I fitted a Dimplex Quantum heater!

dim3nsi0n

Hi Casp55,

I know you were very helpful and I would like to thank you one more time for all your input. I was just trying to double check the info with Dimplex. I am about to make a 3000+ pounds investment and if for whatever reason I have to return it(fan too loud, too hot in the morning etc) the return postage I think it will cost me an arm an a leg So I am trying to gather as much info as possible.
It's not a small expense so I have to be very careful.

Npower confirmed that all the electricity should be on the off-peak tariff at night and they will send an engineer on the 2nd of March to see why my off-peak meter is not moving at all.

Now if all electricity is on the off-peak tariff during the night I am wondering why do I need 2 power sockets(peak and off-peak)? Can't I just schedule the heater to take charge during the night and from the same socket it could use the fan during the day...

Cheers!

Casp55

dim3nsi0n wrote: »

Hi Casp55,

I know you were very helpful and I would like to thank you one more time for all your input. I was just trying to double check the info with Dimplex. I am about to make a 3000+ pounds investment and if for whatever reason I have to return it(fan too loud, too hot in the morning etc) the return postage I think it will cost me an arm an a leg So I am trying to gather as much info as possible.
It's not a small expense so I have to be very careful.

Npower confirmed that all the electricity should be on the off-peak tariff at night and they will send an engineer on the 2nd of March to see why my off-peak meter is not moving at all.

Now if all electricity is on the off-peak tariff during the night I am wondering why do I need 2 power sockets(peak and off-peak)? Can't I just schedule the heater to take charge during the night and from the same socket it could use the fan during the day...

Cheers!

I totally agree. These heaters are very expensive and that is why I only bought the two too start with, just to make sure they done what I wanted. They do, so I will now go and buy the third one.

The information I gave you was an honest consumer opinion after using them myself for a few months. I think I have told you far more than you would ever get out of Dimplex LoL.

Honestly, I don't think you will find the fan a problem. As I am typing this my heater is running just 8ft away and I cant hear a thing. The fan itself is silent, just that in the mornings you may hear a gentle whooshing noise made by the air hitting the mixer flap, but you still have to be pretty close to hear it.

I have been thinking about the type of place that you want to heat. It sounds like a converted commercial unit that has been turned into an apartment. If that is the case then I should imagine it has very high ceilings. Of course heat rises so you may want to think of this when working out what size and how many heaters you will require. I think you should take Dimplex up on there offer of a free survey.

I am not sure what is going on with your electrics, but you cant be running on off peak electric 24/7. If you have been then you are going to owe them a great deal of money when they find out.

You cant select when the heaters will take a charge. When the economy tariff switches itself on at night the heaters will take a charge. When the economy tariff switches itself off they stop taking a charge. This will be for a seven hour period, normally midnight to 7.am (no power during the day so you cant run the fan from this supply). You must have two separate power supply's. The other being normal 24 hour that will control the computer, clock, boost element and fan.

Good luck and keep us posted on how you get on.

Lady_Annabel_Aardvark

dim3nsi0n wrote: »

Also he said that the night tariff is only for the storage heaters and nothing else can be added to that... but I've read online that I should have a "fused spur" whatever that is and everything should move automatically to the night charge(lights, fridge, etc)

Thoughts on that?

Thank you!!!

I've read this entire thread with interest. Thank you everyone for the input.

I've moved to a council bungalow with my husband in December. The Quantum system Was fitted about 18 months ago. We don't have other storage heaters to compare it to as previously we had gas.

I have to say I am astounded at how much electricity we are using. after two weeks of the heating being on low to warm the cold house but only two days of actually living here, we got a bill for almost £62!

I read the meters last Sunday and over the subsequent 53 days it works out to be about £205 for a small two bedroom bungalow. Two bedrooms are set to out all day, one on 18 degrees for morning and evening and one on 16. The hall one is also set to 18, home all day and I vary the living room one between 18 and 20, set to home all day but with four fairly short periods of heat totally seven hours in all. The heater does stay very hot during the day.

We had no instructions given to us so have worked it out for ourselves.

I quoted the above post because our heating and immersion tank are the only things on the cheaper rate of electricity. Everything else no matter what time of day or night runs on the other meter.

We are with SSR. The hours of our economy 7 meter (if that's what it is), are 4.30am until 2.30pm.

I can change to Scottish Power whose night time rate runs from 12 til 8 (or thereabouts) as their night time rate is a lot cheaper but I don't know if 12 til 8 will give me enough heat all day and evening. Also my immersion is timed to only heat water according to the times of the off peak electricity, therefore I'd need to have it switched on for those eight hours (currently I switch it on for a few hours in the daytime as needed), and after 8am I'd have no way to heat water. (We don't have a shower so need to use it for baths).

