Question: storage heating wiring...

durain

one of my storage heater is not working and i think it's the wiring. i have changed the thermostat and it's not that.

the wiring goes straight into the wall. so the question is, can i cut that and put a 3-PIN plug and plug it into a wall socket?

and can storage heater be use in bedroom? most of the online retailer never mention storage heater for bedroom.

molerat

Some small storage heaters can be used on a normal plug but some of the larger ones can be up to 6Kw so need wiring in. If plugged into a normal socket you need to ensure you switch off outside of off peak hours. Storage heaters can be used anywhere, some even in bathrooms. If you are not sure about the wiring best get a spark in to check it out.

martindow

Some off peak heaters have their own circuits, so if you connect it to the normal circuit you will not pay off peak prices.

ysabell

The wiring goes straight into the wall via a fixed-appliance outlet. If it is fairly old then there might be a small fuse built into the face of the wall plate, Check this fuse.
Don't mess with the wiring. As previously mentioned these heaters can be up to 6kw and you'll probably overload the normal ring main circuit. These heaters were the best thing since sliced bread in the 60's when electricity was a lot cheaper. Nowadays I only here of them being installed in rented property where there is no gas supply.
They are very expensive to run on 'normal' electricity and are meant to only run on 'off peak' electricity where you have a seperate meter and pay a lower unit cost.
Check the fuse. Otherewise find a qualified electrician

baldelectrician

Storage heaters (big ones with bricks inside) must be wired to a seperate circuit / supply.

Panel heaters (slim and generally wall mounted, but not sitting on the floor) can be either a seperate circuit, or on a local socket circuit- dependent on electrical installation of house.

You can have storage heaters in bedrooms, but they will need to be on a sepreate circuit. I personally prefer dimplex storage heaters, as the spares are easy to get and are available for a long period of time.

If you have them on a normal circuit it can cause overloads and other generally bad things to happen. This is a defenite NO NO.
You (as pointed out earlier) will also pay full price for using them.

I suggest you get a registered person in, but you may struggle to get someone this side of christmas.

Cypher

Just a thought Storage Heaters (Economy 7 etc) are meant for off peak use, so as far as I know they are usually turned on by timers. It could be something back in your consumer unit where all the timers are, not switching the power to the unit. I've only ever seen one in my Aunties house and she had banks of additional timers for each heater in a cupboard near the meter cupboard. The storage heater could be fine.

durain

the storage heater was working fine until a few months ago. yes, i am on economy 7 and the heater comes on automatically at night. other storage heater is working fine so that cancel out the fuse box or consumer unit.

Cypher

I am probably barking up the wrong tree, in my aunts house each heater was on its own circuit, and could be individually set, there was more than one timer, I think each heater had its own.

lovelyjubbly

I agree with cypher,
we have storage heaters as we live miles from anywhere each heater has its own wire back to the comsumer unit and its own fuse. So if your other heater is working it dosn't mean anything, have you checked that all the fuses are switched on in the box? we were told by manweb that as the units all come on at the same time it is a huge surge to your electric and that can blow your fuse, though they dont actually blow nowadays do they, they just switch off.
We do have them in the bedroom and in the bathroom, no problems. When one of ours kept blowing a few years ago we found the old type fuse was blowing and had to get a new consumer unit, do you have the new type?