Advice about new electric storage heaters

3638amy

Hi everyone. I'm a mum with Fibromyalgia and a couple of other conditions who has been offered a council move to a property* in Hove. I have been told that the heating system has been changed recently to new electric storage heaters and I'm guessing everything is electric in the flats now. I really need to find out from someone who lives there how much it has increased their energy bills so that I know whether I can afford it or not! I am currently in a one bedroom up 3 flights of stairs and have had to sleep in my front room for 15+ years so I am desperate. Does anyone live in a council property* in Hove and know anything about it? I can't find much information out - except that it looks like mostly 1 bedroom flats (this would be a 2 bedroom) with lift access, and seems fairly nice. I just know that I'll feel very on the spot when I go to view it and don't want to make the wrong decision!

*Edited by moderator to remove address

Adrian_Scope

Good afternoon @3638amy and a warm welcome to the community.
Unfortunately the sharing of personal information isn't allowed on the community to protect member's and their identity, so I've had to remove the details of the property from your discussion.

I don't personally know much about newer electric storage heaters but hopefully other members might be able to tell you more about them, even if they don't live at the address you're looking at. 

JBS2022

I live in a 1 bedroom flat with 2 storage heaters, they each cost about £1 per hour but after 2 hours of use they continue to throw out heat for about 8 hours. I rarely use them though, I use electric oil radiators, they are cheap to buy and only use 30p an hour on medium settings. I personally don't find gas central heating(which I had in my old flat) to be much cheaper than the storage heaters.

3638amy

JBS2022 said:

I live in a 1 bedroom flat with 2 storage heaters, they each cost about £1 per hour but after 2 hours of use they continue to throw out heat for about 8 hours. I rarely use them though, I use electric oil radiators, they are cheap to buy and only use 30p an hour on medium settings. I personally don't find gas central heating(which I had in my old flat) to be much cheaper than the storage heaters.

Thank you, that's very useful!

OverlyAnxious

Electric storage heaters usually come with a dual-tariff electric bill.  So they heat up overnight when the electric is cheap (in my case, 1/3rd of the day rate) then continue to pump heat out for free during the day.

It takes 2-3 days for them to work effectively when first switched on, so don't worry if they don't feel very warm the first day.

Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of heat overnight, so didn't get on with them at all in a studio flat.  (Really hot in bed then cold by mid afternoon!).   So I just use a plug-in convector instead.  Some modern storage heaters have a convector attached, so you can use that to boost the temperature in the afternoon.  Be aware the convector is very expensive to run though, so only use that when necessary.

3638amy

OverlyAnxious said:

Electric storage heaters usually come with a dual-tariff electric bill.  So they heat up overnight when the electric is cheap (in my case, 1/3rd of the day rate) then continue to pump heat out for free during the day.

It takes 2-3 days for them to work effectively when first switched on, so don't worry if they don't feel very warm the first day.

Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of heat overnight, so didn't get on with them at all in a studio flat.  (Really hot in bed then cold by mid afternoon!).   So I just use a plug-in convector instead.  Some modern storage heaters have a convector attached, so you can use that to boost the temperature in the afternoon.  Be aware the convector is very expensive to run though, so only use that when necessary.

Thank you. It seems generally that people buy something else to plug in instead of using the storage heaters, so that's what I'll do. It sounds much better than turning down a decent accessible flat and I'm feeling a lot more hopeful.

sd100

I had these heaters for a long time and they were so expensive to run because unless you use the night tariff it is crazy expensive during day. I explained the situation to my housing and they swapped them out for regular electric heater, so may be worth asking if they can be changed. I dare to guess what storage heaters cost now with energy bills increases of recent.

Hannah_Alumni

I don't know much about heaters, but I did some window shopping to find a nice warm and cosy throw to help limited the need to have the heating on high. I went with the teddy bear soft one from Dunelm. I bought the giant one so I could fold it in half too  

3638amy

sd100 said:

I had these heaters for a long time and they were so expensive to run because unless you use the night tariff it is crazy expensive during day. I explained the situation to my housing and they swapped them out for regular electric heater, so may be worth asking if they can be changed. I dare to guess what storage heaters cost now with energy bills increases of recent.

I think they've just been changed to the new system so the Council woman basically said that, no, you definitely couldn't change it back whatever happens. I think I'm going to buy my own heaters!

3638amy

Hannah_Scope said:

I don't know much about heaters, but I did some window shopping to find a nice warm and cosy throw to help limited the need to have the heating on high. I went with the teddy bear soft one from Dunelm. I bought the giant one so I could fold it in half too  

Definitely worth investing in warm blankets and warm clothes for around the house, whatever happens! Apparently in a real emergency you can also buy a tent, put it on your bed and sleep inside that (unzipped, but with a blanket over the roof over the tent to insolate). This is what they do in places like Canada if the power goes out. 🤔 I'm sure my kids would think that was fun!

Hannah_Alumni

@3638amy I agree that would be fun! It'd be like a big camp out, definitely would turn it into a movie night!