Electric radiators for home (2 Viewers)

[Otter Spotter]

I am currently looking to move house and one property has electric radiator heating at least 12 years old, does anyone have any experience of purchasing new electric radiators and advise re suppliers costs etc.
I have catalogues arriving from Fischer and Sunflow, but never will give any indication of cost per unit.
Are there any other suppliers of very efficient radiators.
Should I consider scrapping radiators completely and go for electric under floor heating .

 

[hja]

We have electric radiators. We like them and they have proved efficient. I can’t remember the name, not one of the two you mention. I will look it up when we get home. Are away at present. We like that you can programme each radiator separately for times an d temperatures. We had ours installed about seven years ago and things will have moved on since then. I thought Fischer were mainly like old storage heaters, but again haven’t looked for some time.
Our son has underfloor heating in part of his house, but it was part of a big extension and associated with his heat pump.
We did lots of research at the time and visited places like the centre at Swindon, perhaps called Build Centre. It has lots of info on all sorts of energy saving stuff.

 

[scotjimland]

We have modern Dimplex Quantum storage heaters .. and they are very efficient.

Not to be confused with the old type of bulky storage heaters that were almost uncontrollable..

Quantum​

Quantum is the world’s most advanced, lot 20 compliant and SAP accredited high heat retention storage heater. Designed, developed and manufactured in the UK by Dimplex, it stores up low-cost, off-peak energy to be used on demand through the day, making it the most economical electric heating on the market today. Quantum has three customisable heating timers, each with four time and temperature settings for each day of the week, and can intelligently adapt to match the climate and your lifestyle, delivering heat only when it is needed - 24 hours a day.

 

[PP Bear]

These are fitted in the cottage we rent and are very efficient and come with multiple programs either built in, or ability to select your own. Has a great frost protection program.

Anyhow, hope it helps and forgive the dust, it’s an uphill battle with a wood burning fire

 

[berni109]

Electrical radiators are not very efficient. 1kw in 1kw heat energy out.
Might be worth considering inverter room air conditioning units if you aren't going for full heat pump solution. 1 in upto 5kw output.
Maybe a mixture of both with rads in little used rooms.

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[Tombola]

My underfloor heating is rubbish, and I could grind an axe on the meter wheel when it's on
.

 

[hja]

We have electric radiators. We like them and they have proved efficient. I can’t remember the name, not one of the two you mention. I will look it up when we get home. Are away at present. We like that you can programme each radiator separately for times an d temperatures. We had ours installed about seven years ago and things will have moved on since then. I thought Fischer were mainly like old storage heaters, but again haven’t looked for some time.
Our son has underfloor heating in part of his house, but it was part of a big extension and associated with his heat pump.
We did lots of research at the time and visited places like the centre at Swindon, perhaps called Build Centre. It has lots of info on all sorts of energy saving stuff.

Our radiators were Farho, based in Grimsby. Ours were installed in 2017. Their catalogue included a useful calculator for radiator sizes for size of room. Price wise, a 9 fin radiator at that time was £615.

 

[StillGoing]

https://www.business-live.co.uk/retail-consumer/criminal-case-allegations-fraud-aggressive-25145447

 

[Guigsy]

Electric heaters are all pretty much the same in terms of efficiency. All the power that goes in as electrical energy comes out as heat. Some radiate more, others convect more. But it adds up to the same thing.

I don't know if storage heaters have moved on from 50 years ago? You could at least charge them up when electricity is cheaper.

Or, as mentioned, look at an air-air heat pump type system. They get better than 100% efficiency through the magic of physics. But you'll end up poking holes in walls and hanging the exchangers off the outside somewhere.

 

[L' Hobo]

I still have one of those old infrared, single red bar, wall bathroom heaters.
Instant heat, fantastic bit of kit!

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[stevewagner]

You could fit an electric combination boiler and have central heating

 

[Otter Spotter]

Got a brochure from Sunflow Ltd, they slag off the German firm and Dimplex but they don’t give you any figures for costings of either rads or consumption without visiting the site.
I think I am going to pass on electric rads as we have had an offer accepted on a property with gas central heating so I will wait til that boiler gives up before deciding what’s next

 

[Cal54]

Sunflow are expensive. I fell into the trap of having someone into assess my need as I wanted to replace the old storage heaters that were in when I moved here. A four figure sum for the single panel for the lounge!

In the end I have gone for glass electric panel heaters purchased from Amazon. They are neat, with wi-if connectivity, have a timer and temp controls. Nice and cheap and means I can control each room separately and switch them on remotely so have a nice warm home when returning from my jollies!

 

[Otter Spotter]

Sunflow are expensive. I fell into the trap of having someone into assess my need as I wanted to replace the old storage heaters that were in when I moved here. A four figure sum for the single panel for the lounge!

In the end I have gone for glass electric panel heaters purchased from Amazon. They are neat, with wi-if connectivity, have a timer and temp controls. Nice and cheap and means I can control each room separately and switch them on remotely so have a nice warm home when returning from my jollies!

I had never heard of Glass panel radiators, I can see they are cheap but will they heat a room and do it affordably?

 

[Cal54]

Otter Spotter - to be honest I can’t really answer your query. I moved into a flat in a retirement complex and the place is so warm I never have my heating on! However I like the idea of managing remotely. What I didn’t like was the old style storage heaters that were bulky and with little control.

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[MisterB]

We replaced our old style storage heaters with Dimplex Quantums and because we recently bought a PHEV, we are on the 6 hour 7p per KW overnight rate. It works perfectly for us, the main benefit being the radiators don't lose all their heat by late afternoon. We also have an air to air heat pump in the conservatory/dining/kitchen, where we spend 95% of our time when not in bed. Really efficient BUT when it's really cold it's not big enough and also has to defrost every now and again, so you get 5 min periods with no heat. We also have a 'chinese' diesel heater that supplements the A2A. We don't have any available wall space to fit a storage heater in there unfortunately, BUT I did add underfloor pipework, so at some stage in the future I will add a small air to water heat pump OR an electric central heating gizmo...

 

[Barti Ddu]

https://www.business-live.co.uk/retail-consumer/criminal-case-allegations-fraud-aggressive-25145447

I'd steer well clear of Fischer. As well as the arrangement made with Trading Standards linked to above and the undertakings they were required to give, they also have multiple ASA rulings against them for false or misleading advertising.

Fischer Future Heat UK Ltd

www.asa.org.uk

Fischer Future Heat UK Ltd

www.asa.org.uk

Fischer Future Heat UK Ltd

www.asa.org.uk

Fischer Future Heat UK Ltd

www.asa.org.uk

I'm also led to believe that some of their sales agents / "engineers" have employed very high pressure/ aggressive sales pitches when in someone's home for a "survey".

As others have said above - there's no getting around the fact that space heating using electricity is expensive compared to gas. The only way to reduce costs is to have programmable individual devices in each room so only rooms being actually used are heated at various times throughout the day, or to utilise cheaper off peak rates. Would a huge battery bank charging up overnight for cheap be feasible for powering electric panel heaters during the day be a feasible alternative to storage heaters which are less controllable? Don't know. Just thinking outside the box! High initial investment but cheap ongoing cost. I believe Octopus actually paid customers on their Agile tariff to consume electricity at really slack periods overnight recently.