Central Heating

[jimbo.1]

I have 3 bedroom house with elctric water radiators.  Use THTC as I live alone is it cheaper to run this system or use individual heater on timers to heat individual rooms when required, bearing in mind that standard tarrif about double thtc tarrif.  Heating system is 8KW .

Cheers Sparky.1

 

[Technician]

As a start, I make the assumption that you have three

radiators and one is upstairs.  Am I correct?

Turn off the upstairs unit and try keeping the downstairs

units in use on the THTC (could you explain?) tariff.

Others will come in with other ideas.

Are there any insulation measures present in the property?

 

[jimbo.1]

As a start, I make the assumption that you have three

radiators and one is upstairs.  Am I correct?

Turn off the upstairs unit and try keeping the downstairs

units in use on the THTC (could you explain?) tariff.

Others will come in with other ideas.

Are there any insulation measures present in the property?

I have 5 radiators. Its a flat no internal stairs.  The THTC uses separate meter for readings whose rate is about half the other standard rate which is double the Total Heating Total Control so would be the double rate used if using separate timed heaters for individual rooms.  I am currently with Scottish Hydro.

Cheers.

As a start, I make the assumption that you have three

radiators and one is upstairs.  Am I correct?

Turn off the upstairs unit and try keeping the downstairs

units in use on the THTC (could you explain?) tariff.

Others will come in with other ideas.

Are there any insulation measures present in the property?

I have 5 radiators and live in flat no stairs.  Loft insulation.  ? wall insulation not sure.  THTC is half rate of standard  tariff both have their own meter readings when used. So using timers for heaters in separate rooms would use double tariff.

I have 5 radiators.  No internal stairs. Have to meter readings one for thtc and one for standard rate.  Standard rate double rate if using timers for individual heaters.  Loft insulation ? whether foam wall insulation.

Cheers Sparky.1

 

[Technician]

What controls are fitted to them?  Can you alter/control

the charge and heat release rate?

 

[ProDave]

THTC is Total Control heating.  (never seen it referred to as that before, had to google to be sure)

Total control is a preserved tariff no longer available to new customers.  It was popular in the 1980's when they were trying to improve the image of storage heaters and pretend a house with electric heating was as good as central heating.

Anyway the important bit is there are three metered tariffs as part  of this package (and often 3 consumer units for the seperate bits)

Firstly there's circuits metered at the standard rate. This is all normal sockets,. lights etc.  In this case the standard tariff is a bit higher than it would be if you just had a normal single rate supply.

Secondly there are off peak circuits.  These are only energised at night, and are for things like storage heaters and immersion heaters.  You also get a 2 hour boost to these in the middle of the day. This is charged at a much lower rate.

Then there are the "total control" circuits.  Now this is the special bit that makes total control an attractive tariff to hang on to if you have it.  All the total control circuits are metered at the cheap rate, but are available 24/7.  This is supposed to be used for heating appliances like panel heaters, feature fires, and you can also connect electric showers to this.

So, the availability of cheap rate electiricy 24/7 for heating makes total control worth keeping.

Now, have a look round your flat.  My guess (based on what I normally see) is you will have storage heaters in the living room and kitchen (big things that stand on the floor) and panel heaters in the bedrooms (much slimmer and hung on the wall)

You can be sure that all the heating you use, whatever time of day will be metered at the cheap rate.

So use the fixed heaters you have. Whatever you do, don't plug in free standing plug in heaters, they will be metered at the peak rate and will bbe much more expensive to use.

And as with any heating system,  just using the heaters when you want them will be the cheapest option. That's why they normally fit panel heaters in the bedrooms rather than a storage heater as you don't want the bedrooms warm all day long.

 

[jimbo.1]

What controls are fitted to them?  Can you alter/control

the charge and heat release rate?

Yes they are fitted with variable valves that apparently monitor heat flow regarding temperature.