Central heating – Radiator and storage heaters bricks to extend heating time

reddyman

Hi all,

I was thinking if this would work. Storage heater bricks store heat and release them.

What if I managed to get hold of storage heater bricks and placed them onto of my radiator which is part of a gas central heating system. The theory is the bricks would heat up. Once the central heating is turned off, (at night in my house) the storage heater bricks will release the heat that has built up in them over the next few hours.

This will keep the house warm for longer.

Has anyone tried this? Anyone know why it would not work?

Cardew

You will only get the same amount of heat out of the bricks, as you put into the bricks!

The heat absorbed by those bricks will slow the rate at which your room is warmed.

That is exactly the same principle as an oil filled radiator.

'You don't get ought for nowt'!

HappyMJ

reddyman wrote: »

Hi all,

I was thinking if this would work. Storage heater bricks store heat and release them.

What if I managed to get hold of storage heater bricks and placed them onto of my radiator which is part of a gas central heating system. The theory is the bricks would heat up. Once the central heating is turned off, (at night in my house) the storage heater bricks will release the heat that has built up in them over the next few hours.

This will keep the house warm for longer.

Has anyone tried this? Anyone know why it would not work?

It will work. I don't see any reason why it won't. I gather you would do this in the bedrooms then turn the boiler off hopefully having enough warmth in the bricks to keep the bedroom warm till morning. It won't save money though. Pointless doing it any other room just let the house go cold overnight.

martinthebandit

If you are in a brick built well insulated house it will have no discernable effect whatsoever.

The heat you capture in the bricks would have just gone into the walls anyway and good insulation means that it is released out of the walls back into the room.


Sorry but it is back to the drawing board

Owain_Moneysaver

It would only be moneysaving if you took the bricks to work with you and heated them up during the day, then took them home for the evening.

JenR8

And only if you carry them, or balance them on your pushbike otherwise you'll be using more fuel! Ha ha.

Ben84

reddyman wrote: »

Hi all,

I was thinking if this would work. Storage heater bricks store heat and release them.

What if I managed to get hold of storage heater bricks and placed them onto of my radiator which is part of a gas central heating system. The theory is the bricks would heat up. Once the central heating is turned off, (at night in my house) the storage heater bricks will release the heat that has built up in them over the next few hours.

This will keep the house warm for longer.

Has anyone tried this? Anyone know why it would not work?

I'm not sure how effectively the bricks would absorb the heat from the radiator, but any they do absorb would result in the house taking longer to heat. It would be much the same as having a a system with a greater water volume in the radiators, you will have a longer heat up time and slower cool down time.

Generally however the trend now is for less water in the system and radiators that transfer heat quicker, simply because it means that when you turn the boiler on you get heat much faster and you can turn it off quicker too. Having a time delay with gas heating isn't any real advantage as regardless of when the heat is emitted from the system, you have to pay for it all when it goes in at the same price, so ideally you want the most control over it by having it go as quickly as possible from the flame in the boiler to the air in the house.

grahamc2003

reddyman wrote: »

Hi all,

I was thinking if this would work. Storage heater bricks store heat and release them.

What if I managed to get hold of storage heater bricks and placed them onto of my radiator which is part of a gas central heating system. The theory is the bricks would heat up. Once the central heating is turned off, (at night in my house) the storage heater bricks will release the heat that has built up in them over the next few hours.

This will keep the house warm for longer.

Has anyone tried this? Anyone know why it would not work?

No, it wouldnt' work (at least to the extent you envisage). The temperature a storage heater element gets to is, I'd estimate, around 500C, and the bricks will heat to that temperature over several hours and store quite a bit of heat (each one around 1.5kwh). Your radiator gets to about 60/70C, so a storage heater brick would only store about 150wh when heated to that temp over many hours. It would have a negligible effect which you wouldn't notice.

If you surrounded the radiator with about 12 of them, then they'd act as an insulator, and they would stop your room heating up in the first place!