Evo Volt Electric Radiators

DmanOL

Hello,

I am replacing old storage heaters in an apartment I recently bought. Has anyone heard of Eco Volt and the Joule Therm Electric Heating System?

I looks ok but I cant find any testimonies online about them. Beginning to worry its some sort of scam. Here's the Website ecovolt.ie

Alternatively, can anyone recommend a similar system?

Thanks

Tinytwo2015

There legitimate have a look at the electric dot ie mag on line there also in ewl electric trade counters

DmanOL wrote: »

Hello,

I am replacing old storage heaters in an apartment I recently bought. Has anyone heard of Eco Volt and the Joule Therm Electric Heating System?

I looks ok but I cant find any testimonies online about them. Beginning to worry its some sort of scam. Here's the Website ecovolt.ie

Alternatively, can anyone recommend a similar system?

Thanks

brightspark

It appears that they sell heaters with a complex control system. Don't know anything about the company itself though

From what I can see from their website.....

They are not storage heaters and as such do not charge up over night, this means they are not running on the night rate electricity, but it also means that you will have heat in the evenings, when most storage heaters have gone cool.


As to claims of efficiency, Almost all electric heaters are effectively 100% efficient. (Think about it, what practical losses can there be?)

Depending on their design, some are slower to heat, but retain heat longer,
Others heat quickly, but once switched off go cool quickly too.


There is a possibility that their system monitors temperature more accurately and hence will not waste energy over heating the rooms.

fourcats

I had the radiators fitted in June of this year to replace large inefficient storage rads. The fitting was straight forward as they went where the old ones were, with the exception of two extra ones. As to the "complex control system" never was there a truer word. There is no simple timer system although there's a lot of thermostats etc. It is definitely very efficient, as it was installed in June I am only now using it sporadically as the weather is so mild. There are three "modes" which the manual does not clearly explain why this is or what exactly the advantages of each one are. I phoned Eco Volt and and the installer tried to be helpful but nothing was really resolved. Just wondering if anyone else has successfully navigated the control system.

Tinytwo2015

1.Set comfort mode temp 20-22 degrees or what temp you feel warm at
2.Set economy mode temp lower than comfort mode. say around 5-10 degrees

Then set schedule
comfort for when you want it ON
economy when you when you want it OFF

You can have your system heating at times you want by having it in schedualed mode automatically at the tempatures you set it at above.
Or you can turn on comfort or economy mode to suit yourself if you don't have any regular hours.
Each heater is independent so you can have different rooms at different tematures on times that you choose.
If you go to the ecovolt website there is videos to aid you

fourcats

Thank you so much for that information. Can I set the rads at different temperatures in all modes or is it only in Comfort Mode? And of course doors would have to be kept closed. Sometimes if I change modes one or two don't come on even though they appear all to be on the screen. Also, it would be very helpful if the little screen on the rads themselves would light when they were on. I suppose i will get the hang of it eventually just not anytime soon!
Many thanks again.

O.L

Hi Fourcats,
I'm thinking of getting the therm joule rads installed. Can you let me know what you think of them so far please? Would you recommend them?
Thanks

fourcats

Good morning, if where you live can have oil or gas central heating I would go for one of those. I live in an apartment with large storage radiators as the only heating, and oil or gas wasn't an option for me. The heaters were easily installed as they just go where the old inefficient storage rads were. Eco Volt took the old ones away which was great as they are hard to recycle. In the short time I have been using the system it appears to be very efficient although I haven't had an ESB bill yet, but as the person that replied to my own initial enquiry pointed out, the system has a very complex control system. If you go onto the Eco Volt website and look under the Support tab, they have a video of how to work the Controller, I suggest you check that out first. As a company Eco Volt is efficient and competent to deal with. Hope this helps.

O.L

Thanks a lot fourcats. Much appreciated.

ecovolt

Hi Fourcats
sorry to hear your having some difficulty if you ring the office I am sure we could arrange an engineer to give you a little refresher on the controls, when one is your area

regards Ecovolt

LouiseS1989

fourcats wrote: »

Good morning, if where you live can have oil or gas central heating I would go for one of those. I live in an apartment with large storage radiators as the only heating, and oil or gas wasn't an option for me. The heaters were easily installed as they just go where the old inefficient storage rads were. Eco Volt took the old ones away which was great as they are hard to recycle. In the short time I have been using the system it appears to be very efficient although I haven't had an ESB bill yet, but as the person that replied to my own initial enquiry pointed out, the system has a very complex control system. If you go onto the Eco Volt website and look under the Support tab, they have a video of how to work the Controller, I suggest you check that out first. As a company Eco Volt is efficient and competent to deal with. Hope this helps.

I know the thread is old but how did u find your bills forcat? I'm a really thinking about getting the rads installed. Did you find them alot cheaper than the storage heaters?

Thanks

Stoner

LouiseS1989 wrote:

I know the thread is old but how did u find your bills forcat? I'm a really thinking about getting the rads installed. Did you find them alot cheaper than the storage heaters?

