STorage heater & Way to monitor actual leccy use?

Lifeforms

Hi,
New flat etc, just gone into using storage heater. Only usng the one in the Living room, I have none elsewhere useful, cept in the hallway. Currenly set on 4/6 for overnight charge, and 3/6 for room temp.

How can I make sure it's not running during the day time? I have no timer switch, just a switch at the wall that I've turned on (no red light either) but I do have two random red light switches on the hall wall. I have no idea what they are, could they be to do with the storage heaters?

Landlord doesn't care/answer etc, has no idea, so can't tell me.

Is the settings that I have it on "standard"?

Can I buy an electricity monitor that I can clip around the wire iteself. I got a free one that monitors ALL electric use via wireless and the main metre, however that is right at the bottom of the stairs, and out of range, so I wondered if there was one I could buy just for single items?

I can't really work out how much this costs me, and I kind of need to know if it's ok cost wise (i know they're dearer, sure) or if I should just go back to thermals, and feeling miserable because i'm cold, and blast the mini gas heater out ever so often.

Swipe

Turn down room temp to zero before you go to bed and then open up as required when you get home in the evenings. You can work out how much it is using by finding the model number and searching google for the output size e.g. 2.7KW or 3.4KW etc then find out your off peak unit rate unit rate and multiply the KW size x unit rate/hr x 7hrs. This will give you the max possible consumption of the heater. You could also just take a meter reading before midnight and again at 7am with just the heater on and you should get a rough idea. Even more accurate if you do the same overnight with the heater turned off and use that base usage to subtract from your overnight reading.

Lifeforms

Ah I should say I'm not working, so aside a few days a week when I'm out for a couple of hours during the day time I am at home. I have Raynaurds in my fingers and toes prolly due to no heating at all last year, and with other medical conditions I really am affected by the cold. It averaging at 14oC in my living room currently (bedroom, I live with being cold, lots of duvets, blankets, hot water bottles), and I know to some this is considered cool, but to me it's cold.

It's mostly the living room that I need to heat, purely down to being in it most of the time. I could live with lots of clothing during the day time and some gas at night, but I want to find out just how much this heater will cost me over a week. running up and down the stairs to the meter isn't really possible for me all the time, which is why I wondered if an single item meter existed, and could be used.

Swipe

Do you know what size the heater is and how much you pay per kwh for your overnight rate?

holmesgroove

I had a similar problem in that the NSH was rewired to the daily boost circuit before I moved in. There should be 2 switches beside the heater. One of which is economy 7 and the other, as mentioned, the daily boost. Usually the cable goes into the economy 7 circuit, but the way to check is to turn on the daily boost and just watch the meter fly(then you know to turn that off as it'll cost you a fortune) I'm not sure about a monitor for that. Maybe there is one out there.....

Also, a NSH should be set to 6 input, and 0 output over night. This allows the bricks to heat up to optimum temperature. This allows you to release the heat when needed.

I did a bit of trial and error regarding this. I tried the switch I thought it wasn't 'ON' and left the other one off. This was during the day. If you feel the NSH heating up, then you know it's the other one. Then try the one which should be economy 7 switch as 'ON'. If it doesn't heat up during the day, then you need to wait til the following day to check it out. It should have a bit of heat it in it within about an hour, so you'll know pretty quickly.

'If' by any means the heater is cold the next morning after trying the 'probable' economy 7 switch, then it's not been wired up properly..... Then your landlord MUST sort that out.

Hope this makes sense, buddy.

Lifeforms

I'm on the E7 rate, so only interested in running it during the night. I dont know anything about the heater, it's a big block on the wall, that's pretty old I guess. as I said I can't work out what its output is, or anything.

The heater when I switched it on last night didn't heat up till midnight (which is when I switch tarrifs) and I'm hoping it's now switched off. This is my issue with trying to monitor the meter, cus it;'s way down stairs out of sight/mind etc. There is only one switch next to the heater. But I have two random red light switches on a wall somewhere else (not near the heater) and i never knew what they are for, again the "dunno *shrug* from the landlord etc.

I've got an overall meter monitor, but it clips to the meter itself, and the unit is wireless, which I can't get a reception from upstairs. I know you can get one you plug items into, but surely there has to be one designed for things like storage heaters that are already wired in.

Oh and it's a key meter, which I've been told doesn't always update as used, but in blocks (?).

macman

Storage heaters are connected to an E7 circuit, so this would not charge up during the day.

Swipe

If you have a general wireless monitor why not just look at the reading (kwh used) before you go to bed and look how much has been used when you get up. This will give you a rough idea. and even more accurate if you take the before and after readings from the electric meter instead

HappyMJ

macman wrote: »

Storage heaters are connected to an E7 circuit, so this would not charge up during the day.

How do you tell which switch to turn on to charge during the night? OP said it had two switches. A night one and a day boost. The landlord doesn't know or care which one is which.

Swipe wrote: »

If you have a general wireless monitor why not just look at the reading (kwh used) before you go to bed and look how much has been used when you get up. This will give you a rough idea. and even more accurate if you take the before and after readings from the electric meter instead

OP said the wireless monitor is out of range. 2nd floor flat maybe. It's difficult to tell it it's running through the day as the storage heater is warm and the meter is clocking up units anyway for normal usage so which are storage heater units and which are not.

OP....There is no energy monitor for storage heaters. You need to loop a monitor around one of the wires and as all the wires are together in the core then the energy monitor can't work. It's really just a matter of experimenting. Hard to do it with a key meter which as you say measures in blocks.

Lifeforms

as it is a key meter I never can get an absolute amount I use a week, but it's roughly between 15-20 a week just on non-heating use. I'll run it for a week, and see what the difference it roughly and work on that.

What I can't work out also is just how to use it. Should i have it on full during the night for charging (6/6 on the overnight charge) with the room temp set at zero until the evening? Or is i better to leave it half and half.

To be fair on the costs of these, I Was regulary paying £60ish a fortnight for coal in my last place, so I know heating costs money, it's just frustrating trying to work out what it costs. I have a small calor gas mini heater, which I can use instead of, or as a top up during the evening if the storage heater isn't enough, but that I know the cost of, per hour/half hour, with this, it's a whole new ballgame for me.

HappyMJ

Lifeforms wrote: »

as it is a key meter I never can get an absolute amount I use a week, but it's roughly between 15-20 a week just on non-heating use. I'll run it for a week, and see what the difference it roughly and work on that.

What I can't work out also is just how to use it. Should i have it on full during the night for charging (6/6 on the overnight charge) with the room temp set at zero until the evening? Or is i better to leave it half and half.

To be fair on the costs of these, I Was regulary paying £60ish a fortnight for coal in my last place, so I know heating costs money, it's just frustrating trying to work out what it costs. I have a small calor gas mini heater, which I can use instead of, or as a top up during the evening if the storage heater isn't enough, but that I know the cost of, per hour/half hour, with this, it's a whole new ballgame for me.

As you are home during the day set the input on max and the output just off minimum maybe 2 then turn it up as required. Calor gas costs more than E7 electricity. Storage heaters cost about £1 per night each. (depending on size)...