Changing from storage heaters...

Agencies and other headaches, keys and cleaners, running costs and contracts...in short, all the things we spend so much of our time doing behind the scenes.<br>
JaneTwo
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Changing from storage heaters...

Post by JaneTwo »

My two-bedroom flat currently has electric storage heaters in the bedrooms and living room, which are obviously not practicable for guests. I want to replace them with regular electric wall-mounted radiators (with timers), but am confused about the options.

Does anyone have experience of Haverland RC Wave radiators (which from reviews seem to be difficult to programme - no good for guests?) or Dimplex (non-storage!) radiators? Or something better?

Thanks!

Jane
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Nemo
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Post by Nemo »

I have Dimplex electric panel heaters. I have one property that is wired centrally and has a control for all the radiators (four in total). It's not simple to programme, well it's ok when you know how, but fiddly when you haven't done it for a while. Guests do like to turn these things off even when there's a big sticker saying don't turn off! After 24 hours of being off it then loses all it's settings. On my other property I have one with a 24 hour timer. That loses its setting immediately when switched off. All a bit of a pain as an off site owner.

So Dimplex are good, but look carefully at the methods of controlling any system you install. If I could have a wireless system such as Hive I would, but as yet there isn't an off the shelf system I know of that works for electric heating.
JaneTwo
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Post by JaneTwo »

Thanks Nemo! That all sounds quite complicated (and expensive?!). I am thinking of not having any central control, but having each radiator controlled individually so you can time it to come on and off on its own. Is there a reason you didn't go down that route?
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Nemo
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Post by Nemo »

I have separate controls in my first property, three of which are simple on and off controls. The fourth is on a thermostat, that's enough to heat the whole property when the internal doors are left open. All works fine apart from guests love to turn things off, hence the settings all get immediately lost and my cleaner has to reprogramme it.

The central control in my second property was because I refurbished the property from scratch and was able to put the wiring in for central heating. As that's what we all have at our homes in the main it seemed like a no brainer. You just can't legislate for power cuts or guests turning it off, fiddling etc! I have pondered getting a lockable cover as has been discussed here before now, but I'm holding out on that one.
JaneTwo
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Post by JaneTwo »

Ah, OK, starting from scratch... I am just tinkering with what's already there. I want to go for something as simple as possible so guests can't mess with it too much.

Guests trying to be 'helpful' are sometimes the opposite, I suspect? I have already had a problem with a guest washing all the towels without regard for what may not be colourfast, and whether stain pretreatment was necessary... with the result that some of them will now have to be 'retired' from the holiday let (but fine for my own use!).

The lockable cover sounds like a good idea...
salmoncottage
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Post by salmoncottage »

Jane, its all about the ambient temperature or air temperature ratio to maximise the power output to heat the internal space...... :shock: you get it?
Heating engineers / plumbers go on courses to understand the importance of it all, as there's more to it than just whacking on the heating or twisting a few dials (not that your guests would know that tho). It's important that the heat gets into the fabric of the building to be of maximun efficiency therefor a thermostat is important. Speak to an 'electric' heating engineer, most will be happy to explain in detail what I'm garbling about above.. :lol:
'Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside'
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CSE
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Post by CSE »

easy fixes:
http://www.heatingcontrolsonline.co.uk/ ... p-343.html
https://www.plumbnation.co.uk/site/hone ... 6360b1069/
http://www.plumbcenter.co.uk/product/ho ... hermostat/
more expensive:
https://www.inspirehomeautomation.co.uk/landlords.php
even more expensive:
http://www.electric-heatingcompany.co.u ... ic-heater/

Lockable thermostats certainly work. We have three C/H out of the 4 covered using these. · (one is mainly covering our part of the building).
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
JaneTwo
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Post by JaneTwo »

Thank you! I have an electrician who is advising about installation and wattage etc. for the rooms - I will have to pick his brains about thermostats and guest-proofing!
manesty
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Post by manesty »

We recently replaced all our storage heaters. We used a system called Celsia Multizone, designed by AMBromley who are based in Buxton I think. You buy heaters from a few different heater manufacturers who have the hardware preinstalled to work with the Celsia system. You then also buy a remote thermostat for each room which you attach to the wall. You need wifi for the system. You can program the thremostat for each room individually using the app. As you would expect you can program different temperatures at different times of the day. Guests can turn the heater up and down using the themostat in the room, but cannot alter the overall program which you control. At the end of each program step the thermomstat reverts to your program so you do not have to worry about guests turning heaters up for really long periods of time when they do not need them.

You can also turn the heating on and off remotely and monitor the temperature. It is great to know that our places are warm for guests who are arriving. In the summer, the heaters do not come on in unless it is really chilly as the thermostats work well and know that the room is already warm enough. They work so much better than thermomstats which are in the heater as they measure the actual room temperature not the air temp next to the heater!

We have never looked back since installing the system and the guests say that it is easy and straight forward to use. It seems there are lots of similar systems for wet central heating systems but not so many for electric heating, so we are really pleased to have found this one.

I should mention here as well when we first found the system it was still in the development stage and we purchased heaters for one cottage but were given the thermostats by AMBromley as our cottage was used as a trial site. Since then we have purchased heaters and thermostats for 5 more of our cottages (that is all the remaining places that still has storage heaters) so we now have it in 6 of our 9 places. The remaining 3 have non electric heating.
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Robin S
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Post by Robin S »

We've just inherited an old Creda / Nobo setup controlled by radio frequency. Looks good on paper but it's c. 20 years old so i'm dreading it going wrong... especially as it (seems to) control the immersion heater as well!

Good reliable sensibly priced electric heating systems that work over z-wave or equivalent seem to still be a way away sadly.
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Nemo
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Post by Nemo »

very interesting manesty. Too late for our properties but worth knowing for the future. Putting the link here for reference. http://www.celsiasystems.co.uk/our-products/multizone/
JaneTwo
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Post by JaneTwo »

Gosh, I am behind the times - remotely controlled systems were available 20 years ago?! I am still getting my head round the concept...

Celsia Multizone sounds great! Thanks for all the details, Robin.
jenboyle1959
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Post by jenboyle1959 »

Oh I wish I'd known this when I did up Rose Cottage! There's no gas on the island, so i just went for new storage heaters. They are amazingly warm, but lack any ability to belt out heat if you end up with a chilly spring day, or conversely can be far too warm if you get a few mild Autumn days! I supply a couple of those oil filled radiators for a quick blast of heat. So far it's been fine, but the Celsia sound really good...
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Post by Jenster »

I am currently looking into electric radiators for my two bedroom apartment (no gas) and have read this thread with interest. I have decided to go for simple individual wall mounted radiators for each room with 24/7 controls and good quality thermostats. I have looked at various makes of oil/gel/thermodynamic fluid filled ones (nicer heat than basic panel/convection heaters I feel) but have no idea which is best. Does anyone have any experience of the different makes?

ps not sure if you have already made your choice JaneTwo (would be interested to hear which you went for if so). I have looked at the reviews of the Haverland ones on Amazon and a couple of people mentioned they were very noisy so this rules them out for me.

pps manesty, I would be interested to know which heaters you used with the celsia system? I like the idea of a separate thermostat on the wall somewhere, seems more sensible than having it in the heater itself.
JaneTwo
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Post by JaneTwo »

Hi Jenster

In the end I went for Dimplex Q-Rad radiators - they are just panel/convection radiators but I am very happy with them so far. They give out good instant heat and are simple to programme and use (this was my priority - didn't want anything complicated). Guests have liked them. Not sure about running costs yet, but apparently they can 'sense' when a window has been left open and shut off. They also shut off if they are covered - good safety feature.

They were straightforward for my electrician to install. He said they are just like the German ones but a lot cheaper!

Good luck with finding something to suit your place.

Jane
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