It's a fair question it's only three months old anyway.

As a note it's possible the economy range should or could be set at around 14 or 15 degrees. This would stop the damp chill setting in.

fourcats

Once you have learnt the fairly complex control pad it is a brilliant system. As to running cost, they are not storage heaters and the thermostats on each one are so sensitive they switch off when the room is at the desired temperature and go on again when needed, so a lot of the time they're off. Consequently they are far cheaper to run and deliver the correct heat when and where you need it. I would say it is costing me only slightly more to heat the entire house than it did to heat one room. Eco Volt provide excellent after care and are always at the end of the phone to answer any problems you may have while getting to grips with the system. Hope this helps.

LouiseS1989

fourcats wrote: »

Once you have learnt the fairly complex control pad it is a brilliant system. As to running cost, they are not storage heaters and the thermostats on each one are so sensitive they switch off when the room is at the desired temperature and go on again when needed, so a lot of the time they're off. Consequently they are far cheaper to run and deliver the correct heat when and where you need it. I would say it is costing me only slightly more to heat the entire house than it did to heat one room. Eco Volt provide excellent after care and are always at the end of the phone to answer any problems you may have while getting to grips with the system. Hope this helps.

Thank you. Its for my mam she has always had gas and sold her house to downsize... The new place has storage heating and she really likes it but is scared to go ahead with the sale, she was always freezing in her house and had huge bills... she doesn't want bills over 300-350 especially when she retires.

nenadm

Hello,

We are planning to replace our storage heaters in apartment. Because we have child in the apartment whole day, playing on the floor, we need temperature to be above 21 even during cold winter days. With storage heaters it wasn't possible as they could not stay hot whole day. Can eco volt achieve this even if it is -5 outside.

Thanks

fourcats

That wouldn't be a problem, you can have each room at whatever temp suits, i.e. The bathroom can be the warmest, bedrooms coolest etc, can be pricey tho' depending on how you set the timer.
Hope that helps.

nenadm

Thanks fourcats

john the one

Sorry for digging an old thread up, any ideas of prices for these units?

ted1

All the videos and photos look like they are poorly installed, they shouldn't have wires hanging loose so that kids can pull out of them.

If there install is that poor i'd ba a bit wary of dealing with them

Shelarusky

hi i'm looking to have my whole apartment fitted with these radiators, i only have storage heating at the moment, so got a quote of 2,500 for my whole apartment to be fitted, the only thing that is worrying me is will i end up with hugely expensive ESB bills???

Shelarusky

also wondering if they are putting one in my bathroom and have no socket in there do they put one in for me???

brightspark

Shelarusky wrote: »

also wondering if they are putting one in my bathroom and have no socket in there do they put one in for me???

Hopefully they won't put in a socket as that would be against regulations unless you have a very big bathroom. (Site claims their installers are electricians, I would expect them to also be registered, if not they would be working illegally).

However if they have a suitable heater for a bathroom, it may be able to install it as a fixed appliance.

fourcats

Shelarusky wrote: »

hi i'm looking to have my whole apartment fitted with these radiators, i only have storage heating at the moment, so got a quote of 2,500 for my whole apartment to be fitted, the only thing that is worrying me is will i end up with hugely expensive ESB bills???

I've had mine in now for a couple of years, 7 rads. I live in a very small apartment and my last 2 month bill for Feb/march was €385.66. Pricy compared to storage rads I had but all rooms were toasty warm compared to just one. The previous year I used the timer setting, the Heating came on at 6am and off at 11am, this proved way too expensive so this winter I turned it on and off manually. I didn't have a radiator in my bathroom and they fitted one very safely with the socket placed outside in the hall. Hope this is of help to you. Would recommend Ecovolt.

Shelarusky

At the moment i dont even use the storage heating as it is useless, i have two oil radiators and two convection heaters, wondering would it be more expensive to run than what i'm doing now??

Blaithin73

hi there,

Just wondering if you went ahead with the EcoVolt joule therm heaters and if so how do you find them? We are in between EvoVolt and a company in Cork called Fahro heaters

fourcats

Hi, yes I got the Jule Therm from EcoVolt. Very efficient, found the controller quite challenging! So many setting options to choose from, so I settled for the basic timer type setting as one would have with any heating system. This worked out costing quite a bit more than my two old storage rads but I was heating 6 rads and my whole apt was really warm. Last year having retired, I was home a lot of the time and found the manual method of turning it on just when the need arose far more economical but this might not suit a family who maybe needed to come home to a heated house. Johnnie the installer is brilliant (and patient) to help with getting the hang of the controller. Hope this helps.

