Anyone used Rointe heaters?

A question about : Anyone used Rointe heaters?

We've currently got storage heaters as we don't have gas but they are proving to be very expensive to use.
A friend has suggested these as a replacement and their sales blurb seems quite convincing but cannot find any real world reviews anywhere

Any advice would be appreciated as we're freezing our bits of!!!

Best answers:

• Hi
  These are the same heaters as Calortec (check out Argos book) and various other makes.
  They will cost you more than 3 times to run than your night time storage heaters.
  A Ј20 electric heater of any description (convection, oil filled radiator ect) will cost the same.
  [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]
• Hi
  Im very familiar with Rointe heaters, they are not the same as calortec, they are a standalone system like nothing on the market. They are very energy efficient, not like standard storage heaters (which do cost 3 times as much), they are proven to cost less to run then some gas central heating systems.
  They are the only electric heater on the market to have BISREA approval and is being specified by many councils up and down the country.
  Hope this helps.
• yeah, snake oil no longer comes in bottles
• Well what DO tou suggest?? What do you think of Elka [now Elti} ceramic heaters?
• I am just about to buy Rointe heaters from an electrician who is installing them in my flat. I was checking them out online and found this thread. I told my electrician who said he was doubtful too until he was given this link:
  bsria.co.uk/services/testing/certificates/list-by-comopany/rointe/
  It looks pretty impressive to me but I am hopeless at this sort of stuff - surely the report proves that they are as good as they claim and it proves they use 60% less energy?
  I like the idea of the cost savings and emissions savings but they arent cheap and I dont wnat to get ripped off.
  Help please???????
• I note that 'shaunmichelle7'(see post #3) has posted just the once to promote these heaters and has not visited since - what are the odds on he/she being an employee?
  The one great advantage of the internet is that anyone 'Googling' for Rointe will find this thread; although I suppose there are some folk(older people?) who will still believe the brochure.
• I have just invented an almost limitless source of energy.
  It works by creating a hyperspatial conduit to the surface of the sun. The conduit itself is fireproof, but unfortunately the delivery point at the domestic consumption end is not, leading to instant plasma vaporisation of the house and immediate surroundings.
  The installation requires a supercooled superconductor core the size of the Large Hadron Collider. The pay back break even point is therefore somewhere around 100 million years. I am thinking with a government subsidy of Ј100 billion pounds, I can sell it at Ј100,000 per household. Most of that will be spent on fireproofing the house.
  Any takers?
• While storage heaters have many downsides (I had them for years in one house), most of all the lack of immediate control and their emitting most their heat during the day when everyone is out and then often being cold by the time they get home, they do have the advantage of only consuming electric overnight at the cheap rate. Swapping to any other type of electric heating that consumes electric outside the cheap rate hours is almost certainly going to make your electric bills go up.
  Because of this, if you're replacing the storage heaters with electric radiators I'd recommend taking a whole house view and trying to reduce the energy you need to stay comfortable. Good controls that thermostatically adjust the heat output and timers to allow you to easily turn the heat off when nobody is using the room make a large difference. Properly insulated walls and roof are important, but even more so when you're using an expensive fuel like electric. It should be pretty cheap at the moment with all the subsidies available to correct any problems with your insulation. Having good lined curtains for overnight is pretty essential for winter nights when your windows stop providing light and just release heat to outside. Adding secondary glazing to a few well picked windows, such as big ones or those in rooms you use the most, or near areas like beds and sofas where people spend a lot of time can also make a large difference to how comfortable you are and how much you feel you need to use the heating.
  With good controls and in a well insulated house, electric heating isn't totally unreasonable, but electric is very expensive and you need to be sure you're using it economically. To be as affordable as gas (the claims some not very good electric heater salesmen make) you need to use far less kWh of energy input to keep the house at the same temperature, enough that it would be difficult in an older house that needs significant insulation improvements. As no electric heater is more efficient than any other, any improvements have to be made in how much you use the heaters (timer and thermostatic controls) and in how well the house retains the heat.