Storage heaters...

studentsaver166

Hey again people,
I moved house in july and now we're in an gas-free apartment. I've never used electric storage heaters before and although our flat is pretty warm and we haven't needed the heating yet, I sort of want to work out how the hell to use the damn things before it gets really cold! Both my other half and I have tried to figure it out but to no avail. Can anyone enlighten me?!
SS xx

tr3mor

It should have two dials on it. Turn the input dial to max and the output dial to min and you'll be fine.

Magentasue

There are several threads about these (one very detailed but I can't remember which one) on the Gas and Elec board and the Fuel and Heating board. Worth doing a search on both.

Penelope_Penguin

Hi there :beer: As this has fallen from the front page of Old Style, I'll move it to the Gas and Electricity Board. The experts there may have more replies for you

BartGirl

tr3mor wrote: »

It should have two dials on it. Turn the input dial to max and the output dial to min and you'll be fine.

Please forgive my ignorance but would this mean that it stores the max amount of heat and then minimally releases it?..

ex-energywatch_adviser

An electric storage heater is basically an insulated metal box full of heat storing bricks with an element running through them. Depending on which tariff you are on (economy 7 is the most common tariff) a charge is taken during the night on cheaper (off peak) rate electricity to heat the bricks then that heat is given out during the day. There are also some tariffs that provide an afternoon boost.

The problem with electric storage heaters is that they can only give out the heat that has been stored overnight so once it has been used the storage heater is effectively useless until it takes another overnight charge.

At this time of the year you would need the heater to take a maximum charge (input at maximum) and if you want the heat to last as long as possible, have the output on minimum which gives you the option to increase the output during the day as required.

I would recommend that you confirm with your supplier which tariff you are on and the times that the cheaper rate is available as you could also use other electrical appliances e.g. a washing machine, tumble dryer etc via a timeswitch to benefit from the off peak night rate.

You would also need to make sure your immersion heater is operating on the off peak rate.

cmacneil

Hi all -

Slight variation on this topic... I wasn't able to find anything on other threads, so any help would be appreciated.

We have a 1 bed flat that is fully electric and has Economy 7. Our heaters are NOT storage heaters (when we let the flat we were told they were, but after investigating why were getting £300+ electicity bills last year we found out the truth!!)

When we're at home we spend most of our time in the living room; we both work so this would be evenings and weekends. We have a 4 month old baby and thus want to keep the room around 20 degrees (it's well below that now - even cooler than ambient outside temps!!).

We're looking for an alternative to using the costly - and pretty ineffective - wall heaters. My first assumption is that we should get a space heater to heat the room. (approx 20' x 12' in size).

I'm looking for general advice about this, and specifically if anyone has had particularly good success with a space heater. Our max budget is around £70 as we're probably moving next and don't want to splash out, but similarly need something cost-effective and safe, especially for a 4-month-old's respiratory system!

Cheers,
Chris