Ms Orla Coyle:

At the moment, they do not turn out favourably in the BER system because of the grid's primary energy usage and CO2 emissions. As the grid decarbonises, they will probably come back into favour and be more favourable than, say, a boiler. The performance of a storage heater is only about 100% efficient while the performance of a heat pump is three times that. Heat pumps would still be more efficient than storage heaters. That is not to say storage heaters will not have a future. If the grid decarbonises, they may be an option for certain applications.