Can anyone recommend an economical stand alone electric heater?

There’s no getting away from the fact that you will consume just as many kWh of electricity as the heaters produce. Heat retention - the idea behind storage heaters - will cause the heaters to deliver just as much heat, but over a longer period. I can’t see how anyone can claim that it will reduce the cost.

Economy 7 will at the moment be cheaper than flat rate for OVO customers who use at least ~30% of their total consumption during offpeak hours. This is usually easily achievable for those with storage heaters.

There’s also the question of hot water: it takes 7-8kWh for an immersion heater to heat a 150l tank. If you use a tankful each day, that’s another 2500kWh annually. The difference in cost between E7 and flat rate in my region would be of the order of £170 a year.

I’m not sure how you arrive at your conclusion that “you could have direct heating on a standard tariff for 8 hours before you’d start to pay more - if you had it on for any less you’d be saving money.” If I again use my local rates, that one heater delivering 1.5kW would convert 12kWh over 8 hours. Charging overnight at 3.3kW would take 3½ hours and cost around £2.00. 12kWh delivered by a 1.5kW direct heater during the day would cost £2.70. You may be prepared to pay an extra £120 a year for the convenience, comfort and aesthetic appeal of a heater like the Ecostrad Klasse iQ instead of a shabby old night storage heater - that’s up to you. 1.5kW will probably only manage to heat one small room.

Against these extra costs comes the savings generated by paying less for daytime consumption. If you have them to hand, your bills should show just how much energy you consume during peak hours. If you subtract last year’s peak meter reading from this year’s, you’ll get an idea of a years’ usage. Multiply that by the difference between the E7 peak rate and the flat rate (not forgetting the VAT!) to find the potential saving. 

Then, when you’ve arrived at a figure for what the net result of going for heating at flat rate might be, factor in the investment in new equipment, not forgetting the installation costs (electricians don’t come cheap!). Only when you’ve done all the sums can you make a reasoned decision.

Thank you, that’s actually really helpful! :) 

With regards to heat retention affecting the running costs would it not be because any radiator with heat retentive qualities will help keep warmth in the room for longer? No insulation is perfect after all. If you have a heater that instantly cools down after it’s switched off the only thing keeping the heat in is the walls and windows etc, whereas if the radiator has heat retention that will aid in keeping the warmth in for longer? 

When I said “you could have direct heating on a standard tariff for 8 hours before you’d start to pay more - if you had it on for any less you’d be saving money.” that was under the assumption that storage heaters need to be on for a full 7 hours at night to give off any warmth the following day, is that not the case? Our current storage heaters need the full 7 hours to work the following day and when I called Dimplex the advisor said theirs need to charge for the full 7 hours but did I get bad advice? 

With regards to installation costs we will need to have new heaters installed either way as our current ones are very energy intensive and need to be replaced with either new storage heaters or electric radiators. 

Our local rates are 12.3p off peak, 26.9p on peak, and 22.4 standard flat rate - a difference of 4.5p between standard and peak rates. Doing your calculation re peak usage comes to a saving of £176 per year. Using our local rates to look at 8hrs at 1.5kw vs 3.5 at 3.3kw its £2.68 against £1.47 so a £1.21 saving. Multiplied by 3 heaters, and then 150 days, minus the £176 saving comes to £368 difference or £30 per month. 

Thank you. 

I’d be really interested to hear where you live to get such a favourable night rate on Economy 7 - mine hasn’t been that low for a long time. The first bit of your postcode would do. If your supplier isn’t OVO, I’m very keen to learn who it is! 

Your calculations don’t look quite right to me, but that may be my confusion. The figure of £1.21 per day per radiator is the extra cost of doing away with night storage. We’re talking about converting 12kWh either in NSH at 12.3p or in direct heaters at 22.4p. That’s an extra cost for the direct heaters, offset by the saving on other daytime use. So you’re looking at an increased outlay of £30 per month for heating.

If, like me, you make sure to run other power-hungry equipment (e.g. washer, dryer, dishwasher) at night to take full advantage of E7, you’d have to add that extra expense too if you were to switch to flat-rate. And you didn’t mention hot water ... 

