economic electric heating

[Sado]

I have night storage heaters, and the house is warm during the day, when I am at work, and cools quickly in the evening. I have cavity and loft insulation, and wondered if there is a better, more economical way of heating my home. I am all electric, by the way.
I have seen german made ceramic heaters, but they start at about £700 each.
And what about panel heaters?
Any suggestions?

[gingejbee]

The expensive ceramic heaters are just up-market storage heaters that use overnight off-peak electricity. The panel heaters will use full-price electricity and will not be cheap to run.
Just a thought- you are keeping the "output" control at the minimum setting? Otherwise more of the stored heat will be released when you are not there. The big disadvantage of these things is their inflexibility.
(This from someone who doesn't have electric heating, btw!)

[askyourgran]

We used to have Economy 7 Electric heating in one of the houses we bought. As you say it was warm during the day but soon lost heat and was cold at nighttime when we needed it most. They are economical in one sense but if you don't control the heat during the day you are not going to get the benefit at night. I was fed up with it, when the weather turned warm we spent a day sweating. You don't have a lot of control of it. We just bought an electric fire for the lounge, and kept the output down during the day. We sold the house and moved after 3 years.

[buildersmate]

Fact 1: All electric heaters convert 100% of the electrical energy into heat. So buying fancy German heaters made of fancy-sounding minerals won't make a blind bit of difference of the amount of heat that is generated, for the same input in kWh.
Fact 2: Peak electricity is one of most expensive forms of energy - its just the way it is priced. So panel heaters that use peak cost electricity are a no-no.
Fact 3: Storage rads use off-peak electricity available at night to generate the heat - which is then stored in 'heat dumps' - basically bricks - inside the rad. Modern storage rads may be better, because they are constructed of a casing that insulates the bricks inside from the room better. It therefore holds more of the heat inside the bricks until the evening - when you can let it out by opening vents in the casing.

[jomifl]

The cheapest electrical heating is an air source reversible heat pump. You get the same heat for a third of the price and it can cool your house in the summer. You can probably get them at discount at this time of the year as most people only see them as aircon units for summer use.

[jomifl]

^ A 3kw model which only uses 1kw of electricity can be got for about £400 plus installation.