Storage Heaters - Good or Bad?

Cagey

Looks like you are working them properly Morph. The problem is storage heaters are inefficient & there is no way you will get any comfort from them ,especially on economy 7 which stops charging at 7.30am & no matter what you do they will be cool by 5pm.

If you have gas in your area ,change to gas. It will pay for itself(well maybe not now with gas shortage)& the comfort comared to e7 will be like night & day.

geoffreyq

They are wonderful - especially if you have a 2 period tariff. i.e. you get 7 hours overnight and 3 hours in the afternoon so the heaters actually work in the evening. The house is warm all day and night and without the costs of boiler servicing etc. is cheaper to install ,no more expensive to run in practice than gfch and is far more reliable.The only trouble is that you cannot(unless someone knows better) switch to a new (cheaper) supplier.
Does anyone know if any supplier still offers a 2 period tariff, or are these all 'preserved' from a while ago and no longer available?

Cagey

Geoff, you do not have E7. You have a 2 meters & that is why you can`t change suppliers. If you were on Economy 7 you could change Suppliers & you would have no heat after 5pm.

paul_h

Cagey wrote:

Geoff, you do not have E7. You have a 2 meters & that is why you can`t change suppliers. If you were on Economy 7 you could change Suppliers & you would have no heat after 5pm.

geoffreyq is on an economy10 or 'heatwise' tariff - he'll have a standard two-rate meter and an economy10 timeswitch.


As for storage heaters not lasting after 5pm, I would refer to my earlier post - if you find that your heaters are cold by 5pm, and you are sure you are charging them correctly, then the installation must be faulty or seriously undersized. Our old storage heater system was charged on economy7 and had no problem maintaining the room temperature well into the evening. The thermostatic output control should not start to open the heater vent until the evening - once they begin to vent, you should have 4-5 hours of heat left. When the vent is fully open, room temperature will start to fall, but it should be nearly bedtime by then...

It is a common problem - storage heater system were often underspecified to minimise the apparent running costs and hence make them more attractive. However, this led to many systems being installed which were simply incapable of providing enough storage to last through the evening.

paul_h

geoffreyq wrote:

They are wonderful - especially if you have a 2 period tariff. i.e. you get 7 hours overnight and 3 hours in the afternoon so the heaters actually work in the evening. The house is warm all day and night and without the costs of boiler servicing etc. is cheaper to install ,no more expensive to run in practice than gfch and is far more reliable.The only trouble is that you cannot(unless someone knows better) switch to a new (cheaper) supplier.

Does anyone know if any supplier still offers a 2 period tariff, or are these all 'preserved' from a while ago and no longer available?

There are a few companies which will take these economy10 or 'heatwise' tariffs on on a case-by-case basis, you will need to talk to a few suppliers. Try Powergen, Manweb and Scottish Power - however I could not in all honesty recommend Powergen...


I agree that storage heaters can be a perfectly usable form of heating especially in places where mains gas is not available - they're really much better than people paint them if they are correctly specified and installed.

Modern storage heater systems are a much improved product - they are better insulated and the metallised bricks make for thinner heaters with more storage capacity. Controls have also improved, with automatic charge controls so you don't need a crystal ball, and now systems with central programmable thermostats which can can remotely control each heater individually, providing variable temperatures as required during the day.

With no access to mains gas, we had storage heaters removed for oil. However, with oil now costing three times what it was then, It makes sense to look at the modern storage heater systems - though not as easy to operate, running costs are now working out cheaper than oil or lpg, and with nil maintenance costs and no storage tanks.