all electrical ch hw options

[phpaul]

i have 3 all electric jobs coming up all are small places with no gas.
max of 5 rads
any ideas

 

[lame plumber]

oil???

 

[Bronze_tap]

i have 3 all electric jobs coming up all are small places with no gas.
max of 5 rads
any ideas

1. Superinsulation.
2. Economy 7 + dual coil cobined HW cyl coupled to solar HW+wood/coal burner? CH water heat store (cyl with like ~1000L of hot water)?
3. Storage heaters? Oil filled rads?
4. Masonry stove with sleaping area on top (if on the ground floor)?
5. Pioneer electric boiler?

Mix&match yourself

 

[DirksPlumbing]

Made in Britain would be Thermaflow. Excellent electric boilers if there is enough space. Very low running costs. Different sizes available. Heating and hot water in one device.

 

[Mike Jackson]

I'd dispute the very low running costs from any heating appliance, let alone an electrical one.

 

[DirksPlumbing]

Pretty good argument. Just the question did not appear to involve changing the building structure. And the fact that a lot of the electric heatings are getting thrown in without considering that someone needs to pay the bill does not mean that a proper electric wet heating system can not run at lower costs than oil or gas.

The average storage heater fitted in this country does not offer any type of demand controlled storage+heating though devices are available since decades.

At least the mentioned boilers do offer the opportunity to use it with proper controls.

And finally there are folks that throw into a place a heating element with a pump and wonder how that could not be making any use of off peak tariffs. Mostly the customer feels advanced if there is a roomstat at all. Due to lack of knowledge which should have been provided by the installer.

By the way the price per kW is in the off peak tariffs meanwhile below even NG not to talk about oil or LPG. The only downside of an electric wet system is that you still need annually service for the system.

 

[dgrs]

i have 3 all electric jobs coming up all are small places with no gas.
max of 5 rads
any ideas

We lived in a flat which was all electric with electric rads and a small unvented water cylinder. When we 'renovated' the flat we installed a thermal store and a wet central heating system. The original idea was that it would run on economy 7 but we moved out of the flat before we had time to truly experiment or get an economy 7 meter added.

Now the flat is rented and the electronic programmable timers all failed - I think they were pretty crap units. The plumber who came and sorted it did a rubbish job in my opinion - instead of replacing the existing configuration with better quality parts (it was a very flexible system) he put in an Economy 7 timer where the bottom immersion was connected to the timer and then the top immersion was connected on a boost. The middle immersion was simply on a fused switched so on or off. This has made the installation very expensive to run...

So it's a good system but you do need to be clever in when the immersions are on. As a thermal store keeps water at a higher temperature than a normal cylinder, the immersions kick in quite frequently unless controlled with a timer.

Good luck,

Dave

 

[Dannypipe]

I fitted an Amptec electric flow boiler in my own house. Yes it's expensive to run, but no gas here. I didn't fancy LPG or oil. I didn't have the money to buy an ASHP!

Got mine coupled with an unvented cylinder, and yes the bills are pretty high, but compared to our old drafty house, which was on oil, it's not too bad!

PS- I've fitted to date, 6 Amptec's, and not had any issues.

As for servicing an electric boiler, I'd like to know what you can do other than put some inhibitor in the system!? Check the elements resistance I guess, but it's really not the same as servicing an oil boiler.

 

[DirksPlumbing]

I fitted an Amptec electric flow boiler in my own house. Yes it's expensive to run, but no gas here. I didn't fancy LPG or oil. I didn't have the money to buy an ASHP!

Got mine coupled with an unvented cylinder, and yes the bills are pretty high, but compared to our old drafty house, which was on oil, it's not too bad!

PS- I've fitted to date, 6 Amptec's, and not had any issues.

As for servicing an electric boiler, I'd like to know what you can do other than put some inhibitor in the system!? Check the elements resistance I guess, but it's really not the same as servicing an oil boiler.

Not a big fan of the Amptec's as the pump overrun on a few already failed. Not a cheap repair at all.

Without a thermal store these are bound to fail economically.
In specific the cylinder should have been separate (best switched by the meter) to make at least on the HW side use of the reduced tariff.

As for the servicing you are looking at a sealed system. So you should check the pressure, safety devices and the expansion vessel and make sure the CH water is sufficiently protected. And ensure it works.
Fairly basic and most of the time quickly done.

 

[DirksPlumbing]

By the way, Honeywell CM9x7 appears to be a good measurement to maximise the usage of the cheap tariff. Just simply by lifting the temperatures during the cheaper times for 1.5 degC over the meant to be temperature.

 

[Dannypipe]

Not a big fan of the Amptec's as the pump overrun on a few already failed. Not a cheap repair at all.

Without a thermal store these are bound to fail economically.
In specific the cylinder should have been separate (best switched by the meter) to make at least on the HW side use of the reduced tariff.

As for the servicing you are looking at a sealed system. So you should check the pressure, safety devices and the expansion vessel and make sure the CH water is sufficiently protected. And ensure it works.
Fairly basic and most of the time quickly done.

I suggest and personally use an economy 11 tariff with the boiler to keep costs down. I have a timer on the element and of course the primary side to get the most of this tariff when heating the DHW.

Your suggestions for the servicing while worthy, are really looking at the system not the boiler.

Interesting to hear about the pump over run failing. Bit worrying. Did these systems have an auto bypass installed?

 

[Dannypipe]

Just realised you said "system" and not boiler. LOL!!

 

[DirksPlumbing]

Interesting to hear about the pump over run failing. Bit worrying. Did these systems have an auto bypass installed?

On one system I am sure it had, the other I think I remember as manual bypass.
It was in both cases rural areas with lots of power failures.

 

[SimonG]

Elnur Gabbaron Electric combi