Storage Heater Fuse Blowing!!

Zoso7

Hi,

Need some help regarding my Storage Heater fuse blowing. Its the local fuse (fuse on the on/off socket on the wall next to heater) that keeps blowing at night when the cheap rate supply switches on supplying the heater. This doesn't happen everytime, sometimes I will get 5/7 days before the fuse blows and sometimes I can replace it, get up in the morning and there is no heat and the heater and a blown fuse. I am replacing it each time with a 13A fuse.

Any advice given as to why this is happening and how to remedy/fix it would be greatly appreciated.

J

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

Your storage heater is connected via a 13amp plug and socket???

What power rating is your storage heater? many are rated at 3.4kW at 230 or 240Volts

If it is a 3.4kW(or bigger) you are drawing more than 14 amps.

Andy_WSM

Very unusual that a storage heater is fed by a 13A Switched Spur (guessing that is what it is, rather than a plug and socket which would be really bizarre!).
Usually you would expect to see a 20Amp double pole un-fused switch supplying the heater, with a dedicated fuse at a distribution board.

Zoso7

Cardew,

It is not a plug and socket, its a blank socket with a switch and a slot for a fuse(think Andy is correct by calling it a Switched Spur)!! I have been replacing with a 13A fuse as that is what was in it originally, however, as I suspected and from what you and Andy have told me, I suspect this doesn't have enough capacity.

I checked my heater and it is rated at 3.4kW.

Is my solution as simple as just fitting a higher rated fuse or would it be better to fit a 20Amp double pole un-fused as suggested by Andy?

Thanks to you both so far for your replies!!

Cardew

You mean like this?




As Andy states, this is unusual, in fact I suspect it would be illegal these days to wire a 3.4kW heater from such a spur.

Anyway the point is that 3.4kW will draw more than 13 amps, and particularly at start up it is not surprising that it blows the fuse.

The 20 amp double pole un-fused switch with protection at the CU is the way to go.

Zoso7

Yeah Cardew, just like that but minus the light

The heaters i reckon are probs about 20yrs old so I suspect when they where originally connected to the existing spur that this was probably the standard of the day, however, you would probably know that better than me.

I shall look into replacing the spur with a 20A double pole un-fused switch. This I assume should stop the fuse from blowing and also make the switching on a lot safer.

Thanks once again for all replies.

Mankysteve

I think it would be a wise precaution to check the rating of your cable just in case before switching it on.