Wet electric heating system experience?

Dan Judd · Jan 1, 2017

Hi, does anyone have any experience of this type of system please and the best way to use and set it up please?

We are in the process of extending and renovating our house, when finished it will be 3/4 bed detached with 155mm of celotex in most of the roof, 100mm of celotex/rockwool in most walls and new double glazing & doors. I expect it to be quite efficient but I could be wrong.

We currently use an old immersion and tank for hot water and convector heaters in the rooms we use for heating. We obviously want to upgrade this and have decided against LPG but are not convinced by oil either simply due to the price fluctuations that can be triggered by all sorts of things. The electrician got us thinking about electric, he's worked on a few houses with electric boilers that supply wet rads and they seem to be quite efficient, in his opinion. Appreciate the price of electric can fluctuate too but at least we generate some of that in the UK, whereas the other two we are a bit more reliant on other countries for.

I know some will laugh at the idea of electric but from the snippets I've read here and there I believe it has moved on somewhat in recent years so I'm interested to hear from anyone that has real life experience please.

Many thanks!

Leesparkykent · Jan 1, 2017

Have you considered looking at an air source heat pump?

Dan Judd · Jan 1, 2017

Hi, yes I have but my uncle has just installed one and had lots teething issues. I'm also not sure it would get the house to the required temp, their max water temp is 55 degrees I believe..?

Is installation very expensive as well?

Leesparkykent · Jan 1, 2017

If you have it designed, installed and commissioned by a reputable firm that know what they're doing you shouldn't have any problems. ASHP's work better with under floor heating due the lower working temps but can work equally as well with rads as long as they are sized correctly. A calculation of what temperature you would like to maintain and how much heat loss due to number of windows, doors, building material etc will determine the size of rads and size of ASHP with a percentage on top for the hot water requirements and general losses. Cost wise I cant see it being too much more compared to an electric boiler as you still need to run pipe work, buy radiators, Install hot water cylinder/thermal store, heating controls, the only real difference will be the cost difference between the price of the electric boiler and the ASHP and the additional cost to install the ASHP as its a little more involved. With the ASHP you would be eligible to receive renewable heat incentive payments so will end up mostly paying for itself.

ChipFanDave · Jan 1, 2017

My parent live in a village without mains gas and have a Mitsubishi air source heat pump as it's the best solution for heating the house and providing hot water. They have under floor heating from the ASHP and a hot water tank with an emersion heat that makes shore the water is heat above the temperature needed to kill of legionella bacteria once a day ( could be a legal requirement). If your house is going to be well insulted (parents house was new build with top level insulation) it as good as gas hot water/heating system and the cost of air is not going up ! It has not been a problem over the three years they have had it. If you are interested let me know and I will get more information for you, I would have it myself if not on mains gas.