29/11/2021
Landlords: Thinking of Upgrading your heating? Don’t fall into this energy efficiency trap!! 👎💰
Whether you are currently on gas, oil, LPG, solid fuel, if you are thinking of upgrading to one of those flashy new wall mounted convector heaters, read carefully!
By now, you should know that all rental properties need to be a minimum EPC rating of Band E. From an energy efficiency point of view, standard convector heaters, or even electric boilers, are just about the worst form of heating you can install. Usually worse than LPG, oil, solid fuel, so if you have a central heating system, you would be better keeping it for now and reconsidering your options 🤔
If your electrician says they these new convectors are "really efficient", this is not false, but the true cost of running those things adds up quickly, and the EPC rating for your property will drop like a stone, potentially into Band F or G 😟
Instead of getting wall mounted convector heaters, we would strongly recommend you get modern High Heat Retention Storage Heaters. Times have changed since they first brought out storage heaters, and today’s models are brilliant.
Why storage heaters? Storage Heaters utilise their energy “off peak” and therefore costs around half as much to run as the electric convector equivalent. The EPC rating will be much more favourable, and you should have no problem letting the property out in future.
The modern ones have digital timers so you can release the heat when you want, and, as the name suggests, they have high heat retention characteristics, so they don’t go cold as the day goes on.
It might cost you a bit more to install initially, but your Tenants will thank you in the long run!! ☀️🏠
I hope you find this useful. Any questions just get in touch 👍
- Paul
