Storage Heaters

kevin51 · 22 December 2011 at 11:45PM

Hi,

does anyone have any information regarding how long storage heaters need to charge, ie how many hours. As I have googled this and can't seem to find any satisfactory answers.
I am in the process of coming off economy 7 and switching to economy 10 which I think is more cost effective. And they have three time settings 5 hrs at night three hrs in the afternoon and two in the evening all off peak. But I want to be able to control the heating via a timer, as well as using the tariff. ie they might need less time to store heat. Any help here would be appreciated along with your comments.

Thanks

Kevin

grahamc2003 · 23 December 2011 at 10:40AM

Do you mean how long to fully charge, to store the maximum amount of heat? You need about 2 x 7 hour overnight periods to do that, with the input set to maximum. There's a thermostat within the heater which clicks on and off to avoid local overheating which ensures the above is the case.

I've never seen it advantageous to switch from e7 to e10 - are you sure you've got your analysis of the situation correct? What are your e7 and e10 prices? Do you get all electricity at 'cheap' rates in 'cheap' periods with both e7 and e10, or, as is normal I think, just with e7 but not with e10?

You can't fit a readily avaliable timer to control e7 or e10 heating (plus there's no need). The time on the timer would be out since the timer itself is powered by the supply, which switches on and off.

How much is it costing you to rewire and re meter for your switch?

Once on e10, you'll find it difficult to switch to other suppliers since very few offer the tariff