Electric radiators – cost guide

Electric heating is becoming much more popular and it’s easy to see why.

We offer a huge range of stylish electric options, both in modern and traditional designs that will really complement your interior.

Some options for you – Core column electric, Pentola, Polar, iRad, Neos, Dynamo, Alchemy, and most of our cast iron traditional radiator range

We are often asked about running costs for electric radiators so let’s look at this to hopefully help with your understanding.

Although electric is currently more expensive than gas electric radiator options are very efficient with 1 Watt of energy used becoming 1 Watt of heat rather than losing some heat through pipe work. The hope is going forward as more renewable sources of energy are found then prices may fall.

To ensure you get the most out of your electric heater, specifying it correctly can be the key to keeping costs down so:

  1. Ensure it’s the right size for the room – if not it will be pulling electricity constantly and be more expensive to use.
  2. Add controls to the heater, in days gone by electric heaters have just pulled energy constantly in order to heat, nowadays we look to control the amount of energy used as well as heating the space efficiently.

Looking at costs to run the electric radiator, we have considered one of our bestselling units the Core with a WIFI controlled element offering 7 day programmability. This type of element is the predominant method of heat on our site but others are available and work in very similar ways.

Let’s say we have a 2kw Core radiator, similar to this one here correctly specified to heat the space we can set programmes turn the radiators on or off at certain times each day and to certain temperatures, manually override the programme if we use the space sporadically and we can turn the heater on or off when away from home via the WIFI  APP. That’s great in situations where we may be delayed getting home or due home earlier, making sure we minimise wasted energy.

At 2kws / 2000 Watts, that means for the first hour of use when the radiator is heating up to warm the space we may use the full 2kw of power. If we are paying 35p per kilowatt hour that means in the first hour we are paying 70p.  As the room heats up the heater will need to emit less heat to either reach the temperature desired or maintain the heat. In effect the usage drops and the element only comes on sporadically over the next hour reducing the price.

In the second hour let’s consider 3 x 10 minute bursts of heat, then that equates to 30mins of usage so half of what we used in the first hour which would mean a cost of 35p.

Looking at the 3rd, 4th and remaining hours of usage, again as the room is now up to temperature   the radiator just needs to do is maintain the heat so it may only need to come on 2-3 times an hour so less frequently.

Let’s consider 3 x 5 minutes bursts of heat from the 3rd hour this equates to 17.5p per hour, so if on for a total of 6 hours the total overall cost would be approximately £1.75.

Making sure doors are closed will help and if you have insulation and also the outside temperature may have an impact.

Ultimately control is key, the more you can control the radiators the more efficiency you will find.