Blaithin73

hi Fourcats - many thanks for your reply. Ecovolt are coming out at c.€500 cheaper than the other Fahro heaters and I'm kind of presuming that all electric heaters are efficient and operate the same way. I've read before that people find Ecovolt's control system a bit challenging I'm at home with a baby at the moment so maybe as you say turning it on and off manually maybe the way to go. It was reading back on a previous message and you said that your electric bill was c.€350 but that's for heating and electricity I'm presuming so that really probably isn't much different to a gas bill and electric bill in a wet system house. I must talk to my own electrician in the morning but I think we are swaying more towards Ecovolt now. Thanks again

Shelarusky

Blaithin73 wrote: »

hi there,

Just wondering if you went ahead with the EcoVolt joule therm heaters and if so how do you find them? We are in between EvoVolt and a company in Cork called Fahro heaters

Hey! Yes I only got them installed 3 wks ago but so impressed!! Apartment is so warm & has an even heat throughout! Can't wait for the cold winter nights to properly appreciate them! Lovely looking too & very neat job! Would highly recommend them! I turn them on when come in from work & within 10 minutes the heat is up! Should have got them in years ago!

fourcats

Something I discovered is that the EcoVolt rads are so easy to lift off when redecorating, no messy painting around rads!

Cultusgt

As an electrician, I'm glad to see an Irish company occupying this space , I've only seen these convertors mounted and not installed the my self , they seem to be a suitable replacement for antiquated storage heating technology, saying that you more than likely will loose your night rate unless very vigilant in getting an installer who understands how to connect these heaters to the night rate supply and the normal supply during the day, as most people don't heat there home much at night it may not be much benefit anyway , that said all electric convectors are expensive to run when compaired to other heating methods like natural gas for instance,
I have used electric convectors in my home and they where the baine of my life when I got the ESB bill, and I couldn't get rid of them sooner, not to mention you will loose your lower night rate makes them only suitable for situations where installing a conventional heating system is not possible.
Myself i installed a heat pump and never looked back!
If anyone has any interest or questions feel free to contact me.

ercork

Cultusgt,

I'm in a situation similar to you - I have electric heaters at the moment (Lucht and Jouletherm) and can't get gas or oil in my estate. I'm looking at getting a heat pump. What type did you get - air/water, air/air, etc? How economical has it been to run?

dmboards

fourcats wrote: »

I've had mine in now for a couple of years, 7 rads. I live in a very small apartment and my last 2 month bill for Feb/march was €385.66.

Hi Fourcats,

Could you give a little more info on this bill - how many/type of rooms, duration of heat being on, other electric usage (immersion, cooking). I have a small house and thinking of replacing 1*panel, 1*downflow and 1*storage heater (bedroom, bathroom, and living /kitchen) so I'm looking at 4/5 in total. Understand you cant comment what my bill would be but €385 for a two month bill seems kinda high to me. Still happy in general?

Thanks
DM

hexpope

fourcats wrote: »

I've had mine in now for a couple of years, 7 rads. I live in a very small apartment and my last 2 month bill for Feb/march was €385.66.

I have just bought an apartment myself and it currently has those old storage heaters in it. I am also looking at ECOVOLT. When Fourcats was quoting his/her bill, I presume it was the ESB bill in total and not the actual heating costs for the heaters only ?

rickotheduck

Does anybody know if the ecovolt heaters can connect to an app

Naid23

we are thinking of getting the ecovolt bathroom radiator installed as our plumber messed up and didnt run the pipes for a radiator (long story :mad: ). Does anyone know if Ecovolt provide an installation service or is it just a sales service? thanks

UrbanFret

Can these heaters be worked manually (just switch it on and off when needed).Or do you have to set them on a program. I got one installed in a prayer room at the local church. there are days when they wouldn't be needed at all but I'm having trouble figuring out what to do for those days.

Joan OBrien

My EcoVolt is saying offline in the app even though it's connected to the Tplink and had been working perfectly, any advice please?

2011

It is important to understand what efficiency means, it has nothing to do with cost effective or good value for your money.

The equation is:

Percentage efficiency = (Output / Input) x 100

It is really an assessment of the losses, nothing more.

For an electric heater the we can use kWh (or units). All electrical heaters are almost 100% efficient (almost no losses), this means that 10 kWh of electrical energy will generate almost 10 kWh of heat energy. The problem is that a unit of electricity costs around € 0.22 which is around three times the cost of a unit of gas. For this reason a using a far less efficient gas boiler is a far cheaper way to heat your home than using more efficient electric heaters.

Even the cheapest nastiest old fashioned electric heater will be as efficient as any new or "smart" electric heater regardless of how smart the controls are. The only way they can reduce your electricity bill is by generating less heat!!! Don't be conned, only opt for an electric heating solution of you have no other option. This is why there is a market for gas and even oil boilers.

If you have 10 kW of old storage heaters switched on at 100% for an hour they will cost exactly the same to run as 10 kW of Evo Volt heaters switched on at 100% for an hour at the same tariff rate and they will both generate exactly the same amount of heat.

conormc1984

Hello all. I had several Ecovolt Joule readiators installed many years ago. I was eagerly awating the release of a wireless hub which would allow be use it through an App. I was continously being told it was in development but nothing came of it but it is on the newer radiators.

My question is, is there any work arounds i can do for these radiators to in order to manage them remotely myself ?