Help please - storage heaters

shoneh

Hi everyone, I hope I am posting this in the right place!

At the begining of this year I moved into my own 2 bed flat with my son, I was told that my heating is storage heaters, which was fine, although I didn't know much about them, during the summer, my heaters where never on as my flat was very warm!

Now that it's winter, it's FREEZING! So I was using my storage heaters but it was costing me a fortune, so I started only using 2, one downstairs and one in my son's room. The thing is, I have no idea how to use them, I understand that they are supposed to heat up at night during off peak and then let out heat throughout the day, I've read loads of threads on here about them, but still none the wiser :rolleyes:

I have a pre-payment metre as I owed money to scottish hydro, I've just switched to scottish gas and have been told I'm on the wrong tarrif. I was lead to believe I've been on Economy 7 but turns out I was on single domestic rate (?). I've been told I'm getting a refund in 7 days, no idea how much though. It's been costing me £5 a day in electricity (I don't have gas in my flat).

The main problem is the heaters though? Can someone explain to me how to use them? When I switch my son's heater on, it come's on right away? As does the one upstairs. The 2 downstairs come on at night, like I expected, but they have different settings so it's not like I can use them as a guide. I don't know how to set them, I basically just make sure I get my son's room warm as it's freezing in there.

Also, I understand that E7 rates start after midnight, is this the best tarrif to be on? Only thing that goes on at night is my water and 2 heaters. I don't work, so all my washing is on during the day, as is most of my electrical stuff. I don't have timers on my washing machine or tumble drier so can't set it to go on at off peak.

Dial on heater in son's room


Dial on other heater

Graham1

Usually storage heaters are wired to an electric circuit which switches on only during the off-peak electric period. It sounds like some of yours are wired to a time switch - which case you need to make sure the "on" and "off" settings of the time-switch correspond to to the off-peak period for electricity and the time-switch is set to the correct time. Although if there isn't enough heat to last all day and the evening then it might be necessary to have an extra boost period during the afternoon or evening - but this will significantly increase the running cost because it will be using electricity at the day-time rate.
If it isn't obvious from the meter when the off peak period starts and ends then the electricity company should be able to tell you - as it varies from region to region. It's usually about 7 hours long starting from sometime after midnight GMT.
If there is any way of getting off a pre-payment meter and back on to a normal one in the near future that is likely to give you much better choices of tariff/company to use and save you money.

Be_Happy

The picture you show of the heater in your son's room isn't a storage heater, it's a panel heater. These are similar to convector heaters and give instant heat - they don't run overnight and store heat. On economy 7 rate day time electricity is very expensive, and running these panel heaters will be expensive.

The other picture is a storage heater. One dial will be marked 'input' - set it to the temperature you want - the lower the number, the cooler and least expensive. The other dial will say 'boost' - this controls how quickly the stored heat comes out during the day - the lower the setting the more slowly the heat is blown out and the longer the heater will give out heat during the day before it is all used up.

Your storage heaters should already be wired into their own timer at your meter which should be automatically set to your region's off peak times. These vary by region. In our house you can hear a loud click from the meter cupboard when the off peak rate comes on at night and goes off in the morning. On your meter a small light will probably show whether you are on off peak or normal rate at any time.

Purplejaspercat

Hi,

I have read all the links for this storage heater problem but it does not answer mine! I have the same storage heaters as this lady (with input and output) but have realised that they are coming on automatically too early, before my cheap elec. I have searched the whole house and asked my mate who is an electrician how I can change the timer, but I can not find it?! The heaters are wired into the walls with just an on off switch. I live in a top floor maisonette with the meters etc down the bottom of the stairs. Can anyone tell me what the timer would look like/be located/be changed? There is only locked high voltage meters and a timer for my water. (Not connected to the heaters). The extra hours of expensive elec has resulted in an elec bill of over £400! (I coudn't pay it and am now having to pay off monthly). HELP!!!!