with smart metering, it is only a matter of time before ESB passes on this peak rate, so you need to look towards systems that don't use electricity at those times.
Q

"Time of Use" tariffs will be trialled in the Smart Meter pilot.
There will be a few different ones though.

Capt'n Midnight

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