Plug-in type storage heaters. Do they exist?

JohnnyBaloney_2

Hello money saving experts

As the days became colder I came up with an idea of replacing my oil filled electric radiators with a plug-in type storage heaters. First, I live in a rented accommodation and would not want to permanently install a storage heater. Second, I would like to exploit the cheaper electricity served at night. I don't need heating at night so a storage heater seemed an obvious solution.

The question is are such products available? I had a quick look around the web and could not see anything like this. All storage heaters seem to require affixing to a wall and I could not find a mention whether they were pluggable probably meaning that they were not and required a permanent dedicated power supply.

molerat

Storage heaters are usually hard wired due to
a) high input so that you cannot put more than 1 on a general ring circuit
b) require a dedicated off peak supply
c) need fixing to the wall due to their weight

JohnnyBaloney_2

Thank you for your reply molerat. Does it mean the answer is no, there are no plug-in type storage heaters?

I can understand (c) so securing to a wall seems a must, you wouldn't want a 100kg radiator to squash your toes, fair enough.

I can partially understand (a), as my oil filled radiator is 2.5kW (comes with a plug) and I have seen many lower input storage heaters but admittedly also some higher input ones.

I'm not sure why (b). Is it because storage heaters drain power as soon and long as it is available and the off peak supply gets cut off effectively turning them off during day hours? I suppose pluggable storage heaters would then come with a timer, obviously if such heaters existed.

Cardew

JohnnyBaloney wrote: »

Thank you for your reply molerat. Does it mean the answer is no, there are no plug-in type storage heaters?

I can understand (c) so securing to a wall seems a must, you wouldn't want a 100kg radiator to squash your toes, fair enough.

I can partially understand (a), as my oil filled radiator is 2.5kW (comes with a plug) and I have seen many lower input storage heaters but admittedly also some higher input ones.

I'm not sure why (b). Is it because storage heaters drain power as soon and long as it is available and the off peak supply gets cut off effectively turning them off during day hours? I suppose pluggable storage heaters would then come with a timer, obviously if such heaters existed.

Any storage heater that is normally hard wired, could be fitted with a plug as long as it was below 3kW and, as said above, you didn't exceed the capacity of the ring main.

There are plenty of plug in timers that will handle up to 3kW.

JohnnyBaloney_2

Great, thank you!
:beer:

sheffield_lad

JohnnyBaloney wrote: »

Hello money saving experts

As the days became colder I came up with an idea of replacing my oil filled electric radiators with a plug-in type storage heaters. First, I live in a rented accommodation and would not want to permanently install a storage heater. Second, I would like to exploit the cheaper electricity served at night. I don't need heating at night so a storage heater seemed an obvious solution.

The question is are such products available? I had a quick look around the web and could not see anything like this. All storage heaters seem to require affixing to a wall and I could not find a mention whether they were pluggable probably meaning that they were not and required a permanent dedicated power supply.

Hold on though, you are aware you would need to change your meter and tariff to E7 to get the benefit of off peak electricity? Which would also make your daytime electric dearer?

It might sound obvious but I didn't see it in the op's statement.

JohnnyBaloney_2

Hi howee,

Thanks for a word of warning but yes, I get cheaper off-peak electricity and so turned nocturnal I have one immersion heater and one storage heater making full use of it already.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Fischer et al purveryors of associated snake~oil and other alchemy advertise themselves as 'plug in storage heaters'

JohnnyBaloney .. .. 'Search this Forum' button on the top RHS of the page, click on it, copy and paste this into it , < snake~oil >, read some of the threads then come back with your questions.

Sirlaughalot

Hi JB,

Thanks for this thread i have just converted my garage into a spare room/laundry area and i`m looking into the idea of placing 2/3 storage heaters in the room just to take the chill out of the area during the day.
We currently have gas central heating with radiators supplied with micro bore piping, Fitting CH radiators to the room would be messy and expensive so i thought 2/3 storage heaters might be an answer but i`m not on e7 so not sure if my idea is a viable one?

We had storage heaters in 1986 and to be honest they were not very good when it came to fully heating a room i hope they have improved as time as passed!

Thanks

rogerblack

Sirlaughalot wrote: »

so i thought 2/3 storage heaters might be an answer but i`m not on e7 so not sure if my idea is a viable one?

Storage heaters only have a point when you're on economy 7 (or some other variable rate tariff).
If you're not, and don't want to switch, you're much better off getting cheap oil filled radiators, or even blower heaters.

macman

If you switch to E7 just for the heating of one room, you will then pay more for all the rest of your non-E7 cheap hours electricity consumption. That makes no sense at all.
Assuming that this room does not need permanent heating, why not just use a fan heater/oil filled rad/convector as necessary?