Storage Heater - Completely Baffled!

Dinosnore

Hi

We have just moved into a flat and it has really old storage heaters installed (gutted!)

I've read loads of pages and threads and understand how a storage heater works, it's just ours don't seem to fit the standard model!

Each of our heaters has a wall switch to turn them on.

Each heater then has two dials (no wording at all!). The first switch has three points, 0, 1 and 2.

The second dial has a - and a + and can be set to anywhere inbetween.

So I assume the first is the input and the second the output.

What I don't understand is how to know when the heater is storing heat and therefore using electricity (we have economy 7 btw).

If the 'input' is set to 0 there are no lights. Turn that dial to 1 or 2 and 1 light comes one.

If the 'output' is turned down these lights stay the same, if turned up another light comes on.

I get that I can have the input turned up and the output down at night to store heat.

But how do I know that when I am releasing the heat during the day I am not still storing more heat and incurring more cost at expensive times of day.

I hope that makes sense and really appreciate anyone who is able to help.

Cheers!

Cardew

I suspect your heaters and immersion heaters are on a different wiring circuit to the rest of the house electrics, and ony become 'live' during the 7 hours off peak electricity. None of your other appliances, lights etc will be on cheap rate.

Kernel_Sanders

Cardew wrote: »

I suspect your heaters and immersion heaters are on a different wiring circuit to the rest of the house electrics, and ony become 'live' during the 7 hours off peak electricity. None of your other appliances, lights etc will be on cheap rate.

Don't be ridiculous!
Are you seriously suggesting their immersion heater will not work between 07.30 and 00.30? All electricity consumed in the property outside of those hours will be on the E7 tarriff.

Cardew

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

Don't be ridiculous!
Are you seriously suggesting their immersion heater will not work between 07.30 and 00.30? All electricity consumed in the property outside of those hours will be on the E7 tarriff.

Before operating the keyboard in that fashion, perhaps it would be better to have done some research?

It obviously depends how your flat is wired, but the system in your old flat was common years ago(and is still in use) where the Storage heaters and immersion heater only had electricity supplies during the off-peak hours; and the rest of the house remained on 'normal' electricity 24/7.
The trend these days is to have all the property electrics go on cheap off-peak rate for the 7 hours, and all on 'daytime rates for the other 17 hours.

That was the old "White Meter" tariff, where a completely separate meter (with a white case - surprise, surprise!) was used to feed only the off-peak loads via a contactor and everything else was on the normal "black" meter 24 hours a day. I think there were later versions in some areas where it was the same arrangement but without one of the meters being the traditional white.

The reason i thought this is because my previous flat (in the same complex) had storage heaters with the same sort of light switch. i used to leave them flipped on but the heater and the light on that switch would only activate during the low rate. i assumed it was the same everywhere.

In fact I would go so far as to say that separate circuits for storage heating/immersion heater was the standard system for off-peak electricity(white meter) many years ago.
There was a thread on MSE very recently where this arrangement was on a block of flats built in 2005
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3684965

I got in touch with EDF and they told me that it is common with meters like this to be hooked up purely to the heating whilst everything else is hooked up to the peak tariff, no cheap appliance usage at all!!! I was shocked and felt stupid because I had been deliberately timing appliance usage to be in the off peak period for ages!!!

Incidentally the Hot water tank would usually have two immersion heaters, one connected off-peak supply and the other to the 24/7 supply.

Kernel_Sanders

Cardew wrote: »

Before operating the keyboard in that fashion, perhaps it would be better to have done some research?

Apologies for my ignorance. I think it is incredulous that these older E7 systems could have been be wired in such a way as to deny warmth when the stored heat had been used up prematurely.

macman

Most immersion heaters on E7 will have a dual element that allows a daytime 'boost'-though this is of course at much higher cost.

Cardew

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

Apologies for my ignorance. I think it is incredulous that these older E7 systems could have been be wired in such a way as to deny warmth when the stored heat had been used up prematurely.

That is the case, and the main cause of complaint, with any storage heater regardless of how the E7 is wired.

Take an example with a modern E7 set-up(ie all electricity on off-peak for 7 hours). If your storage heater runs out of warmth at, say, 9pm you don't use storage heaters for heat until you go to bed. You use another form of electrical heater.

HappyMJ

Dinosnore wrote: »

Hi

We have just moved into a flat and it has really old storage heaters installed (gutted!)

I've read loads of pages and threads and understand how a storage heater works, it's just ours don't seem to fit the standard model!

Each of our heaters has a wall switch to turn them on.

Each heater then has two dials (no wording at all!). The first switch has three points, 0, 1 and 2.

The second dial has a - and a + and can be set to anywhere inbetween.

So I assume the first is the input and the second the output.

What I don't understand is how to know when the heater is storing heat and therefore using electricity (we have economy 7 btw).

If the 'input' is set to 0 there are no lights. Turn that dial to 1 or 2 and 1 light comes one.

If the 'output' is turned down these lights stay the same, if turned up another light comes on.

I get that I can have the input turned up and the output down at night to store heat.

But how do I know that when I am releasing the heat during the day I am not still storing more heat and incurring more cost at expensive times of day.

I hope that makes sense and really appreciate anyone who is able to help.

Cheers!

They are not storage heaters. They are standard convector heaters. 0 means off 1 means half heat usually 1kw 2 means full heat usually 2kw and the + or - is the thermostat.

Kernel_Sanders

Dinosnore wrote: »

What I don't understand is how to know when the heater is storing heat and therefore using electricity (we have economy 7 btw).
But how do I know that when I am releasing the heat during the day I am not still storing more heat and incurring more cost at expensive times of day.

You would be able to check by viewing the meter. If you have no other heater running or kettle boiling, you should see a dial moving when it is storing heat. If not, and you are releasing heat, then it is a sign it is running properly.

susieq10

Dinosnore wrote: »

Hi



Each of our heaters has a wall switch to turn them on. Mine are like that. I fitted new switches that had their own light, so when the heaters are storing, the switch on the wall will light up.

What I don't understand is how to know when the heater is storing heat and therefore using electricity (we have economy 7 btw). Obviously, when they stop storing the light on the wall switch goes off.


But how do I know that when I am releasing the heat during the day I am not still storing more heat and incurring more cost at expensive times of day. This is the reason i changed the wall switches, as I found out later that the energy company had messed up the main meter when updating it. They had re-wired it wrongly and I was storing heat during the day instead of the night!!!


![/QUOTE)

So, my advice would be to get new wall switches with intergrated lights. You can get them at your local diy shop etc. Hope this helps? :beer: