I have 4 Dimplex Quantum storage heaters in my rented local authority 2 bed end terraced house. Gas was removed in favour of these supposedly greener and more efficient heaters. Truth is they are way too expensive to run. My home is small and thankfully well insulated. However, if I were to run all four, I’d be roughly £600 per month…Yes, Per Month. So, I only have the one in the kitchen on as it’s a tiny kitchen and the heat from that keeps my living room ticking over. I bought two electric panel heaters, one for my living room and one at the bottom of the stairs. The latter heats all the way upstairs. They are far easier to control, whereas the storage heaters are useless. No heater in the bathroom, so I have a low energy electric towel rail which is pennies to run. But, depending on how long I have the panel heaters on, I can easily run to £14 per day. I’ve tried it when we have really cold days. I was told that the storage heaters need to run on economy 10, which they are. But, then I was told they should be on economy 7. Does anyone out there have these heaters? What are the costs for you to run them? They are not like the old style bulky storage heaters of the 70’s they are quite stylish, but so expensive. I’d love to know how they are supposed to be economical. When I had gas it was far far cheaper to heat my home. My neighbour still has gas as they bought their house, exact same as mine, their gas for heating and cooking is £125 per month. Their electric £40 per month. Their are four people there. Here there’s just two of us.
Hi
From what you’ve said, presumably you are not on economy 7 (or 10)?
No l just have radiators. and gas coal like fire when needed. so l don’t know how much they are to run. and their is only 2 of us as well.
Hello
Your situation raises all sorts of complex questions and I remember 40 years ago being in a similar position when I was very hard up, living on my own in an old terraced house which was heated by off peak old fashioned storage heaters. They cost a fortune to store their energy at night and mostly let it out during the day when I was out at work. I think they cost about 50p each night, which was a lot then.
Your post reminded me of a BBC radio 4 program called (the best thing since) Sliced Bread which went into some detail about the best, most efficient form of portable heating, which may help you with some ideas. The link to the program on BBC Sounds is here.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001dxtx?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile
I'd also purchase a plug in power monitor for about £10 which will tell you exactly what any plug in heater costs to run. No good for your storage heaters as I suspect that they will be hard wired but it will help you monitor your panel heaters or anything else you buy. I find fan heaters best for quick heat as long as they have a thermostat. But I also have a couple of air to air heat pumps which uses 1kw of electricity to give you 5kw of heat will only do one open area and costs about £1500 to £2000 to install.
Good luck, stay warm, if you can.
My solution to staying warm all those years ago was to spend my last £5 on a saw, and pinch some fallen wood from a local woodland which I burt in an old fireplace.
Tony
There are some interesting tariff specifically for quantum storage heaters rather than using E7 or E10.
If you haven't got a Dimplex Hub you would need to get one
For example the night rate on this tariff is only 9.9p between 12.30 and 7.30.
https://www.britishgas.co.uk/energy/gas-and-electricity/dimplex-quantum-tariff.html
https://www.dimplex.co.uk/british-gas-dimplex-quantum-tariff
This may work out dramatically cheaper for you and the rates are fixed for piece of mind.
Also make sure your storage heaters are properly setup to charge at night.
Alternatively if you aren't going to use your quantum heaters you are likely to be better off just going on a single rate tariff
No l just have radiators. and gas coal like fire when needed. so l don’t know how much they are to run. and their is only 2 of us as well.
Thank you but I am asking if anyone has these heaters, which you don’t. So I don’t understand your comment.
Hello
Your situation raises all sorts of complex questions and I remember 40 years ago being in a similar position when I was very hard up, living on my own in an old terraced house which was heated by off peak old fashioned storage heaters. They cost a fortune to store their energy at night and mostly let it out during the day when I was out at work. I think they cost about 50p each night, which was a lot then.
Your post reminded me of a BBC radio 4 program called (the best thing since) Sliced Bread which went into some detail about the best, most efficient form of portable heating, which may help you with some ideas. The link to the program on BBC Sounds is here.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001dxtx?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile
I'd also purchase a plug in power monitor for about £10 which will tell you exactly what any plug in heater costs to run. No good for your storage heaters as I suspect that they will be hard wired but it will help you monitor your panel heaters or anything else you buy. I find fan heaters best for quick heat as long as they have a thermostat. But I also have a couple of air to air heat pumps which uses 1kw of electricity to give you 5kw of heat will only do one open area and costs about £1500 to £2000 to install.
Good luck, stay warm, if you can.
My solution to staying warm all those years ago was to spend my last £5 on a saw, and pinch some fallen wood from a local woodland which I burt in an old fireplace.
Tony
Thank you Tony, excellent response. In 1982, my husband ( sadly now passed ) also got a saw, went to the local woods to collect wood and we burned in the fireplace. As you say, the old style storage heaters saved heat during 7 hours overnight, churned out the heat all day, got home from work and it was cold all evening. Bills sky high to run them. I’ve still got access to gas, but I rent, so no point in me spending thousands to get gas central heating back. I’m 65, I’d never recoup the outlay. I reckon best thing is to sod off to warmer climes all winter…that’ll save money LOL.
