[Cammyuk]

We are moving to a new property which hss the ducasa heating .
The.infirmation leaflet from council said we need to have economy 10 for cheapest energy .
Can anyone advise please as never hsd.this heating before?
We have the really old storage heaters at the moment costing a fortune!

[rwh202]

Never had a problem with storage heaters - it takes a bit of discipline to control but not overly expensive on an Economy7 tariff. Was even better when on an Economy 10 Stored Heat tariff that charged less for electricity used for heating and also gave an afternoon boost. However, those tariffs seem to be long gone.

An Economy 10 tariff might still be available from the legacy suppliers but I think you'd need to enquire with each to check. Hopefully one of the staffers here can find out whether E.on still do one.

However, what sort of heating are the Ducasa ones - they look like panel heaters so will draw power when needed, not just charging up overnight. In which case Economy 7 / 10 won't be much help. Instead something like E.on smart saver might work - provided you can avoid the early evening peak. There are a lot of daytime and late evening hours at reduced rate for heating.

[meldrewreborn]

@Cammyuk

The older types of storage heaters store heat at night and release it by day. The night time consumption is supposed to be cheaper than day rates. Control is via time clocks which were for many years controlled by radio signals but these were phased out last year and so the meters and time clocks were replaced by smart meter - or should have been! Another matter is that few energy suppliers deal with E10 any more.

Storage heaters are not that controllable unless they are the modern thermostatically controlled type.

So lots to sort out here. Are you actually in the flat now? Where in the country are you? Who is the energy suppliers? Are you an owner/leaseholder or a tenant? Posting an image of the set up will help.

[meldrewreborn]

@rwh202

provided the occupier understands how they work I would agree that they could be a sensible arrangement in the past. But in today’s world they are not a desirable or top option.

The price of night time electricity differs quite considerably by region and all electricity prices have increased compared to a decade ago. Economy 7/10 tariffs are still essentially price capped tariffs and don’t benefit from lower fixed rate offerings.

I recall a flat that had 4 storage radiators that could be adequately heated with just 2, because it was well insulated. Even so excess heat in the afternoons led to expensively acquired heat being released by opening the windows.

[rwh202]

Originally Posted by meldrewreborn

@rwh202

provided the occupier understands how they work I would agree that they could be a sensible arrangement in the past. But in today’s world they are not a desirable or top option.

The price of night time electricity differs quite considerably by region and all electricity prices have increased compared to a decade ago. Economy 7/10 tariffs are still essentially price capped tariffs and don’t benefit from lower fixed rate offerings.

I recall a flat that had 4 storage radiators that could be adequately heated with just 2, because it was well insulated. Even so excess heat in the afternoons led to expensively acquired heat being released by opening the windows.

However, economy 7 off-peak is still cheaper than any fix - 14.57p here with E.on. You've got to heat your home somehow, so if no gas, then Economy 7 has got to be the least bad option.

As to excess heat - not experienced that - you just shut the flap down and the heat stays inside, using less to charge up again the next night.

[wizzo227]

@Cammyuk
Overnight on Sunday/Monday I had a fan heater on a time switch on for two hours and the air conditioner (used as an air sourced heat pump to single air blower ) on with the living room door left open, which in this small house allows enough warm air out to heat the hall and stairs too. I've used literally no gas at all so far today (5pm) having preheated everywhere to 20C opportunistically overnight, on the abnormally low Agile price-of-the-half-hour of below 8p/kWh. See the price chart below.

For the daytime on Monday, I did a washing machine load and put 0.4kWh into an electrically cooked lunch, both using mainly free rooftop solar panel power. Everything else done at home today has used mainly rooftop solar power. The in-home-display at 5pm shows less than 5kWh bought since midnight, and as more than 4 of that was at the overnight minimum of about 7p/kWh, I've spent about 40p so far.

An "agile" price is not the first choice of everyone. It is always extra-expensive at after-school time 4-7pm. Take a look at the chart attached, which is from agilepredict.com

White shows a firm price which that other retailer (whom we don't name) has committed to supplying at. So no cheap electricity tonight, and I might even need the gas heat tomorrow. Later on this week, there are times when the price might dip due to availability of surplus renewables, but they do not yet know what it will dip to. So the heating plan is to check the chart and the weather forecast before deciding what to do; if you have an enthusiastic twelve year old to delegate that to then you can. The forecast is less regular than any 20th century time-of-day pricing in order to cope with the weather dependence of variable renewables. For bothering to choose to put off washing day until the renewables were more available, this can get you cheaper electricity at times.