First House (Renting) Electricity Help

DalBag

kerri_gt wrote: »

I recall when we were in a elec only flat that our hot water tank had two switches, one for Econ 7 and one for on demand, the LED on the on demand would come on when switched on so check that isn't running constantly.

Our storage heaters also had two switches at the wall, one was for Econ 7 and the other was a boost / on demand that powered the heater immediately. Again, the led on the switch showed if it was on. Should be simple to test, turn one on, crank the dial up and in a few mins you'll feel heat coming out...this is your boost. Turn this off and only use it if / when it gets really chilly. We barely used ours with a proper setting on the night heat and the flat was well insulated.

Yep it seems that is the case on my main storage heater. Looks like we've basically had convection heat on constantly since we moved in which would explain the high day usage. Although now I've turned that switch off at the wall the heater has gone very cold. I'll check in the morning, but looks as though the actual storage heater part isn't working!

On to the water heater, there is one plug that has an LED on it, and one without. Am I taking it as the LED one is the constant power? Would the economy switch heat the water up enough for the following day anyway? Thanks again. I'm slowly getting there!

Richie-from-the-Boro

All standard storage radiators have between one and three heating elements and a load of bricks inside and a set of controls, others such as the Dimplex Duo range have the capacity to be powered both 13a day-time [expensive-rate] and 20a night-time [cheap-rate] this storage & panel heater combined would have two sets [13a & 20a] of heavy wiring going into it. Show the group a picture of the downstairs heater with the three dials.

The water cylinder if it is E7 should have 2 elements 2 thermostats and two sets of heavy wiring going into a water control unit charged at 20a night-time [cheap-rate] and 20a day-time [expensive-rate] something like this :


DalBag, instead of asking the group to guess .. .. why don't you use your camera-phone to place photo's here and take the guessing out of the conversation ? 14kw in the day and 16kw during the night is an excellent economic ratio, one you should be pleased with though still high [30kW] for this time of the year. A bedroom, or for that matter bathroom night store is unnecessary and a luxury in these times of relentless energy costs. Panel heaters used as and when the room is occupied is a much more MSE way to use space heating.

DalBag

- That's the boiler, note the two wires going out from it directly into the wall.

- That's the main storage heater in the lounge.

- The other downstairs storage heater.

- And the bedroom heater.

God these pictures make everything look really old!

Sorry about the links, it won't let me post them properly as I'm a new user.

All of the heaters are Dimplex by the way.

kerri_gt

I'll have a look at your links tomorrow as on the tablet ATM but the storage part of your heater won't warm up until the Econ 7 timing tonight, they then gradually release the heat through the day - not exactly ideal when you're out working but we did find that having the flat at a constant temp did reduce the need for the boost. Keep the boost off, turn on the other switch and stick the temp to about midway (should be warm enough) then tomorrow morning the heater should be warm.

Regarding the hot water, we usually find a tank does me and OH for a shower each plus washing up. The only time I recall needing some extra hot was if we both wanted baths (though save water and share ) or if OH had his bath extra hot and used up all the hot water.

Do you have a dishwasher? We do where we currently are so I don't need a lot for washing up. We're on gas now but I find 1 1/2 hrs in the morning is long enough to give us enough hot water for showers. (Although our boiler was dodgy until recently so it was hit of miss if it actually came on, brrr!)

Richie-from-the-Boro

I have no idea what the 3rd front facing rocker switch and dial is on the living room heater, maybe others reading this will have seen a storage rad with 3 controls instead of the usual 2 and let the group know what the front facing one is for. :


The water cylinder looks to be an E7 Maxistore style which would be correct with the expected pair of [top] day rate & [bottom] night rate heating elements. I would have expected both those cables to go in to a water control unit like this that has an isolating over-ride for day time boost purposes.

kerri_gt

I believe these are the instructions for the main lounge storage heater, at a quick glance the front control looks to be a thermostat

http://www.glendimplexireland.com/assets/kb/operating_instructions/0/CXLS_GDC_Operating_Instructions_Issue_1.pdf

hth

Be_Happy

The rocker switch on the front is a convector heater which works independently from the storage part of the heater. The red light will show when it's switched on and the numbered dial is the temperature you set.

One point to note is that this part must be switched off overnight. If it is on, the heater will be hot and the storage heater thermostat will tell it it doesn't need to charge up, so you will have no stored heat next day.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Thanks for that kerri & Be Happy, the storage heater is as was suspected to be, a 'combi' [see #13 - powered both 13a day-time and 20a night-time]

- [#1 ""As you can see the rate 1 (day) is a lot higher than the night""]
- [#1 ""storage heaters are constantly using power""]
- [#8 ""main storage heater downstairs has 2 plugs going into it""]

The O/P has achieved an excellent day/night ratio by switching off the 'thermostatically controlled on demand 13a convector' at the wall but claims as a result the ""heater has gone very cold"" in which case the CXLSN should have the input turned to full and the output [damper] turned to zero and the 13a 2 kW on demand convector element turned off at the wall:


The starting point objective is to store as much of the cheap [night] stuff to be radiated during the 24 hour cycle and avoid the expensive 13a 2kW convector use although this heater will try to automatically adjust the level of input charge to compensate for changing weather conditions without user intervention. This lounge heater I assume to be the 6 bricker CXLS24N 3.4 kW model in which case it will hold 23.8kWh of cheap stored overnight heat. Get the can to charge to 23.8kWh of cheap stored heat and release that heat through the following 17 hours, is the heater now hot ?, have you reduced considerably your expensive day unit costs ? and are you the householder now warm enough ?

DalBag

Just an update for everyone. And thanks again for the replies!
The main lounge heater was infact a combination storage and convection heater, which we had had on since we moved in. The convection plug has now been firmly switched off! And it turned out that the storage part wasn't working properly until I took it apart and reset a heat switch. Now the house is lovely and warm (warmer than with the convection only I'd say) and has only used night electricity.

Onto my readings for today. I'm 2 hours earlier than yesterday but anyway. 1) 23260! 2)15351. So it appears I've sussed the problem! That means in 22 ish hours we've only used 4kw of premium day rate, and 32kw of night. We did have the storage heaters on full, washing machine and boiler running through the night. But I'd say that's a success so far.

DalBag

kerri_gt wrote: »

I'll have a look at your links tomorrow as on the tablet ATM but the storage part of your heater won't warm up until the Econ 7 timing tonight, they then gradually release the heat through the day - not exactly ideal when you're out working but we did find that having the flat at a constant temp did reduce the need for the boost. Keep the boost off, turn on the other switch and stick the temp to about midway (should be warm enough) then tomorrow morning the heater should be warm.

Regarding the hot water, we usually find a tank does me and OH for a shower each plus washing up. The only time I recall needing some extra hot was if we both wanted baths (though save water and share ) or if OH had his bath extra hot and used up all the hot water.

Do you have a dishwasher? We do where we currently are so I don't need a lot for washing up. We're on gas now but I find 1 1/2 hrs in the morning is long enough to give us enough hot water for showers. (Although our boiler was dodgy until recently so it was hit of miss if it actually came on, brrr!)

We have a separate electric shower anyway, so I think that heats up the water whenever you use it, so really only need the hot water for the two sinks.