Thinking of getting rid of oil and installing electric heaters

[trident]

Hi. My oil boiler is very old and will need replacing soon.
I would like to get rid of oil altogether. The house is old and not fit for a heat pump. So I was looking at electric rads or the Aeno electric heater or similar.
How do I calculate the likely cost of running electric rads or electric heaters? It us a 4 bed semi-d house, so would need electric rads or electric heater in 4 bedrooms, hall, and 3 downstairs rooms.
Thanks in advance for any help.
T

 

[ClubMan]

How do I calculate the likely cost of running electric rads or electric heaters?

Very roughly - the kWh rating of the rads x the number of hours that they'll need to be on.

But stuff like thermostatic controls and storage heaters etc. will alter that worst case cost.

Obviously how long you need to run them for will depend on how energy efficient the house is etc.

 

[Micks'r]

Hi. My oil boiler is very old and will need replacing soon.
I would like to get rid of oil altogether. The house is old and not fit for a heat pump. So I was looking at electric rads or the Aeno electric heater or similar.
How do I calculate the likely cost of running electric rads or electric heaters? It us a 4 bed semi-d house, so would need electric rads or electric heater in 4 bedrooms, hall, and 3 downstairs rooms.
Thanks in advance for any help.
T

Back of envelope calc, take your current oil spend and double it, minimum

 

[Joe Smith]

Agreed, if the house isn't suitable for a heat pump, then electrical heating would be very expensive

If you do want to stick with electrical, get solar and a battery installed and get a long term payback towards electrical heat

 

[mike2017]

Check out "EV Puzzle" youtube channel, he's ran a winter test using electric heaters and not using oil for a month to see how he fared.

Electric vs oil heating - No central heating all winter. Results of my full winter test

A full winter without a boiler using just electric heaters.Time to summarise the test and results. A fruitful exercise to learn what it's like without a cent...

youtu.be

He has gone air to air more recently, you can check out those videos too....

An air to air heat pump might be still worth checking out as it's a lot more efficient and there are models which can do hot water too but small tanks like 90l/120l as these are targetted at apartments. But given the size of house, it's probably going to be disruptive getting them installed where they need to go? You will pay more for electric heaters in the long run - vs up front A2A.

 

[joe sod]

Using electricity for heat is probably one of the most wasteful uses of electricity because electricity is a high end energy source, when electricity was invented it was for high end uses like light and communications equipment and machines later televisions and electronics. When electricity is generated the idea is to get as much of that energy converted to electricity and as little possible lost as heat but 50% and more can be lost to heat in the generation and transmission of electricity . It's crazy then when that electricity at high cost and effort is just turned back into heat again. Just use oil, solid fuel or even solar to generate the heat without electricity

 

[MrEarl]

If you do want to stick with electrical, get solar and a battery installed and get a long term payback towards electrical heat

You know how much batteries cost, right? Few can justify buying them, unless they are willing to endure a 20-30 year payback.

Why not power from solar, and what isn't used, is sold back into the grid?

 

[Joe Smith]

True, I should have qualified that. Current feed in rates are great, but I'm cynical about how long the scheme will last in it's current form. I'd be very happy to see the scheme go a long time in it's current form as it is making solar a lot cheaper

 

[lff12]

Hi. My oil boiler is very old and will need replacing soon.
I would like to get rid of oil altogether. The house is old and not fit for a heat pump. So I was looking at electric rads or the Aeno electric heater or similar.
How do I calculate the likely cost of running electric rads or electric heaters? It us a 4 bed semi-d house, so would need electric rads or electric heater in 4 bedrooms, hall, and 3 downstairs rooms.
Thanks in advance for any help.
T

Don't - the size of an electric radiator big enough to heat a room would consume far more energy. The only way to use it efficiently is via devices with an inverter like air-to-water heat pumps which produce more heat than they consume. Some air conditioning companies have multi split systems but these are not cheap.

 

[lff12]

Check out "EV Puzzle" youtube channel, he's ran a winter test using electric heaters and not using oil for a month to see how he fared.

Electric vs oil heating - No central heating all winter. Results of my full winter test

A full winter without a boiler using just electric heaters.Time to summarise the test and results. A fruitful exercise to learn what it's like without a cent...

youtu.be

He has gone air to air more recently, you can check out those videos too....

An air to air heat pump might be still worth checking out as it's a lot more efficient and there are models which can do hot water too but small tanks like 90l/120l as these are targetted at apartments. But given the size of house, it's probably going to be disruptive getting them installed where they need to go? You will pay more for electric heaters in the long run - vs up front A2A.

He could also look at multi split air conditioning systems primed for heating such as those from Hitchai or Daiken. They work similarly to heat pumps but still would fear there would be huge difficulties in heating a house so large sufficiently.

 

[lledlledlled]

Hi. My oil boiler is very old and will need replacing soon.
I would like to get rid of oil altogether. The house is old and not fit for a heat pump. So I was looking at electric rads or the Aeno electric heater or similar.
How do I calculate the likely cost of running electric rads or electric heaters? It us a 4 bed semi-d house, so would need electric rads or electric heater in 4 bedrooms, hall, and 3 downstairs rooms.
Thanks in advance for any help.
T

If your boiler is old but still working, i would focus any investment right now on acheiving the maximum level of insulation possible.
This will bring down your annual energy requirement, which will in turn allow you to consider a better range of options when it comes to replacing your boiler.
Regardless of the source of energy you choose, it is wasteful if you are effectively pumping that energy out through your walls.

 

[Sconeandjam]

Hi. My oil boiler is very old and will need replacing soon.
I would like to get rid of oil altogether. The house is old and not fit for a heat pump. So I was looking at electric rads or the Aeno electric heater or similar.
How do I calculate the likely cost of running electric rads or electric heaters? It us a 4 bed semi-d house, so would need electric rads or electric heater in 4 bedrooms, hall, and 3 downstairs rooms.
Thanks in advance for any help.
T

Replace the boiler and put in more insulation in the house. Changed an oil burner there in a house down the country a few years ago and saved at least one amd a half to oil fills per year. Did not use sei scheme and saved about €2k.

Next storage heating can be expensive yes you get 100% efficiency but it is expensive to run. Have a rental and end terrace house. The storage heating take time to heat up. The system heats up bricks at night and the heat is emitted by vents. Had the heating on and for the month instead of €150 for electric it is not €500 per month.

There are low energy electric heaters you can add to the walls but they run on demand standard rates. They are cheaper than the storage heaters. We added them to the rental as an alternative heat source.

Always good to have an alternative heat source.

Electric costs will only go up.