some advice needed please

[Badfish]

Hi guys and gals I am In need of some advice please.

Story is my mum has old oil fired central heating but she needs a new boiler and a new tank,this is going to a lot of money so she has asked me to look in to electric rads. Question is has anybody installed a complete electric heating system in to a house before, if so what make do you recommend?

She is going to need 4 rads upstairs biggest room is about 3m x 3m. Down stairs she will need 2 rads each room being roughly 4m x 3m.Any advice will be gratefully received.

Many thanks

Iain

 

[m4tty]

Ain't electric central heating really expensive to run? Compared to gas/oil? I ain't gonna be able to help mate just adding a few thoughts. I'll be watching this thread with interest tho

 

[Sidewinder]

Not domestice mate but I have done a little with commercial electric heating, no diversity allowed, and they do pull some load, so you may come unstuck with total loading?

 

[Badfish]

No worries M4tty I belive it may be quite expensive but apparently the oil is not as cheap any more plus she says she also has to take out a service contract as well. So it all adds up.but I think she is just weighing up her options.

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Cheers SW this was also a concern of mine I do need to work things out as she just phoned me this morning. Just thought I'd see what you guys thought first as this forum is the best place to get some great help and advice.

I do need to go out now though so I will not be online til this evening

Thanks in advance.

Iain

 

[wozz]

I know not everyone likes them but all NSH installs I have done have been loved by the older generation, more expensive to run but much cheaper installation.

 

[ProDave]

I've done all electric heating several times.

Twice I've fitted electric boilers. Now I really can't see the point in those. If you are going to heat 100% by electricity, why introduce losses and complication? why not just use panel heaters? I think these are for people who don't want to admit they are heating by electricity

I also fitted a system with panel heaters. These were French made (don't recall the make) each individual heater is styled to look like a normal radiator and they are oil filled. The have RF remote control so the whole system is controlled by a central programmer. The customer I fitted these for was very impressed.

If you DO fit any form of electric heating, get your electricity tariff converted to economy 10. then 10 hours of your use will be at the cheap rate. you get 7 hours of cheap rate over night, and 3 hours in the daytime, so set your time controls to at least get your morning warm up and a mid day boost at the cheap rate.

I am not convinced electricity is the way to go, but neither am I convinced oil is either (I have oil heating but probably would not fit it now)

If I were installing from scratch again, I would probably fit a wood burning boiler. Although a lot cheaper, it does come with the hassle of preparing and feeding it with wood. The cheapest systems just burn logs and are more labour intensive, the less labour intensive ones burn pellets with automatic feed, but the pellets are a lot more expensive.

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

A short while ago i was informed of a new tariff available , only from a few suppliers called Economy 10. Its designed for these systems as it gives boosts in the afternoon and evening as well as 5 hours overnight. If you program the heating to work in these times it can be far more economical. Unfortunately every time i have recommended this, its not been available in that area. Info....... Economy 10 electricity heating tariff

---------- Post Auto-Merged at 11:56 ---------- Previous post was made at 11:54 ----------

I was just about to post that and a neighbour popped in for a cuppa, when i did press send Dave had beaten me to it, doh

 

[apprentice87]

Hi all, The only thing i can tell you, is that, so far as i can remember, if you look at the forms from Western power for a new supply, there is a little box to tick if you are having electric heating. I think then they will allow you a bigger supply, 80 or 100 amp instead of a 60 amp one. I suppose it all depends on the DNO and the capacity of the bit of wire going down your street!!

john...

 

[NozSpark]

I've fitted the wet electric boilers a couple of times,,, the customers seem to be reasonably happy with how they work, but they are expensive to run IIRC

One of the houses even had a 9.5kW shower so I had to wire it so when te shower was on that the heating demand would be overridden (off)

 

[batty]

I changed an existing wet electric boiler a few years back and to me them seemed to work pretty well not sure what they cost to run but nothings cheap these days and with the changes in weather we have these days i would think they are easier to control. You could have rad valves and control temp in rooms as you want. I think storage heaters are a poor way to heat personally if you have a warm spell its just wasted heat.

 

[ProDave]

Another tarrif to look out for is Total Control.

If you ever have this tariff, hang on to it. It's not available to new installations.

One quirk of Total control is there are 3 metered supplies, normal, cheap off peak, and the good one, a 24 hour cheap rate feed. That one is only supposed to be connected to heating devices, but yes, you can connect an electric boiler to that, and run it at the cheap rate 24 hours a day. Then an electric boiler makes sense.

 

[Badfish]

Thanks for all the advice chaps. I like the sound of wood burners how difficult do you think it would be to replace an oil fired boiler with one of these? Also would an electric boiler be a good replacement? Just thinking that to put a different boiler in and not have to take out old rads and put in new circuits and new electric rads would be a lot less hassle and expense.

 

[ProDave]

Thanks for all the advice chaps. I like the sound of wood burners how difficult do you think it would be to replace an oil fired boiler with one of these? Also would an electric boiler be a good replacement? Just thinking that to put a different boiler in and not have to take out old rads and put in new circuits and new electric rads would be a lot less hassle and expense.

I've done 2 houses with wood burning boilers.

They tend to all be floor standing, conventional flue and somewhat larger than the equivalent size oil boiler.

They are more labour intensive than any other boiler, and I'm not sure I would use them in the summer just for hot water.

One system I worked on which seemed to work well had a wood burning boiler and a massive heat store tank. At the ends of the season he would only light the boiler every other day to charge up the heat store.

As I say cheap, but labour intensive. A chain saw and a wood shed are essential accessories you need to buy.

 

[Badfish]

Thanks again guys.I have been chatting with my mum and she seems interested in the electric combi boilers. So now j have to figure out what type to use. Probably the best bet as all she has to replace is the boiler and not have all the disruption of installing electric rads through the house. Can anyone recommend any decent makes.

Thanks again for all the input.

 

[batty]

The one we used was a Heatra amptec one which replaced a Trianco one.

 

[steptoe]

AIR BOILER ,

also known as Air Source Heat Pump ,

its all dependent on outlay Vs running costs,

which is the more important?

 

[Zeespark]

Depends on the life expectancy of the equipment for Me Steps.

AndyGuinness

 

[steptoe]

Zeee

back of the room,

you are another one of these silly people,

your name is going in the book,

what is your name zee?

 

[Zeespark]

Why am I a silly person? I wish I thought as My avatar does at His ageO) :innocent :x

AndyGuinness

 

[steptoe]

are they that good Canoe?

I didnt realise that,

the ASHPs we do are actually purpose designed(not AC units reconfigured like most) and they really do seem to be very efficient.