Benefits of Electric Heating
The cost of energy for different heating systems is only part of the true running costs of a system. The real cost of ownership of a heating system is a combination of the original installation cost, the annual fuel cost, maintenance costs and the useful lifetime of the system.
Traditionally electric heating has been considered to be the most expensive fuel for heating. This has generally been as a result of using fan heaters, radiant bar fires, night storage heaters, convector heaters, oil filled radiators and the like which can be very expensive to run.
With the introduction of DYNAMIC STORAGE HEATERS electric heating is now one of the cheapest, if not THE cheapest form of home and office heating. Electrical heating is 100% efficient at the point of use, all the electricity used is turned into heat, unlike boiler based systems where energy is wasted through the flue.
Over the past few years there has been a significant increase in the price of gas, oil and LPG. Energywatch, the independent gas and electricity consumer watchdog, reported in 2006 that some energy suppliers had increased the cost of gas to customers by as much as 92% since 2003, while the price of electricity had increased by just over 50%. OIL has increased in price by almost 400% over a five year period from 2002.
Developments in electric heating over the past few years has seen the introduction of highly sophisticated time and temperature controls which give total control. Where required each room can be set at different temperatures to suit the requirements of that particular room. Bedrooms for example may be required to have a lower temperature than a living room. Each heater can be controlled independently of other heaters, giving a flexibility of use impossible with boiler based systems. It is a well known fact that accurate control of a heating system will not only reduce energy wastage but also save on running costs.
Electric heating is the easiest and quickest type of heating to install, there is minimal disruption to you and your home. There are no flues, no unsightly pipes, no potential pipe-work leakages, no risk of poisonous gas escapes, just a simple unobtrusive wall fixing and connection to the electricity supply.
Maintenance of a heating system can add considerably to the overall cost of running a system, so it is very important to consider the likely impact of maintenance costs and safety check requirements over the lifetime of the system together with the cost of the fuel to run a particular form of heating.
