With the Energy Prices Going Sky High, I Like to Know What to Do to Keep Cost Down as Much as I Can

[Guest]

I have moved house and now I have gone from having gas central heating to having electric storage heaters.

I don't know anything about them and the agent explained how to use in less than a min so I couldn't take that all in.

Anybody who has them could explain how they work please?

Are they expensive to run? What to do and what not to do?

Sorry about all the questions but with the energy prices going sky high, I like to know what to do to keep cost down as much as I can, but still don't want to freeze to death.

I have a large tank in the bathroom cupboard, I have an electric shower and don't have any gas.

I have one large heater in the living room, 1 smaller one in my bedroom and one smaller one in the hallway.

There is none in the kitchen and none in the bathroom and spare small bedroom.

It's a bungalow. Thanks, any help would be greatly appreciated..

[Rebecca]

They are so expensive - we use oil radiators on timer switches all winter because of this. they suck in electric all night and release heat throughout the day. E7 is all well and good but they eat electricity so even though its a cheaper rate its overall still a huge cost.

[Abby]

I had them in my old house & they were useless, depends if you have old ones or new ones? Apparently the new ones are better (but I wouldn’t know as mine were the old style). They used so much electric even on E7 and come the morning you’d be sweating and opening the Windows by lunch time you’d be freezing again and all the heat was gone.. there is vents that you close at night whilst they heat, then you open them when it’s cold to let the heat out (supposedly, mine just let it out straight away ).

I ended up changing my tariff to a normal one as E7 is cheaper at night, but a lot more in the day so doesn’t work out well unless you use almost all your elec at night and next to nothing in the day time. I got an electric fire for the living room and shut the door when I needed to use it, then had an oil plug in at the top of the stairs to put on for a couple hours before bed time. Worked OK for me but wasn’t great really.. sorry

[Gill]

From my experience they are a very expensive option and not that good when it comes to the heat they give out

[Arlene]

Geriatric heating as I called them . Very poor especially in the winter time . They heat up during the night . And heat up you place during the day more than likely when you are out at work so you don't really benefit from them . I know I didn't especially when we had that big freeze way back in 2010 ? My flat was at minus 18 , I had 1 in my living room and 1 in the kitchen and 1 poxy electric heaters in each bedroom . I couldn't get gas in the block of flats I was in . Housing association changed the whole heating system to another kind of electric heating that resembled gas central heating . You could adjust every radiator to a setting that was suitable for you .

[Sharon]

I have storage heaters, for the last 2years haven't used them. I'm on economy seven, which heats them up over night to release heat throughout the following day. They eat electric. I went and bought two small oil filled radiators. Less electric and heat the room up nicely.

[Belinda]

They are expensive to run. It might be worth considering plug in heaters.

[Terry]

Tbh it depends if they are the old input/output ones, or the newer digital ones?

[Sara]

Turn them off and invest in some oil filled radiators. Storage heaters are exceptionally expensive! Your electric should be on economy 7 which means your electricity will be cheaper at night. You can call your utility company and request to change it as your not using the storage heaters. They are an absolute nightmare to use too.

[Donna]

I had a lesson from my electrician recently as to how to use them to get best performance out of them for least cost.

1) Don’t turn up input up too high unless exceptionally cold.

2) Turn output right down when you go to bed.

3) Turn output up in the evening when you need a extra boost and it effectively opens the flaps to release any stored heat.

Nobody had ever told me how to use them effectively before either.