Most Energy Efficient Electric Heating Solution Needed!

Dee4

Should there be any experts in the above field out there, I would appreciate any advise on a suitable and low energy cost effective electric heating system to replace old 1990s storage heaters?? I recently moved into a 3 bedroomed home in the city and am baffled by these storage heaters....spend my time scratching my head as cannot control them whatsoever!! They seem to have a mind of their own and get really warm when not required and don't come on at all when really chilly!! To say least....NOT A FAN!! Want to replace with energy efficient (significantly btw) and heard of these heaters from Germany which can be controlled individually and also heat room to optimum temp and when reached this then switch off thus saving energy for period of time?? Please can someone out there advise? Many thanks

FMartinp

Dee4 wrote: »

Should there be any experts in the above field out there, I would appreciate any advise on a suitable and low energy cost effective electric heating system to replace old 1990s storage heaters?? I recently moved into a 3 bedroomed home in the city and am baffled by these storage heaters....spend my time scratching my head as cannot control them whatsoever!! They seem to have a mind of their own and get really warm when not required and don't come on at all when really chilly!! To say least....NOT A FAN!! Want to replace with energy efficient (significantly btw) and heard of these heaters from Germany which can be controlled individually and also heat room to optimum temp and when reached this then switch off thus saving energy for period of time?? Please can someone out there advise? Many thanks

Everything you require is what the Farho Heaters do. They are the new energy efficient heaters that are being installed in place of the storage heaters. They have them in Trade Electric. Also saw them in a place in Cork ? Google them for your nearest branch and they'll send you out a brochure and prices. They are dearer than the storage heaters to buy but far cheaper to run and can be programmer to maintain a room at a specific temperature. Hope this is of help to you.

DublinDilbert

Efficiency will only get you so much, electric heating is expensive, even if you get very very efficient heaters.

In fact an electric heater is very efficient, all the energy in gets converted to heat, no waste. Where as a gas boiler would be say 80% efficient. But 1kwhr of gas is much cheaper than 1kwhr of electricity.

There may well be a problem with your existing ones. When do you need the heat? Is there an instantaneous setting on them?

Offy

The old storage heaters you are talking about have two dials, one controls the input and one controls the output. Turn the input up to the last. The input controls the amount of energy the heater stores, the more energy it stores the more heat it stores. The output should be turned down to its lower limit during the night when you are in bed and turned up during the day/evening when you want the heat to warm the room.
With a storage heater as old as what you describe it would be well worth your time getting an electrician to check the elements, I suspect one or more are burnt out. The elements are normally rated for 6-8 years, after that you might be lucky. I heard of one owner that has storage heaters for almost 40 years and never required new elements. What make of storage heaters are in your home? The older storage heaters didnt have a fan in them, the fan makes a big improvement to distributing the heat. The newer storage heaters also have panel heaters built into them which gives instant heat when required.
To be honest Dee4 you couldnt expect a lot from a heater from the 90'2, if it was a car built in 1995 it simply wouldnt preform anywhere near as good as a car from this year.

Red Alert

All electric heaters, including Farho ones, have 100% thermal efficiency. What the heat "feels" like will of course be different, as a 1 kW Farho radiator will probably be more pleasant than a 1 kW fan heater. So, first of all, don't let anyone fool you with efficiency.

The best electric heating system in my view would be off-peak storage for background heat, topped up with direct-acting electric heating in the main rooms. Not having off-peak storage will cost you in the long run. In bedrooms, direct-acting heaters will do alone.

If you're out during the day, you should probably go for fan-assisted storage heaters. Dimplex have the FXL range which will probably suit. These units have a fan to extract the stored heat, and can automatically boost it in two steps with direct-acting elements. (If going for this option, depending on what kind of wiring you have, it may be worthwhile fitting a time clock to the on-peak supply so that you can automate the fan on/off times.)

To deal with the storage heaters "having a mind of their own", it would be worth your while investing in some kind of weather-compensated control. The usual one installed in Ireland is Devireg, and a similar Pactrol unit also available. This will cut off the night charge period early (or start it late) when the weather is milder. The controller is put somewhere near the fuse-board and syncs to the ESB clock.

Capt'n Midnight

Red Alert wrote: »

All electric heaters, including Farho ones, have 100% thermal efficiency.

Heat pumps have more than 100% efficiency


First reduce the amount of heat you need by sorting out the low hanging fruit of insulation. If you don't have double glazing look at bubble glazing

Defo get some sort of weather related heating control
AND keep an eye on the weather forecast as you will need to override the control when there is a cold or hot front due.

Also make sure you are on night-rate electricity as otherwise there isn't much point.

pljudge321

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Heat pumps have more than 100% efficiency

Would you class them as electric heaters though? I suppose they are.

bnt

One more thing to watch out for is the thermal integrity of the room or dwelling in question. If the warmth from the heaters is going straight up and out through the roof, changing the heaters is not going to do much good. You can get a general idea of a ceiling's or wall's insulation simply by touching it: if it's a lot colder than the room, it's sucking the heat out of the room.

Capt'n Midnight

pljudge321 wrote: »

Would you class them as electric heaters though? I suppose they are.

Unless you use a mechanical one

I'd also add dehumidifiers in the category of could be better than 100%

(also don't forget Einstein refrigerators run on just heat. )

and I'd reckon that dry air doesn't feel as cold as humid air ??
also does dry air takes less energy to heat up ?

Red Alert

Dry air will generally feel colder than humid air at the same relative humidity.