Storage heaters - upgrade or replace

adocholiday

Hi all,

We recently bought a house that's heated by storage heaters in 2 rooms and the rest are heated by electric heaters on the walls. I've never been a fan of storage heaters. They're expensive and the heat from them is minimal. The other electric heaters we have are decent in terms of output but I don't know how expensive they are right now to run.

We've been considering getting oil heating in and I've had a couple of quotes but I won't be getting any change out of 10k it seems. Gas is unavailable and both plumbers advised that heat pumps won't be a runner so we're stuck with oil or electric. Given that the oil heating is going to be so expensive, I think it's worth considering our options in storage/electric but I haven't a clue about what's available on the market these days.

Anyone have some recommendations or experience with newer types of electric heating?

punisher5112

Storage runs off night meter where as the electric ones you have will run off night and day meter so more expensive during daytime hours.

Get newer bigger storage heaters and consider better house insulation.

Could you fit a wood burning stove?

adocholiday

punisher5112 wrote: »

Storage runs off night meter where as the electric ones you have will run off night and day meter so more expensive during daytime hours.

Get newer bigger storage heaters and consider better house insulation.

Could you fit a wood burning stove?

Yeah we have the night meter alright but even so it's costing a lot to run. Even with insulation I can't imagine the storage heating keeping us warm in a cold winter. They don't output heat at all in the evenings no matter what kind of settings I use.

A wood burning stove could be an option but neither plumber mentioned it. Are there limitations on the kind or size of house that can use them?

punisher5112

adocholiday wrote: »

Yeah we have the night meter alright but even so it's costing a lot to run. Even with insulation I can't imagine the storage heating keeping us warm in a cold winter. They don't output heat at all in the evenings no matter what kind of settings I use.

A wood burning stove could be an option but neither plumber mentioned it. Are there limitations on the kind or size of house that can use them?

No if it can be fitted correctly

adocholiday

Thanks. Would there be any reason a plumber neglected to mention it? I asked both about other options to oil and it wasn't raised.

agusta

Why is a heat pump a non runner.There is quite a large grant for air to water heat pump

punisher5112

adocholiday wrote: »

Thanks. Would there be any reason a plumber neglected to mention it? I asked both about other options to oil and it wasn't raised.

Probably as they wouldn't get anything out of the job.

listermint

First thing , Plan to get rid of the storage heating.

They are awful. I just fkd two out of the house I bought they must have been installed as part of some old folks grant back in the last ten years.

I had them on my apartment. Absolutely useless.

So budget for oil gas or heat pump. But get people qualified in all of them to quote you.

Also steer clear of stoves .they have a place but heating a whole home is not it. Don't bother with that path

bleary

Dimplex quantum storage heaters are reputedly the best. They can control the release heat at required time.
I honestly dont think that oil is the way to go. A lot of money to invest in something that is getting increasingly expensive.

Air to air heat pumps have also been recommended to me. No need to install central heating .
I've been mulling over an upgrade of storage heating for the last couple of years. Attic insulation ,thick curtains and a chimney balloon have helped. Even during the beast .
Gas is cheapest ,next is electricity but insulation will probably need to be improved for heat pump

How big is the house? Is it on rural or urban tariff electricity?

bleary

I would try to make do this year and maybe save up for a deep retrofit. Seai have a number of granrs jn place https://www.seai.ie/grants/home-energy-grants/major-renovation-grant/

adocholiday

Thanks all.

We were told a heat pump wouldn't work because the house doesn't have great insulation and the 2 front rooms have very high ceilings. Wouldn't be sufficient for our needs so was a non runner. The house is 2000 sq ft bungalow with an attic conversion at the back half of the house. The conversion in my opinion wasn't very well done and could have been much better insulated but we're going to try to improve that anyway.

We're on a rural tariff day/night meter right now and one of the storage heater's output setting is broken so it just dumps the heat out early in the day. The other two are too small in my opinion for the size of the rooms that they're in. So no matter what we either need to upgrade what we have or replace with an alternative sooner rather than later.

punisher5112

adocholiday wrote: »

Thanks all.

We were told a heat pump wouldn't work because the house doesn't have great insulation and the 2 front rooms have very high ceilings. Wouldn't be sufficient for our needs so was a non runner. The house is 2000 sq ft bungalow with an attic conversion at the back half of the house. The conversion in my opinion wasn't very well done and could have been much better insulated but we're going to try to improve that anyway.

We're on a rural tariff day/night meter right now and one of the storage heater's output setting is broken so it just dumps the heat out early in the day. The other two are too small in my opinion for the size of the rooms that they're in. So no matter what we either need to upgrade what we have or replace with an alternative sooner rather than later.

Even if the output is broken you should be able to get it to close somewhat. Make sure power is off, screw driver into vent and push it down.
If that doesn't work you can remove the front cover and manually close it slightly more.

adocholiday

Thanks punisher I'll look into that tomorrow!