Fan assisted storage heaters?

Hugbubble · 31 October 2008 at 12:37PM

Anyone got these, and are they noticably better than the traditional variety?

Thanks
Hug

punkaking · 15 November 2008 at 5:19PM

Can't give you direct feedback, Hug, but am looking at these myself. If of interest, my recommendation was from the energy saving trust site:
http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/

They will give free and (supposedly) independant advice regarding cost and energy saving in the home - there's a free phone number on the site.

rothers8080 · 20 November 2008 at 12:15AM

I've been looking at these too - no gas here - just changed from solid fuel central heating (may as well sit around a cigarette), from what I've read these fan assisted ones (or is it JUST Elnur who make them?) are finally a solution which works all day long, rather like charging up a large battery on E7 and you choose when to use the power rather than them just leaking heat out like the old storage heaters did.

I'm probably going to get a 3KW one and see how it goes, they are £500 so I hope it works...

hahasound · 27 November 2008 at 1:44PM

I'm looking at the Dimplex FXL range of fan assited storage heaters (see http://www.dimplex.co.uk/products/domestic_heating/installed_heating/storage_heaters/fan_assisted_fxl_range/index.htm)
Has anyone got any feedback since installation? Craigix perhaps?

anthonykeates · 15 December 2008 at 12:19AM

So has anyone got any feedback on these yet? My current storage heaters are a bit old and underpowered for the job, so I was considering whether these fan assisted ones are worth the extra money over the normal automatic ones - £200 extra per 3.4kw heater is quite a bit!

Any thoughts much appreciated!

Edinburghlass_2 · 15 December 2008 at 12:22AM

Seems we are all waiting on someone to take the plunge but I'd certainly be interested to find out how these perform.

thechippy · 15 December 2008 at 1:19AM

Maybe member "Cardew" has an opinion. He seems quite up on this stuff.

titus4t · 19 December 2008 at 4:58PM

... decided to do the best money saving thing of all and stick with what I'd got and not spend anything.

All the fan assisted ones do is give you more control over when the heat comes out - you don't get any more heat for your money 1KW of electricity in = 1 KW of heat out whatever the heater you use.

The thing is the new fan assisted ones have better insulation than the old fashioned sort, so if you don't need any heat in the morning it will stay in the heater and not leak out. Then if you need your room heating at say 6 pm when you come in from work you can use the fan to blow air through the heater and warm the room quickly.

Of course if you are in the house all day and want a slow trickle of heat out (like I usually am) then the fan assist bit is no advantage at all. If that is the case and you just need more heat then you might as well just buy additional second hand units dirt cheap.

A._Badger · 19 December 2008 at 7:19PM

It's some years since I had fan-assisted storage radiators, but all I can say is, I hope they've improved!

My experience was very much like titus4t's - if you need heat during the day, fans are no use and, if mine were anything to go by, even if you didn't use them much during the day, by the time you got home in the evening all that was left for the fan to deliver was a pretty pitiful amount of heat, which I ended-up supplementing with a conventional fan heater..

They may be better today, but my experience with storage radiators in several flats over the years has led me to conclude that none of them are much good.

stevehead · 19 December 2008 at 7:50PM

When I was a kid I lived in Northern Scotland. Lovely place, but I will NEVER forget the hell that was the night storage heating system.

We'd wake up with ice on the inside of the windows. We daren't turn on the heaters in the morning as the heat was needed later in the day, so you'd get dressed in bed.
After walking home from school, I remember clinging to the heaters when I'd get in and curse the pitiful dribble of luke warm air eminating from these horrid things. By teatime they were cold.
This was the 70's, and in those days a storage heater consisted of a steel box with a load of bricks inside it. There were heating elements running between the bricks.
Can't imagine things have changed that much - you're welcome to them!

Cardew · 19 December 2008 at 8:24PM

thechippy wrote: »

Maybe member "Cardew" has an opinion. He seems quite up on this stuff.

Well as said so often, you don't get 'owt for nowt' and with any electrical heater(other than heat pumps) you get exactly the same amount of heat for your money.

The big problem with most storage heaters is that they 'leak' heat during the day and run out in the evenings; or if you use the heat during the day, they run out even earlier.

I haven't used the latest version of storage heaters, but people have reported on MSE and elsewhere that they do not leak heat as much during the day. That is no help if you are in the house during the day and need heat. They have a finite capacity and will simply run out.

Having a fan on a 'straight' storage heater will just mean that they run out of heat earlier.

The fan assisted storage heaters that I have seen(like the dimplex) simply use daytime electricity for a convector heater element to 'boost' the heating.

Other than the automated function, I see no advantage over having a £20 fan heater that you can switch on when required - a much cheaper option with the same running costs.

With the cost of nightime rates on Economy 7 having soared in the past year or so - from around 2p/kWh to around 5p/kWh,(plus the premium for daytime electricity) the whole concept of storage heating is less attractive.

Fan assisted storage heaters?

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