Heating Help Please

Caseyface

We have just moved into a rented flat and have a heater in the front room which has a switch at the wall and the dials on the top say 'discharge' and 'charge'. Our estate agent is pants and doesn't know how anything works, so we are really stuck with how these work and how we should use them. Any help please?

When we first moved in on Friday, it was stone cold. We put the charge on full and turned the discharge about half way. It started to give out some heat but seemed to stay on forever even when switched off at the wall........eeeeeeeeeek! :eek: We don't want a massive bill for our first month....:(

Brb

Look on the unit for a model/make and google ?

arachne

I don't know much about them but it sounds like you have economy 7 storage heaters. You have to charge them at night (when it's cheap) and then discharge the heat when you want it. Should be lots on the internet if you google them.

vectistim

It sounds like its a storage heater. The idea is that you 'charge' it up overnight with 'cheap' electricity and then it discharges the next day and lets the heat back out again. Old storage heaters are essentially a load of concrete blocks that are heated up and then you wait for the heat to come back out again later.
Look at your EPC - does that say storage heaters? If you look at your electric meter there will hopefully be two readings - one being at the lower rate for Economy 7/10 or whatever might be running there. The EPC will probably describe it as poor, but EPCs don't really like electric heating. There will also be some guesstimated running costs on the EPC for standardised assumed usage.
Once its charged up it will discharge the heat over time even after you've turned it off at the wall.
To get an idea of its running costs find out how much you're paying for electricity, turn it on over night and make a note of the meter readings before and after turning it on over night (although that will include anything else you have running in the house over night too - so you should probably do the same for a night without it on to determine the difference)

pinkteapot

Assuming it's a storage heater (which it sounds like), it should (in theory) be installed on your night electricity ring. What this means is you can leave it switched on at the wall 24/7 and it will charge up overnight on the cheaper power rate but won't draw power during the day. Means you don't have to fiddle about with it every day.

With the dials:

Charge - the higher you set this, the hotter the bricks will get at night. It'll store more heat, but obviously cost more. Essentially this is a dial for how hot you want your heating. So have it low to middle this time of year up to max in winter (if needed).

Discharge - normally, with storage heaters, all this does is open a flap at the top to varying degrees. If you put this on maximum this vent will be open all the way so the heat will come out quickly. Good to get a room warmer but bad if you 'use up' all the heat in the morning and it's run out by the evening (as the heater won't charge again till overnight).

When I used to have storage heaters, I just left discharge on minimum the whole time. Enough heat leaked out without the vent being open to warm the place all day and evening. And if there was a seriously cold evening I knew I would have a bit in reserve to let out.

Caseyface

Thank you everyone :T

Great advice!

tyllwyd

But until you get used to it, make sure you keep an eye on the meters, and when the heater is drawing electricity and when it is not, and check what tariff you are on. When we moved into a house with storage heaters, we eventually discovered that the time on the meter was wrong because the meter was old and hadn't been serviced for so long, so the heaters were heating up during the day. In fact, we thought they possibly weren't turning off at all. Also, if you are on Economy 7, check the price for daytime units - it is much higher so be careful!