Electric Storage Heaters

BarginBetty79

Hi All,
Hoping one of you out there can help me out.

I've recently moved into a new flat with two electric storage heaters, after doing a bit of research on this site I've worked out the input and output switches and sorted my energy plan to Economy 7 but I'm still a little bit confused!

Next to each heater I've got two mains switches, one is wired into the heater and under the floor and the other goes directly under the floor.

I'm assuming the one that goes to the heater is the one that I switch on to turn the heater on, will this be activated once the cheap rate electric kicks in or from the point I switch it on (there doesnt seem to be a timer or any instructions anywhere) and does anyone know what the other switch does?? My Dad though this might be to turn it on in peak times, does this sound right?

Many thanks for any help you can give

Betty :-)

[Deleted User]

Also BargainBetty79 have a look at what sort of timer switch your meter has to switch the day from night over. The old analogue 24 hour timer switches can be anywhere in the 24 hours. Your night storage heaters are wired in to only use the cheap rate but its useful to know for the other heavy electric use items, dryer, shower, cooker etc when the cheap rate is on. Radioteleswitch timer s are correct to 5 mins , digital meters with built in clocks I have found to be drifting a bit up to an hour. They are all set to GMT not BST. At the moment its an hour forward but will be line next week when the clocks go back

BarginBetty79

Thanks for your reply.

I've got a digital meter, which records both the day and night readings, I just assumed it would switch itself at the appropriate times given.

I did remember to double check the times with E-On when I rang them, I noticed to that my meter was running 46 minutes slow but they assured me its nothing to worry about and unless its outside of two hours they wont change it. I assume this is fairly normal then?

Any idea about the switches?

Kind regards,
Betty

tberry6686

It's likely that your storage heaters have a built in convector heater that you can use during the day to supply extra heat, hence 2 switches.
Be warned though the convectors will run on peak rate electricity and will be expensive to run.

BarginBetty79

Thanks for your reply tberry6686.
I thought that's what it might be for so didn't want to turn it on and end up with a huge first bill for my electric!

[Deleted User]

They are not slow, at the moment we are in B.S T. which is an hour later, so all digital clocks are set an hour behind on G.M.T. when the clocks go back they will be much closer to the actual time. The digital clocks are more or less correct, some have drifted a bit, I ve seen a few an hour out of kilter even taking the BST into account. Dont go on what timers Eon are quoting but observe your meter yourself. Many digital meters default to show which rate is current. you can watch it , or even hear it, switch over to show the rates changing.Usually rate 1 on the meter refers to the day, some tho use rate 2 for day. you re the best person to check the rates and the timings.Not Eon or any other supplier.

BarginBetty79

Thanks for your help explaining that. I'm not sure how I'd check the meter changing over as all the meters for the flats in the house are in one large cupboard under the stairs on the ground floor and I'm on the second floor.

Can you just clarify what might sound really silly, so apologies if it does.....as I understand it if I want my flat heated tomorrow I'll switch the mains on at the wall tonight before bed and they would start storing heat when the 'night rate' starts and then stop storing when it goes off. Do I then have to switch them off at the mains everymorning or can I just leave them and they will only take electricity over night.

I am little confused what energy they use to release the heat as I dont want them taking energy in the day at the premium rate.

Please feel free to post an 'idiot's' guide, I'm usually very savy with technology but these have got me beat!!

Thanks
Betty

lstar337

BarginBetty79 wrote: »

Can you just clarify what might sound really silly, so apologies if it does.....as I understand it if I want my flat heated tomorrow I'll switch the mains on at the wall tonight before bed and they would start storing heat when the 'night rate' starts and then stop storing when it goes off. Do I then have to switch them off at the mains everymorning or can I just leave them and they will only take electricity over night.

Silly would be not asking!

Lots of people make silly decisions with storage heaters because they haven't spent a little time getting to know how they work.

Switch them on at the time of year when you start to need the heat, then you can just leave them on until the season change and it starts to get warm again. Your E7 meter will switch them on and off when the low rate is active so they can take a charge.

BarginBetty79 wrote: »

I am little confused what energy they use to release the heat as I dont want them taking energy in the day at the premium rate.

They effectively heat up a stack of heavy bricks during the night which slowly release their heat during the day. How much heat they store and release will be set by you with a little experimentation.

BarginBetty79 wrote: »

Please feel free to post an 'idiot's' guide, I'm usually very savy with technology but these have got me beat!!

Thanks
Betty

It would be best to figure out what heaters you have.

Take a look at these on google images: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=storage+heater&biw=1680&bih=880&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=EyAkVKnJBea07Qa5zoDoDQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg

Can you see a picture of yours anywhere?

Better still, can you post a picture of your own?

BarginBetty79

Thankyou Istar337, your reply was really helpful and I'll feel a lot more confident using them now I understand better how they work and not so scared of getting massive electric bills. I was really worried I'd have to switch them on and off everyday and forget on my rush out the door in the morning.

It would have been really helpful if my letting agents had provided me with some instructions but that would have been to easy!

Now I just need to master an immersion heater with no timer fitted and I'll be sorted.

Many thanks for your help everyone, its good to know there's no need to panic with helpful folk about :T

lstar337

A proper E7 tank will have two immersion elements. The element at the bottom stays on all the time as it is turned on and off at your meter just like the storage heaters. This element heats the whole tank and should give you enough hot water for the whole day. The element at the top is a boost element that uses peak electricity and should only be used in the event that you run out of hot water and desperately need a top up. It heats just the top part of the tank.

Do you know how to set up the input/output controls on your storage heaters? These are very important so you should find out now if you don't. Also make sure you know how the convector is controlled, you don't want to have it accidentally turned on as it will cost you a bundle.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Your storage heater I suspect as others have said sounds like a DUO and is powered by both a 13a day-time and 20a night-time switch. The day time panel heater is usually a 'thermostatically controlled / or / on demand 13a switch at the wall. Switching this to the off position for the moment means it can never come on. Essentially the night storage heater has just two controls :

- an input for how many kW you put in, and ;
- an output for how quickly you allow those kW to be released
- in reality yours probably looks like this



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. Your storage heater will charge up with 'x' kWh of cheap stored overnight heat, and release that heat through the following 17 hours.

how quickly you allow those kW to be released

- is nothing more than a damper, a metal lid on a pan
- this needs to be firmly closed at night and while out of the dwelling at work
- I've never used the damper ever in 35 + years

The water cylinder

- I've never used the top up day rate in 35 + years - forget it
- an E7 tank has a very high quality insulation
- so good that you can set and forget it
- it will look something like this :



Instead of asking the group to guess .. .. why don't you use your camera-phone to place photo's here of your night storage heater and water heating tank & controller and take the guessing out of the conversation ?