cost of electric storage heating installation

lomb

is it possible to find out how much it would cost to install a goldshield electric type system with good storage capacity storage heaters in an office type building new build? say 2 large storage heaters on each floor containing instant convectors for boost. say with a storage capacity of 30K Watts each overnight, that should be enough.

initally the plan was for oil heating but if i switch i can get a credit i think, would electric b the same price as oil or would it be dearer than a full oil installation. the building is 1600 sq foot on 2 floors, and are large open plan so the numbers of radiators are very few actually.

rooferPete

Hi lomb,

Gold Shield stood for more than just the storage heaters, there was a whole insulation standards pack that went with them.

The Buy and Sell was a good indicator of how succesful the ESB was for heating, ads went from a small live in hope price to please take me away.

I don't know if you checked out the cost of your electricity, for industrial and commercial building electricity is charged out at roughly double the domestic rate even on night rate.

Dimplex made a lot of storage and convection heaters, it's been a long time since I checked but they were never cheap to buy.

Homework recommended

.

gregos

Hi Lomb.

That's a pricey way to heat your office. Surprising in a new build that the heating system wasn't designed and installed as part of the project. Can you give more details of the building?

lomb

yes the building is in the north in newry, only the foundations have been layed.in the previous phases 2 of the 3 buildings are heated via oil,with a tank outside. yer man said there is no gas main outside so that rules that out. the one building thats not heated by oil is storage heater heated and has ceiling mounted air conditioners. this cost over 12 grand stg in addition to the oil credit the builder gave.

in the north these are the tariffs for business. the think is its a very large building and i would be renting the lower level for sure and either keeping the upper level for myself or renting it short term. so would want to be able to meter seperately the power usage if u know what i mean.

Range of Billing Options & Latest Prices - April 2005
Download PDF (1Mb)

Quarterly billing for electricity demands up to 70kVA
N.B. - 1 unit equals 1 kilowatt hour (1 KWh)
Popular Option
Standing Charge per quarter (3months)
£21.30
Unit Rate (per kWh)
10.53p

Night Saver Option
Standing Charge per quarter (3months)
£23.30
Daytime Unit Rate (*8am-1am)
11.01p
Night time & Heating Unit Rate (*1am-8am)
4.12p

Weekender Option
Standing Charge per quarter (3months)
£24.90
Daytime Unit Rate (*Mon-Fri, 7:30am - 8:00pm)
13.38p
Evening and Weekend Unit Rate (Mon-Fri 8.00pm-7.30am and all weekend)
5.71p

with a modern storage heater capable of storing up to 48000 watts of power in the off peak period, at 4.12 p stg, is this not an option even? i note oil costs http://www.irish-energy.ie/content/content.asp?section_id=506
4 cent a unit, but with boiler efficiency of 55% the delivered cost is over 6 cent a unit, very similar to the night time tariff of 4.12p stg. so if a storage heater can store 48KWh, thats a hell of a lot of power for the business day nearly 5 kw possible per hour per say 400 sq foot, is that not a lot of power?how much heat do u need?

Borzoi

lomb wrote:

are large open plan so the numbers of radiators are very few actually.

Rads/storage heaters don't really work with large open plan areas, because they have an effective range of approx 6mtr - depending on ceiling height, beyond which the convection currents don't really mix

You say you've an AC system, are these ceiling mounted cassettes? In which case using a Heat pump, and adapting the AC, may be the best way forward.

rooferPete

Hi lonb,

I like the way Borzoi puts everything in perspective

There is a world of a difference between a domestic and a commercial heating system, we very rarely see radiators in a commercial building, I think Borzoi has told us why in a very easy to understand way.

Another thing you might want to take into consideration is electricity and oil are usually linked regarding the purcase price because a lot of generating stations use oil as their power source.

It looks like the best way is to find the most efficient system to use the energy.

.

lomb

thats odd then, the guy is putting in oil radiators... wil have to look into it but amnt paying 12 grand sterling thats 20000 euro to put in 2 air conditioners with heat pumps. although i can sort of understand the costs involved of venting/wiring them