I'm considering switching from storage heaters to electric heating. Can someone help me understand the real costs?

Hey @Lea881,

Can you share any specifics about the size of your property, possible models you’re considering, or any other considerations you feel we should know? The more information you can share, the more specific the answers you’ll get will be to your circumstances.

@Firedog I know you have storage heaters currently are you able to offer some advice? 

Yes of course, we’re in an electric only two bedroom apartment, the living room is quite large at 30 square metres with 3 metre high ceilings. We're home all day however when we lived in previous apartment and has gas we’d never put the heating on all day every day except for the very coldest days of the year. We currently have storage heaters on Economy 7 however they’re excessive as they charge for the full 7 hours each night and put out way too much heat in the day even at the lower input and output settings. We know newer ones would be more efficient but still leak 49% in 24 hours and are very bulky. As electric only running costs are relatedly new to us we’d love to hear from anyone who has electric only heating whether that be oil filled or ceramic core electric radiators or storage heaters to see what the running costs are as well as anyone who has switched and knows how the costs compared.

@Chris_OVO Lea and I have already had a long conversation about this: 
  

I don’t think I can add anything more. 
  

My storage heaters have been mothballed since my night rate leapt from 9p to 23p a couple of years ago. They may get an airing during tonight’s Power Move Flex event (giving a 15p/kWh discount), if I can work out how to make sure they stop charging at 03:00. 

We have! What do you use now instead Firedog? 

I live in a two bedroom bungalow and replaced my storage heaters with these radiators from Elnur. They are ceramic, they do oil filled ones as well, and can ne bought from numerous places on the internet.

My long is approx 4.3m x 4.7m and faces due south, I also have solar hot water. I am currently on an RTS meter on the THTC tariff. See my comparison of costs in the table below.

2018/19 was on Storage Heaters, 2019/20 on new radiators. Not a huge difference and that could have been just down to a colder winter. 

The electric radiators are much better in my view as I have control of when they come on and can set the temperature in each room independently.

 

 

Thank you so much! That’s really helpful! :) That’s exactly what we want to do but were just a bit scared about before going ahead so this in comforting. Do you have the radiators on a fair bit? 

@awills61 Could it be that your THTC tariff has different peak/offpeak rates, governed by two separate meters? So you had storage heaters running at offpeak rates at times determined by the RTS, but a separate 24-hour heating circuit at offpeak rates as well? So your new ceramic radiators are running off the cheap heating circuit? 

If that’s the case, then the comparison is understandable, especially if the rate for heating is similar to the offpeak rate your storage heaters were running at. You were and are consuming around 2000kWh for heating regardless of the way that heat is delivered, as you’d expect, although of course the comfort level may be greater because of the better control you have.

It means’ though, that I don’t think Lea can make much use of it if she does away with her (at the moment generous) offpeak Economy 7 rate in favour of a considerably more expensive flat-rate tariff. If she’s finding her (old) storage heaters dear to run at 12.3p/kWh, I’m afraid that even the flashiest high-heat-retention ceramic core heaters with infinite remote control would prove to be ruinously expensive at 22.4p/kWh.     

@Firedog yes there is a 24 hr heating circuit that runs at the lower rate but this is recorded on the one meter. The THTC tariff has all heating and water at the lower rate. My storage heaters had convector heaters in them as well so they could be used when needed. The new radiators were wired to the circuit that the convector heaters used.

Hey @Lea881,

Hopefully this helps you with making a decision on your electric radiators. Big thanks to @Firedog & @awills61 for stopping by and offering your views 😃

Oh so your electric radiators run on lower rates? What are the rates if you don’t mind me asking? How it it possible to be on lower rates during the day? Sadly I don’t have that option. It’s either a standard flat rate of 22p or economy 7 day and night rates. 

Thank you for raising that point @Firedog. I did a test with our current storage heater the other day and despite putting it on the very minimum input and output settings it still used the full 3.3kw for the 7 hours ie 3.3kw x 7hr x 12.29p = £2.83, whereas we only needed a few hours of heat throughout the day which with an electric radiator would have been 1.5kw x 2hr x 22.07p = 66p. I’m well aware this was on warm day and would be very different in the heart of winter, however our current storage heaters run out of warmth by the evening in midwinter and the ‘winter’ period that heating is required is comprised of many milder days, especially at both ends, so I can’t help thinking it might balance out or even work out cheaper overall. Also, one of our other storage heaters in the bedroom is a 2018 model and puts out so much heat at nighttime that despite being on the ‘off’ output setting it is too hot to sleep (even in midwinter) and therefore has to be permanent switch off at the plus which means the room is cold and damp - not good for the woodwork or the walls. I think we’d have to have an electric radiator in the bedroom, kitchen (not enough space for a storage heater) and bathroom so it’d probably be better to get them in every room so that we aren’t paying the higher daytime rate for heating in these rooms. 

I was trying to look into time or day tariffs and it seems OVO offer a Smart Economy 9 tariff however when I called them to ask for the rates the advisor told me that she couldn’t tell - such a bizarre response, I’ve never had any energy company refuse to tell me their rates before! Heat pump tariffs are quite similar to Eco 9 or 10 tariffs but frustratingly they are only available to those with heat pumps. There doesn’t seem to be much help out there for the many people living in electric only apartments were heat pumps are not an option. 

Hey @Lea881,

Where did you see the Economy 9 tariff? Our support team uses a tool to display what tariffs are available to you based on your account. It could be that a specific tariff isn't available for you or isn't currently offered. If that's the case, the advisor doesn't have access to giving the information. 

Let us know, and we can take a look with you 😊

Thanks Chris! Here is the OVO Smart Economy 9 tariff I was referring to: https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/article/electric-heating/economy-9

Yes my radiators run on the lower rate. The rates are high 25.47, Low 21.35 so not that low really. The low rates are available during the day because that is how THTC is set up. 

Thanks awills61 that’s really helpful!  No 21.35 isn’t that low, it’s not that different from our standard flat rate of 22.07. I wish we could get lower rates during the day but sadly Eco 10 and 9 seem to have been phased out and Heat Pump tariffs only help people who can have heat pumps / own a house. It’s very frustrating as looking at it from an environmental point of view I don’t feel millions people should have to have storage heaters on for 7 hours a night just to get a bit of heat in the evening the following day, or face paying extremely high prices for electricity because they don’t have gas or other viable options. 

E10 is available in my area (North Scotland). It’s one of the tariffs being offered as a replacement fro THTC alongside the smart meter switch.

That’s good. It doesn’t seem to be available in the South of England. OVO have an Economy 9 but don’t seem to be able to tell me the rates so maybe it isn’t available to new customers. 

I don’t know where you’re looking, but all of OVO’s tariffs are given on this page: Our prices | OVO Energy. Put in your postcode, then use the filters to find tariffs for Electricity only with a multi-rate meter and your preferred payment method.

I found these for my great uncle’s home in Fareham:

These are the variable (price-capped) tariffs; note the figures exclude VAT. E10 looks more attractive - ten hours of offpeak power at a lower rate. Of course, the E9 hours might suit you better if you’re willing to pay the premium. I’m not sure what the hours might be down there in the Southern region: according to Smart Economy 9 help | OVO Energy, they’re like this:
 

Economy 9 offpeak times in GMT

• 3am - 6am

• 12pm-3pm

• 7.30pm-10.30pm

It’s not quite so easy to track down the timings for E10. My best guess from available sources is: 

Economy 10 offpeak times in GMT

• Midnight-5am

• 1pm-4pm

• 8pm-10pm