I’m afraid I’m no heating expert, so I can’t really comment on your arguments in favour of heat retention. You may well be right that the comfort level is higher because of heat delivery continuing after the heater is switched off, but I admit I’ll take some convincing. The last people I’d trust to explain would be those trying to sell heat-retention radiators. I can only suggest that you find a local heating engineer recommended by friends, neighbours or family to help you decide. 

For me, at any rate, the bottom line would be if it took 36kWh to heat my home each day, it’s going to cost me much more at 22.4p/kWh than it would at 12.3p/kWh. Whether the form of heating could reduce that figure of 36kWh significantly, I can’t say.

Thanks for your response again! 
I’m in Southampton and am currently with EDF, although I did a price comparison recently and OVO was recommended. 
Yes the £1.21 I mentioned was the extra cost of standard flat rates over off peak. And your right I didn’t mention the dishwasher or water heating. To be honest we need to use the washing machine etc in the day as our off peak doesn’t start until 1am. 

Regarding taking advice that is what I’ve found very frustrating until now because as much as I’ve searched there doesn’t seem to be much by the way of impartial advice from trusted sources online! 

This conversation has been helpful. It’s an important decision so I want to make sure it’s well considered. I have to admit I prefer the look and flexibility of electric radiators - who wouldn’t - but not so much that I’d want to pay a small fortune. I’m currently waiting for some heating experts to come back to me so it’ll be interesting to see what they say as well.  

@Lea881

You mentioned washing machines.

Many have delay timers.

If yours doesn't, replacing it with a more modern energy efficient one with a timer would be worth considering when yours has reached the end of its life or even perhaps before. 

The energy ratings changed recently so be careful comparing new models with the one you have. Roughly

Old A+++ is now equivalent to a B or C rating.

Old A++ is now equivalent to a D or E rating.

Old A+ is now equivalent to an F or G rating.

This is just one random new A rated washing machine with a timer just as an example.

https://ao.com/product/nswm846wuk-hotpoint-antistain-washing-machine-white-101199-1.aspx

It is not inconceivable that someone could half the electricity they spend on washing by changing their washing machine.

We run ours overnight even though we don't have E7.

Personally I would be wary of the risk of "snake oil" companies saying how good their direct electric heaters are, so it would be interesting to hear what you find.

Another thing I would be wary of is the future changes being talked about regarding electricity tariffs where the standard tariff is replaced by one that charges customers more during peak hours anyway.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/press-release/ofgem-launches-discussion-future-price-cap

If this happens in the next few years your cost model may look very different.

There have been trails of new smart storage heaters, ovo ran one but it wasn't progressed which seems a shame. There are going to be quite a lot of households where heat pumps are difficult or impossible to install that will need an affordable solution going forward.

This offering has been running for some time and may be worth a look in terms of running costs. It is with British Gas and a Dimplex Quantum setup 

https://www.dimplex.co.uk/en-gb/tariff/british-gas-dimplex-quantum-tariff

I am assuming you have older storage heaters.

There are a few heat pumps that don't have an external unit, but they are not cheap and I don't  know how good they are. Perhaps something worth at least looking into if a regular heat pump would not work in your property

https://www.electriq.co.uk/p/iqool-smart15hp/electriq-iqoolsmart15hp-air-conditioner-air-conditioner

Even at this late stage I thought it may be worth adding a couple of observations from years of running different types of heating.

You can have a room at a comfortable temperature say somewhere between 18-20C with some form of convective heating from gas central heating or an electric but you can still feel cold. We've had a woodburning stove for the past 35 years and I've found you can trade some convective heating for radiant heat (of the same total power consumption) with some radiant heat near you. So, I would say that you would get the greatest economy by convectively heating a room up to 17/18C but have a local warming source either with a low power radiant heater or even an electric throw. Some of that local heating can be hot drinks or food as well.

One of the phrases that I saw that came out of the recent energy crisis was ‘Don’t heat the house, heat the human’. You should be able to find an economical balance between heating the house and heating yourself.

Peter

It’s always worth it if you’ve got something to share, no matter how old the topic is! It’s coming into those months where maybe someone might be needing just that advice so thank you for popping it on here @Peter E!

Your knowledge and advice is very much appreciated, thank you as always.