Storage Heaters

[Oldgreybeard]

There's a lot to be said in favour of storage heating, especially with the ability to charge it with locally generated RE. It only got binned in many new builds because gas was so much cheaper at the time. Around here most of the housing association homes still use storage heaters, probably because they have very low maintenance costs and don't need the same regular (and costly) safety inspections that appliances that burn fuel need.

There are still around 4 million homes in the UK with Economy 7, or Economy 10, and most of them will still be using storage heaters.

[Bugtownboy]

I do believe they have a bad rep, probably from around the late 70’s early 80’s when there was a big push to install GCH and replace the big old SH’s that had little control.

For some homes, I’m sure SH’s offer a viable, less disruptive way of decarbonising domestic heating - the only proviso being the availability of lower priced electric tariffs.

I suppose which ever future route domestic heating takes the underlying issue is home insulation - probably is the elephant in the room that really has to be addressed.

[Joeboy]

I do believe they have a bad rep, probably from around the late 70’s early 80’s when there was a big push to install GCH and replace the big old SH’s that had little control.

For some homes, I’m sure SH’s offer a viable, less disruptive way of decarbonising domestic heating - the only proviso being the availability of lower priced electric tariffs.

I suppose which ever future route domestic heating takes the underlying issue is home insulation - probably is the elephant in the room that really has to be addressed.

We did a lot of retrofitting of insulation roll and blown in paper as well as other products. This difference is very apparent. Last year we readjusted and resealed the upvc DG which is 10 to 14 years old. Again, the improvement was easy to feel. What did you do for insulation BTB, you did some recently? Can't be a better way to reduce the UK power profile that to insulate the 'whole fleet'.

[Bugtownboy]

Main thing was replacing ( ) the two storey bay window.

We hated the look of it, hated the effect it had in the house.

1930’s construction with retro fit (?80’s) DG units - most of which had failed. No insulation around the Alu supports, cold bridges everywhere.

When we dismantled, realised the section between the ground and first floor was an uninsulated stud construction (weird render on the outside, lath and plaster on the inside). There was water ingress causing some rot in the stud structure.

The ‘roof’ (our bedroom) was an uninsulated flat roof (lead) structure.

Anyhoo, replaced with a timber frame structure with minimum of 175mm PIR everywhere, French doors upstairs and downstairs wit E glass and incorporated the roof of the bay into the main roof structure, again, PIR insulation.

The difference was apparent from day 1.

The previous structure was carp - loads of condensation/mould etc every winter, which I hated. Hopefully, resolved now.

Second biggy was replacing all of the DG units in existing frames in the house (16 panes) - many had ‘blown’. For many reasons, we just replaced the glass with E-glass.

Again, difference (in this case sound) noticeable from day 1.

Only thing now is to add more loft insulation - as we’ve had a busy 9 months, it’s now holiday time to reduce the winter heating load

Loft can wait until next year.

[Oldgreybeard]

Insulation and airtightness is key, probably airtightness (with proper controlled ventilation) is more significant than insulation for some homes that already have a fair bit of insulation. I was amazed at how much difference good airtightness and installing heat recovery ventilation made. The latter cut the overall heat loss by around 70%, and accounts for a fair bit of our fairly low total energy usage.

Heating, hot water, cooking, lighting and charging the car used a total of 4,250kWh from the grid last year, almost all of it at the off-peak rate. Without good airtightness and heat recovery ventilation we would have used just about double that. As a bonus, the fine air filter on the intake to the system, that supplies all the air for the house, keeps out all the pollen, so my hay fever has been almost completely absent since we moved here. The air quality improvement from the ventilation system is simply amazing, I'd never have believed it had we not experienced it first hand.

[Bugtownboy]

Would love to have installed a whole house MVHR - couldn’t for multiple reasons (cost, disruption, time etc). Did install a single room MVHR (VentAxia) in the ‘family bathroom’ which does have an effect upstairs.

Not ideal, but an achievable compromise.

[Joeboy]

Would love to have installed a whole house MVHR - couldn’t for multiple reasons (cost, disruption, time etc). Did install a single room MVHR (VentAxia) in the ‘family bathroom’ which does have an effect upstairs.

Not ideal, but an achievable compromise.

SWMBO has requested that the downstairs bathroom be ripped out and a walking shower installed over the Winter. That would be my chance to do the single vent axia. Sounds like you did and achieved a massive upgrade BTB, !

Great that you are enjoying health benefits as well as financial OGB, It seems that MVHR is another piece of the puzzle that should be addressed when.possible? Glad you got a strong result! .

[Oldgreybeard]

Would love to have installed a whole house MVHR - couldn’t for multiple reasons (cost, disruption, time etc). Did install a single room MVHR (VentAxia) in the ‘family bathroom’ which does have an effect upstairs.

Not ideal, but an achievable compromise.

We were lucky, our house was a new build so I got to specify this from the start. Not cheap, but worth every single penny IMHO. I'd have it just to get rid of the hay fever, as well as having zero dust in the house. Leaving aside the big reduction in the heating bill, the things we really love about the MVHR are the clean air, the way things dry out very quickly, the freshness in every room, the fact that cooking smells never leave the kitchen and the wonderfully fresh air feeling in the bedroom. Waking up every morning to a room where the air is just clean and fresh is amazing, even now, and we've lived here a few years.

The only real downsides are related to cost. It was a fairly costly thing to fit, around 2K with all the bits and bobs. It also costs a bit to run, as the fans draw around 40W or so, and are on all the time. The filters also cost a bit, around £50 a year, bit cheaper if I buy them in bulk.

Whenever we are away staying somewhere that doesn't have MVHR the first thing we notice is the poorer air quality. Even leaving windows wide open doesn't seem to ventilate as well, probably because the ventilation is uncontrolled, so doesn't flow evenly across every room. Took some convincing to get my wife to accept that living in a house without keeping windows open was OK, but she's a convert now and the first to notice the poorer air quality when we're away somewhere. Thing she likes most is that she can hang washing up indoors when it's raining and it dries in a couple of hours.

[Bugtownboy]

One of the things we did during the initial renovation (do you ever stop ) JB, was rearrange the main bathroom. It’s not large, but ‘we’ wanted a walk-in shower

Anyway, stole 600mm from the small bedroom and changed the full size bath to a 1.2M long ‘sitting bath’. Cast iron, absolutely brilliant. Really comfy, takes way less water to fill and good to sit in with a glass of red listening to the radio.

Having said that, probably have a bath once or twice a year, but if you’ve been digging when it’s cold, nice to have a soak !

Meant we could have a 2M deep shower with an immersive (water saving, of course) shower (flush ceiling mounted).

[Oldgreybeard]

One of the things we did during the initial renovation (do you ever stop ) JB, was rearrange the main bathroom. It’s not large, but ‘we’ wanted a walk-in shower

Anyway, stole 600mm from the small bedroom and changed the full size bath to a 1.2M long ‘sitting bath’. Cast iron, absolutely brilliant. Really comfy, takes way less water to fill and good to sit in with a glass of red listening to the radio.

Having said that, probably have a bath once or twice a year, but if you’ve been digging when it’s cold, nice to have a soak !

Meant we could have a 2M deep shower with an immersive (water saving, of course) shower (flush ceiling mounted).

Glad it's not just us that rarely use the bath! We have two bathrooms, or rather a shower room and a bathroom. I may as well not bothered with the bathroom, as in four or five years the bath has been used once, I think. I've never used it, we mostly use the walk in shower. I fitted a shower tray that's 2m long and 800mm wide, with a fixed glass screen, best shower we've ever had, although it does use a fair bit of hot water.