As mentioned previously, the village in which the bungalow is situated does not have mains gas. A lot of properties in the area have gone for heating oil and so already have a wet central heating system (radiators, pipes, water etc). The previous owners of our place didn’t go down that path but instead decided to use electric heating. There was a mixture of old storage heaters (in both bedrooms and the living room) which were no longer connected, panel heaters in the hall and the kitchen and a vintage oil filled radiator/towel rail in the bathroom.
We thought, “Great! A blank canvas!”. Electric heating is the way to go, so why not embrace it. We investigated air source heat pump technology and got a local family run business to come and quote for a system. They were very thorough, knowledgable and helpful. After a short while they returned a quote just short of £12,000. This was for the installation of the heat pump, associated materials *and* a 180 litre unvented hot water cylinder to replace our existing traditional vented copper cylinder and cold water feed tank. The quote excluded any rebate via the government sponsored “Boiler replacement scheme”, which at the time of writing would allow us to claw back £7,500 after installation, provided that:
- Our current Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) had no outstanding recommendations for loft or cavity wall insulation.
- We were replacing an existing fossil fuel system.
As it happens, we do qualify against those criteria, so would be able to get the system for £4,500 – much more viable, maybe comparable with a replacement gas boiler (if we had gas).
There were a few snags however.
- The heat pump had to be sited somewhere outside, preferable adjacent to an external wall of the property. While the bungalow is detached, we don’t have that much space for such a unit to be inconspicuous.
- The new hot water system was too big to fit through the loft hatch, so would either have to be installed downstairs somewhere, or we would have to see if we could make the loft hatch large enough to accommodate it.
- The quote *did not* include any heating! Just the means to provide hot water into some sort of new system.
Realistically we had two options to provide heat into the rooms:
- Traditional wet central heating.
- Under floor heating.
Both required to be installed from scratch – there was no existing system we could update. We have a combination of suspended wooden floors and solid concrete floors, so we discounted under floor heating as it would be too expensive. Wet central heating might have been affordable if we chose traditional steel radiators. The problem was that the hot water provided by air source heat pumps was not as hot as water provided by gas boilers; 40-45 degrees C compared to 65-75 degrees C for gas. This means that in order to provide the recommended heat into a room the radiator should be around 30% bigger.
A key criteria for us is space, which in a bungalow is at a real premium. Consuming valuable wall space with large panel radiators was going to be a problem. I had read somewhere that the ideal material for radiators used in an air source heat system was aluminium. They were supposed to be super responsive at heating up and “radiating” and in fact could be smaller than the equivalent steel radiator providing the same output. I asked the company to provide a quote for fitting a wet central heating system with aluminium radiators. I provided an example “style” we liked after a quick search.
We waited….
I chased them up…..
They came back saying that they were concerned with the cost of the quote based on the model of radiator I suggested. Their usual radiator supplier had an aluminium radiator in stock which they could use, which was cheaper than the model I chose and which still worked out to be smaller than the steel equivalent they usually fitted.
I told them to go ahead.
We waited….
I didn’t bother to chase up this time. I can only assume that even with the cheaper radiators the cost would have been ridiculously expensive. Either that, or they decided it would be too much hassle to install a full central heating system and concentrated on other “easier” business (most people would already have radiators and existing pipework).
We have a limited budget, and Stephenie was very keen to get solar panels as soon as possible. Unfortunately the cost of a complete “air source” heating system was going to soak up all of the money we could use for solar panels.
We decided to consider electric radiators. Nowadays they are much more efficient and have independent thermostats and programmers built in. You can control your heating room by room, radiator by radiator. They are clearly cheaper and simpler to install – no pipework, just plug in and go!
One snag though (isn’t there always) – the cost of running them. An air source heating system can be up to 300% efficient according to the blurb available. Electric heating is 100% efficient and gas (with a new boiler) can be up to 95% efficient. With the cost of energy at the time of writing, air source heat pump systems and gas systems have around the same running costs. This being the case, electric radiators such as we were considering would be 3 times more expensive than an air source heat pump system.
However, with the cost saving we get installing electric radiators we could now afford a decent solar panel system to help offset the extra cost of running them. Another advantage was that the BTU equivalent electric radiators were much smaller than an air source heat pump equivalent.
After weighing it all up we decided to go for solar panels, a battery system and electric radiators. We can always change to an air source heat pump system at a later date if the costs come down and the technology improves.
We’ve already bought some new radiators to try out. That’s another advantage – we can “buy and try” different types to compare, more affordably.
This is what we have currently:
They are “Ecostrad iQ Ceramic” radiators. They have an aluminium body, with a ceramic cores, which act a bit like the old storage heaters by retaining and emitting heat for a time after they are switched off. As you can see from the second picture, each radiator has a control panel on the top which enables temperature control and scheduling. They are Wifi enabled, so you can control them from your phone once you have installed a suitable app. You can even connect them to Alexa if so inclined.
Having bought a few now however, we have discovered one snag. The blurb states “The iQ ceramic is fitted with a silent TRIAC thermostat that’s accurate to ±0.5 °C, so it doesn’t click when it comes on or goes off and also provides precise and effective warmth whenever you need it.“
To us, this infers quietness. In reality however this is a dry assembled radiator using lots of different materials which are presumably screwed, riveted or welded together. These radiators are not quiet! The thermostat might not click, but the radiator itself clicks and clangs away at specific times during heating and cooling as the different materials expand and contract at different rates. Two of the radiators made such loud clangs that I had to request replacements. Perhaps because the house is in general much quieter than our old house we notice the noises more? Time will tell.
The radiator pictured is 1kW. I have worked out that should we fill the bungalow completely with these we would require a mixture of 500W to 1.5kW radiators. The total wattage for the bungalow would be 9.5kW, excluding the bathroom(s) for which these rads aren’t suitable. Bonkers!
Being a bit of a spreadsheet nerd I am recording electricity consumption vs heating the place to an acceptable level. The figures will change, as the house is modernised but I will provide updates on our findings as things progress. At the moment I can tell you that it is *very* expensive! But then, it is particularly cold at the moment; -4 to 3 degrees C over the last few days. We will keep you updated. Stephenie and I are trying to get used to having a cooler house and putting on extra layers instead, as most other people are having to do in the current financial climate.