Energy efficient heaters

mon242

I'm trying not to use electric fan heaters to heat rooms. Does any body have alternatives? I don't mind if they are expensive to buy, what is important that the running costs are moderate.

M cebee

there's some fancy convector heaters out there-they've been discussed here a few times

storage/combi-heaters is another option- if you want some heat during the day-


you might need nightsaver or separate nsh metering depending on what you go for

Red Alert

Storage heaters are probably best. I'd personally recommend fan assisted ones like the Dimplex FXL units. They're more expensive but much better than the standard/combi ones if you're not there all day. They've much higher insulation than normal storage heaters and a quiet fan extracts the heat under time or thermostat control. Unfortunately storage heaters have got a bad name because a lot of builders fitted standard ones to apartments during the boom, which are really only suitable if you're there all day.

Don't believe all the hype about some electric heaters being more "efficient" than others - all electric heaters are in essence 100% efficient. The real cost differences are down to the energy prices being different with Nightsaver/NSH tariffs.

For on-peak heat you've either got radiant or convector and fan heaters. Radiant and convector heaters are a bit different, and heaters that give off more radiant heat can "feel" warmer. So the Farho or Dimplex oil-filled units are probably going to be slightly warmer but less stuffy than simpler panel convector heaters or fan heaters.

Tarriff-wise you've got Nightsaver and the separately metered NSH tariff. Night Storage Heating has a very small standing charge and about a 50% discount on the price of storage heating units. A separate meter and fusebox is installed, and the ESB timer turns on and off the heaters. Nightsaver has a higher standing charge, may have a higher day-unit charge and discounts about 50% off night-time consumption between 11pm and 8am. It applies to your whole installation. I presume the ESB clock is also wired so that it switches on and off the storage heaters as in the case of separate NSH - is that correct?.

M cebee

ya-for nightsaver you can use a control pair for your -off peak loads but it's not essential

you can also do your own timing and 'sync' it with the off- peak period

Red Alert

Yeah I wasn't sure what way it's usually set up here. In the UK they usually give you a live and switched 230V live on Economy 7, the equivalent of Nightsaver.

M cebee

for nsh you'd normally use a control pair on domestic

larger installations where theres dual-tarriff you may have to time it yourself
on a sub-board etc.

other loads that utilise off-peak like electric water heating,agas and geothermal heatpumps do their own timing

Red Alert

The water heating one always confuses me, because it's got to be set manually. I'd personally be inclined to put the "bath" element on the control circuit, maybe with a time-delay contactor to limit the night-time to about 2 hours. That way I wouldn't be in danger of accidentally timing it to be on at the wrong time and using daytime energy.

/offtopic apologies