A switching company is currently switching us to Scottish Power but I think we might have to cancel this because of the problems it would give us. However, electricity is going to cost us at least £120 a month which to me seems a lot and is about twice what we used to pay for both electricity and gas.

Any suggestions or advice would be gratefully received.

Casp55

Lady Annabel Aardvark. Sorry but I cant help you much here. I am very confused as to what tariff you are on. It sounds to me like you are on one of the old and rare Economy10 type and I know nothing about them, so you will have to talk to your energy supplier about it. I always thought that "Economy" energy was supplied at night when demands are low, but if you are getting some of it during peak demand periods (8.am-2.30.pm) I cant see how that can be an economy supply. With Economy7 the supply runs from around midnight to 8.am. That is the tariff that most people are on. Economy7 is just that. 7 hours of off peak electricity. Supplied at night when demands are at there lowest.

It sure sounds like you are paying a great deal more for your electric than you should, so you should certainly think about changing your tariff (if you can) I live in a 1 bedroom purpose built apartment and at the moment running two heaters (I am about to get a third) and I pay a standing charge of £60 per month (that is for all my electric), but Scottish Power have told me they want to reduce that because I am paying too much!. I am all electric and my Economy7 supply works my two heaters and the immersion heater. I soon found that living on my own I never used all the hot water (I have an electric shower) So I only turn the immersion on when I want a bath, maybe once a week. At all other times I just boil a kettle to do the washing up.

You can download the instruction manual for your heaters here....

http://www.dimplex.com/cms/publications/7212670100R02_EN.pdf

http://www.dimplex.co.uk/assets/kb/quick_start_guides/0/QM070_QM100_QM125_QM150_Quantum_Quick_Start_Guide_Series_D_123_124.pdf

As I have already said. I suggest that you contact your energy supplier and find out exactly what type of tariff you are on and the cost difference between that and Economy7.

Good luck and please keep us updated on how you get on. It may help others in the same situation.

Lady_Annabel_Aardvark

Thank you Casp55. Any input at all is welcome and thank you for the links.

I had never heard of this tariff either and having spoken to SSR staff after receiving the first bill, I am no wiser. I will certainly keep you posted.

dim3nsi0n

Hello again,

Casp all my energy is on the day(peak) tariff right now as I only have convection heaters. That's why they have to sort out my meter.

I think I'll leave the heaters on the peak fuses and I'll buy 16amp time switches and set them up with the appropriate time. The other way is to buy a new fuse box for all storage heaters and attach a timer next to the meter but I think that's even more expensive.

This is so complicated...

In January I've used 2800kW...That's about 360 pounds...

Casp55

dim3nsi0n wrote: »

Hello again,

Casp all my energy is on the day(peak) tariff right now as I only have convection heaters. That's why they have to sort out my meter.

I think I'll leave the heaters on the peak fuses and I'll buy 16amp time switches and set them up with the appropriate time. The other way is to buy a new fuse box for all storage heaters and attach a timer next to the meter but I think that's even more expensive.

This is so complicated...

In January I've used 2800kW...That's about 360 pounds...

These heaters are not designed to run of a standard 13amp power outlet. Apart from dangerous you will also invalidate your guarantee. The power cable that runs the storage side is much thicker than the standard cable you would use for everything else. you will also find it costs you a small fortune to run these heaters from a peak electricity supply. It defeats the whole object of having storage heaters. You would be better off buying some big fan heaters to heat your place.

Honest, I would NOT do what you suggest before talking to a proper electrician first. Please don't just go ahead and do it. Get an Economy7 supply and have the heaters installed properly. Excuse the pun, but you will literally be playing with fire if you just go ahead in this way.

dim3nsi0n

Hi Casp,

I think you misunderstood. I am not going to charge the storage heaters during the day. I am not that crazy
The whole story is like this: I've bought a flat last year in January. I've done some renovations (wooden flooring, painting, etc.) and I took out the old electric storage heaters and replaced them with convector heaters. I've also had an electrician to change my electric panel.
Even if I have an economy 7 meter my contract with npower is one single tariff(13.14p/kW).
I've realized that I use too much electricity(since 1st of April last year until now I've used around 13500kW). My DD with npower is 175 pounds/month right now...
So I've done some math and I've realized that I am using about 5000kW/year during the day(lights, washing machine, hob etc) and around 10000/year for heating. I've made a new contract with First:Utility and I'll pay 12.75p/kW peak and 6.8p/kW off-peak. Probably it will take about 2 months go get it moved. If everything goes according to plan I'll save about 500 pounds/year.