It may not apply, but I’ll just throw it in there….
a friend of mine lives in a similar kind of property as you, and also has storage heaters. He is also faced with disproportionately large heating bills. One day he noticed that the heaters were on during the day and getting warmer. The next time I was over there we discussed it and I checked his electricity meter: the timer was about 10 hours out, so we guessed his so-called “Economy”7 was actually charging his heaters at the full rate with only his fridge operating at the low rate overnight. As as say, just a thought but maybe worth checking what the various timings are.
Mike
It may not apply, but I’ll just throw it in there….
a friend of mine lives in a similar kind of property as you, and also has storage heaters. He is also faced with disproportionately large heating bills. One day he noticed that the heaters were on during the day and getting warmer. The next time I was over there we discussed it and I checked his electricity meter: the timer was about 10 hours out, so we guessed his so-called “Economy”7 was actually charging his heaters at the full rate with only his fridge operating at the low rate overnight. As as say, just a thought but maybe worth checking what the various timings are.
Mike
Good point
This is a good place to check peak vs off peak usage in 30min slots to see what is going on
https://account.ovoenergy.com/usage?datePeriod=daily&unit=kwh&fuel=electricity
Hi
From what you’ve said, presumably you are not on economy 7 (or 10)?
I am on economy 10…..
We really need to know a bit more about your electrical arrangements to be able to make sensible suggestions. The vital points are:
- Do you have a smart meter? If so, could you post a photo of it, so we can see its make and model and how it’s wired into the house?
- You say you’re on an Economy 10 tariff. I may be wrong, but all those we’ve heard about on this type of tariff are ex-SSE customers. Were you with SSE previously?
We’ve heard some sad tales of customers in this situation who found - like Hundon’s friend a few posts up - that the timings were all wrong.
Last, a couple of words about whether electric heaters can be cheap to run. You may have heard that some are more efficient than others. This isn’t quite right, because the beauty of electric heating is that it’s 100% efficient: every jot of electricity you pay for is converted into heat. Gas heating is less so; a modern boiler may convert 90% of the energy in the gas into heat, with most of the other 10% going up the chimney to keep the sparrows warm. An old boiler may be as low as 75% efficient. Oil-fired boilers are usually somewhere in between.
There’s also the question of how effective electric heating is. This is partly subjective, but storage heaters have a reputation for not being very effective. They store up energy during the night when it’s hopefully cheaper, then release it during the day. In all too many cases, though, the stored heat has been released by late afternoon, meaning that there’s none left to keep you warm during the evening when you probably most need it. For those out at work all day, this is far from effective heating. Economy 10 tariffs try to work around this by allowing for ‘boost’ periods at lower prices in the early afternoon and late evening.
Strategically-located radiators or fan heaters may be more effective at keeping you warm - as you’ve discovered - even though the electricity they use may cost more per unit. Another very effective way of keeping warm is to wrap yourself in an electric blanket. This probably costs less than your heated towel rail to run (e.g. 1 or 2p per hour), yet you can curl up on the sofa of an evening in comfort. OVO have been giving these away to needy customers.
OVO give these away to needy customers
There are some interesting tariff specifically for quantum storage heaters rather than using E7 or E10.
If you haven't got a Dimplex Hub you would need to get one
For example the night rate on this tariff is only 9.9p between 12.30 and 7.30.
https://www.britishgas.co.uk/energy/gas-and-electricity/dimplex-quantum-tariff.html
https://www.dimplex.co.uk/british-gas-dimplex-quantum-tariff
This may work out dramatically cheaper for you and the rates are fixed for piece of mind.
Also make sure your storage heaters are properly setup to charge at night.
Alternatively if you aren't going to use your quantum heaters you are likely to be better off just going on a single rate tariff
So, as the local authority fitted these Dimplex Quantum Heaters, should they pay for the Dimplex Hub? I’ve struggled for three years in this house to get a proper and reasonable answer to why they are so expensive to run. Gas was ripped out in favour of these heaters. Just one costs £100 per month, plus my everyday electric usage. This hub costs well over £100 to purchase. Council fitted them surely they should provide the hub to go with them?
Unfortunately, they won’t. Cheaping out is their priority, so they will quite literally go for the cheapest possible options to initially purchase and skip out on any add-ons they don’t consider important for a basic installation. The running costs to and actual needs/requirements of the customer/tenant/resident are 99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of the time considered to be totally out of scope for their procurement processes.
Bromford is notorious for it...
Quantum heaters are supposed to be much better at heating than the old storage heaters from 20+ years ago as they are more controllable and have less heat leakage during the day.
It does sound like they are running at peak times though. I was paying almost £400 a month last winter for 3 less efficient storage heaters and that was when I was on OVO’s extremely high tariff. Do you have a smart meter? If so, it sounds like it has been wired incorrectly. If you go on Money Saving Expert forum there’s a lot about Quantums and Econ7/10 which should help.
It’s unlikely to have been incorrectly wired if the Smart Meter directly replaced another one - the wiring would have been directly matched up on a 1:1 basis.
Not at all - there have been many mess ups with Eco 7/10 and smart meters, particularly by British Gas. Here’s just one example (not BG) https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6438042/smart-meters-economy-7
Assuming the OP didn’t have Eco 10/7 3 (?) years ago, when the Quantums were installed, as they had gas central heating, it is possible that the meter is wired to peak times only.
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