On Dec 7, 7:38*pm, "Ret." wrote:
harry wrote:
On Dec 7, 5:58 pm, "Ret." wrote:
ARWadsworth wrote:
Ret. wrote:
Maria wrote:
On 12/7/2010 12:42 PM, MM wrote:
I was just checking my expected electricity bill and compared
Southern Electric's tariffs for standard domestic consumption
(11.51p a unit in my area) against their Economy 7 Night Rate
(5.06p), i.e. a lot cheaper.

So I was wondering, does it cost to have an additional meter and
what could I do with the cheaper electricity? I have no night
storage heaters. Are they worth getting? I do have oil-filled
electric radiators for a couple of rooms just to take the chill
off and they are very effective. I could get more.

I'm just thinking about the horrendous rise in domestic oil
prices and trying to look for alternative methods of heating for
the future, at least until I can eventually move to a house with
a chimney and start burning wood.

Do *not* have economy 7 unless you have storage heaters - your day
rate is massive.
Why not get a chimney built? Be warned - even solid fuels are
almost as expensive these days.

I'm fortunate to be on mains gas. Two years ago I had my
conventional (30 years old!) gas boiler replaced with a modern
Worcester Bosch condensing combi. The old hot water tank has gone
(and the airing cupboard in the bathroom replaced with a walk-in
shower) as has all the tanks and pipework in the loft.

I have been astonished at how much less gas we are now using.
Despite having reduced my monthly direct debit gas payment, I have
still just received a 145.00 refund because a positive balance had
built up.

Only heating water when you actually turn on a hot tap - rather
than heating a tank-full which you may never use, makes all the
difference - as does using a more efficient boiler for the central
heating.

We are over the moon at the savings we have made in fuel costs the
past two years.

Be carefull Kev. You will have half of uk.d-i-y telling you that
combi boilers are crap and that you will never get financial
payback for your new boiler.

TBH, a few years ago and I was arguing that I wouldn't touch a combi
with a barge-pole. The people I knew who had one never ceased
complaining about the lukewarm water from the hot tap - and the fact
that it took two hours to fill a bath.

When I was considering replacing the boiler I was still of that
opinion - and planning on having a condensing non-combi put in. It
was only my next door neighbour (and a few posters on uk.diy)
telling me that new combis were a huge improvement on old ones, that
persuaded me to change my mind. We have no regrets whatsoever. There
is ample hot water and it feeds our shower without the need for
pumps. It does take a little longer to fill the bath than it did
before - but not significantly longer - and so long as you are aware
of the fact and start the bath running in plenty of time - it's just
not an issue.

The cost saving has been significant for us and, as our old boiler
was on its last legs anyway - the replacement cost was necessary.

There are other benefits as well. With our old boiler, first thing
in the morning when the timer kicked in, the heat produced would be
divided between heating the water in the tank and heating the water
in the radiators. With our combi, all the heat goes to the radiators
and so the house heats up a lot faster for when we get out of bed.
We also have piping hot water whenever we want it - and it never
runs out! If we have guests we can all have a shower or bath one
after the other without the water starting to run cold. I'm a
complete convert!

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Kev- Hide quoted text -

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The problem is *they are a complex beast. *Hence less reliable. *And
the heat exchanger scale up .

They are a bit more complex than a standard boiler - but not a lot. I can't
see why the heat exchanger in a combi should scale up any more than the heat
exchanger in any boiler. As I live in a very soft water area, scaling is not
an issue for me anyway (I never have to descale my kettle for example).

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Kev- Hide quoted text -

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The scale on electric elements tends to be shattered off from time
time with the expansion. This is unfortunately not so with plate heat
exchanger. I hear some have been designed with a "non-stick" finish.
Dunno how effective it is.
The reason they scale up more than a boiler is that it's new water
coming in. The boiler has the same stuff going round and round.