Any positive reasons for electric heating?

grahamc2003

We have 8 storage heaters, bought 25 years ago. In that time I've had a single failure, about 2 years ago. One overheated and tripped an internal bi-metallic cut out. Undid two screws, pressed the strip button to resets it, and it's worked fine since.

The main reason for that amazing level of reliabilioty is there are no electronic components in my storage heaters. Heat and electrcnics don't go together, and if you buy any sort of heater with electronically programmable this and that and digital displays, then, imv, the hot environment will massively lower the mtbf. So beware panel heaters with electronic control - you'd pay very high day rates for the electricity, and you wouldn't get the ultra-reliabilty of modern storage heaters.

(In fact, my storage heaters do have mechanical thermostats for both input and output, so a rudimentary automatic control of room temperature - i.e. if the room cools sufficiently, the dampers open automatically to compensate, and the temperature at which the opening starts is controllable).

Cardew

grahamc2003 wrote: »

The main reason for that amazing level of reliabilioty is there are no electronic components in my storage heaters. Heat and electrcnics don't go together, and if you buy any sort of heater with electronically programmable this and that and digital displays, then, imv, the hot environment will massively lower the mtbf. So beware panel heaters with electronic control ).

I second that!

Some of these crazy priced heaters(costing up to £1,600 each!!), about which there are several threads on MSE, say they have a 10 year guarantee - but when you look at the small print that excludes electrical/electronics which usually have a 2 year guarantee.

P.S.
For the non-technical! mtbf = Mean Time Between Failures