Storage Heater Changes

losgiganteskid

Depending on the size of the storage heater will depend on how many "elements" are contained within the heater. The large storage heaters have 4 electric elements - the small heater only 2 and medium heaters 3.


Often one of the elements fails (burns out) and quite frankly you don't know one of the elements has burnt out and this could have happened with your heaters - these can be checked by removing the front cover and surrounding inner cover (insulation) and merely feeling the elements (not too close as they may be hot) but if say in a 4 element heater 3 elements are hot and one cold - theres your problem. The correct way to determine whether an element has failed it to circuit test each element with a continuity tester - but to do this you really have to remove each element in turn and the job has to be done after the heater has been turned off for a day or so whilst it cools down - not a job to do yourself unless you are confident with electrics

lstar337

losgiganteskid wrote: »

Depending on the size of the storage heater will depend on how many "elements" are contained within the heater. The large storage heaters have 4 electric elements - the small heater only 2 and medium heaters 3.


Often one of the elements fails (burns out) and quite frankly you don't know one of the elements has burnt out and this could have happened with your heaters - these can be checked by removing the front cover and surrounding inner cover (insulation) and merely feeling the elements (not too close as they may be hot) but if say in a 4 element heater 3 elements are hot and one cold - theres your problem. The correct way to determine whether an element has failed it to circuit test each element with a continuity tester - but to do this you really have to remove each element in turn and the job has to be done after the heater has been turned off for a day or so whilst it cools down - not a job to do yourself unless you are confident with electrics

You could also just feel the outer case for cold (cooler) spots, though this is easier with vertical elements than it is with horizontal ones.

jrio

jibber4568 wrote: »

No idea to be honest. They usually click on about 11pm and then charge away throughout the night. It's all tied into the electrics so I have no idea how you check what hours it's actually charging for.

They should have separate timers so you can adjust the charging period according to the weather.

I have separate timers for each heater to their right. If your E7 rate is between 11pm-6am, you should be looking for them to charge up between 1-2am to 6am at current temperatures. Last night 4 hours at medium was enough for me and this flat gets quite cold in the bedroom. I'd suggest you take readings over a 24 hour period to see how many units you are using.

This winter, the longest I've had to charge up was for 5 and a half hours, at full or near full charge, during a few of the sub-zero days in December. The only time I needed to use the full charging period was during the bitterly cold winter 2 years ago.

lstar337

jrio wrote: »

They should have separate timers so you can adjust the charging period according to the weather.

I have separate timers for each heater to their right. If your E7 rate is between 11pm-6am, you should be looking for them to charge up between 1-2am to 6am at current temperatures. Last night 4 hours at medium was enough for me and this flat gets quite cold in the bedroom. I'd suggest you take readings over a 24 hour period to see how many units you are using.

This winter, the longest I've had to charge up was for 5 and a half hours, at full or near full charge, during a few of the sub-zero days in December. The only time I needed to use the full charging period was during the bitterly cold winter 2 years ago.

I expect you have older heaters.

Newer ones have automatic charge control. They use a thermostat to monitor the room temperature and take more or less charge depending on how cold or warm it is. The only timer control is the meter which makes sure the circuit is energised for 7 hours.