So the electrical wires are already fitted to support storage heaters. Every heater has it's own fuse in the electrical panel so I'm ok from that point.

So when the time hits 12pm, everything will be on the night charge, I don't think I can set the Quantum to start charging at that time then even though it has power all 24 hours... So either I will buy a new fuse box and put a timer for all storage heaters or I'll buy separate timers for each heater.
I can't paste links but search amazon for "AC 220-240V Digital LCD Power Programmable Timer Time AC DC Switch Relay 16A Amps"
16amps multiplied by 230v =3.68kW. It should be enough even for 3.3kW QM150. A bit to the limit but it should be ok.

I will speak with my electrician before I go ahead anyway.

Now I just need to find out:
1. Can I program the storage heater to take charge from 12pm to 7am only even if it's connected to a 24h power supply
2. Can the booster be programmed to kick in say at 3am if it's too cold in the room(from my observations I lose about 1 degree every hour during winter) So say at 12pm I have 21 degrees. If I woke up during the night at 5am for whatever reason(toilet ) I will have around 16 degrees(I know, it happened once) which I don't want !

For example "OLSBERG standard storage heaters
with StandAloneControl" can be set up to take charge whenever you want even if it has 24h supply but I think the depth is way too big - 27cm!

dim3nsi0n

Reading the dimplex manual it says: "Extra Charge - forces an extra charge of up to four hours during off-peak periods. "

I don't really understand that... Say I bought the 3.3kW storage heater. This heater can store 3.3kWx7hours=23.1kW. Extra charge means it will consume more power during the night? It's confusing.

But it also says:
"NOTE: The extra charge option will lead to more energy being stored during the off peak period, this will lead to higher running costs. Only use this setting when a room is consistently below the required temperature and you are sure that the timer mode is set up and
selected correctly. " This maybe means that it could in theory charge the heater during the day? If yes I could have it on 24h power supply and select the times when to start the heating the stones?.... I have to find out

Also I think I've answered my 2nd question. The boost option has 5 options: 1 hour, 2,3,4 hours and auto boost. And at Auto boost you can select what temperature you want the boost to kick in. I could say 17-18 degrees and I think it will start during the night as well

Casp55

dim3nsi0n wrote: »

Reading the dimplex manual it says: "Extra Charge - forces an extra charge of up to four hours during off-peak periods. "

I don't really understand that... Say I bought the 3.3kW storage heater. This heater can store 3.3kWx7hours=23.1kW. Extra charge means it will consume more power during the night? It's confusing.

But it also says:
"NOTE: The extra charge option will lead to more energy being stored during the off peak period, this will lead to higher running costs. Only use this setting when a room is consistently below the required temperature and you are sure that the timer mode is set up and
selected correctly. " This maybe means that it could in theory charge the heater during the day? If yes I could have it on 24h power supply and select the times when to start the heating the stones?.... I have to find out

Also I think I've answered my 2nd question. The boost option has 5 options: 1 hour, 2,3,4 hours and auto boost. And at Auto boost you can select what temperature you want the boost to kick in. I could say 17-18 degrees and I think it will start during the night as well

LoL. So many questions that my brain has started hurting :wall:

First off I am still not sure how you will make this work efficiently. From what you are saying it looks like you have one electrical supply that switches to economy tariff after midnight! I have never heard of anything like that. But as long as you have a qualified electrician advising you then it will at least be safe if not cost effective.

You cant select when the heaters take a charge. That is done automaticly when the Economy7 tariff turns on at night. There are two cables that feed the heater. The other is for the 24 hour supply. As I have allready told you these heaters are not designed to run totally on a 24 hour supply. Doing so would certainly void your guarantee. You should not have the heaters running 24 hours. That is why in there timer settings they have on and off periods in four blocks during the day. The heaters must have rest periods.

The extra charge setting will only work if you have an economy supply that provides more than 7 hours. If you read back through my posts you will see that I am currently challenging Dimplex over this, because what they say in the user manual is not correct.

These heaters are not designed to run all night. they should be at rest whilst taking a night charge. I also get up often during the night to use the bathroom, but this only takes a couple of minutes and is no reason to have the heaters running all night just for that.

The auto boost setting is designed to be used in the evening if the temperature suddenly drops and the stored energy is not enough to keep the room warm.

To be totally honest I don't think these heaters are suitable for what you want them to do. Apart from wanting to run them against the manufacturers recommendations I think you will quickly find that they will cost you an absolute fortune to run.

I strongly recommend that you look at an alternative form of electric heating that will work better for your needs and be economical with regards to your current power supply.