Immersion, electric meter, and Electrisaver

ianpwilliams

Yes I could feel that the room was warmer this morning even on the lowest output setting, so it may be that I can alwYs keep the output on minimum, except maybe on the coldest winter nights where I would increase the input and slightly increase the output.

CashStrapped

Yes, or get a thicker duvet!

As I said, increasing the output will decrease the amount of heat stored, which would therefore mean it may run out of stored heat the next evening.

But, there is no harm in experimenting...if you are happy....and it works for you....why not.

ianpwilliams

Yes it definitely seems to be all about experimenting when it comes to these things!

CashStrapped

You may find the biggest savings will come from getting an estimated figure for your annual use, in KWH. Working out your night rate %, which you can get a rough idea of after a week of monitoring, especially during winter. Se the end of my first large post about that.

Use a comparison site and see what is available. There are a few good E7 tariffs out there at the moment.

ianpwilliams

Thanks, I'll bear that in mind

ianpwilliams

The room has been a little cooler than I’d like (Input on half and Output on minimum). If I were to turn up the Input a bit and leave the Output on minimum would that produce more heat? Or would I need to increase the Output slightly too?

matelodave

Think of a storage heater as a bucket of heat. The input is a tap running heat into it and the output is a tap letting it all out. It's also got a small hole it it so it's leaking a bit all the time.

You need to make sure that the input heat tap is turned on sufficiently to ensure that enough heat is gets into the bucket to actually fill it up so that you can let the heat out when you want it.

You've got to make sure that the input is set high enough to counteract the permanent leak, so you might need to turn it up a bit to ensure that the bucket fills up faster than it leaks. Even if you have the output turned off the bucket will still leak so if the input isn't high enough it will run out before it gets refilled the next night.

Turn the input up a bit and leave the output closed for as long as you can to make sure you've filled the bucket - it can't overflow as there is the equivalent of an adjustable electric ball-!!!! (the input control) - if it's not turned up high enough then the bucket will only half fill and you wont have sufficient heat stored

ProDave

Just to be clear, most storage heaters have a little device that closes the output flap when the off peak supply is on and they are being charged, so having the output control turned up will not limit the charge, but it will let the stored heat out too early in the day.

Keep the output control at minimum all day and perhaps turn it up in the evening to let more heat out.

ianpwilliams

Thanks, I'll keep the output at minimum all day and adjust the input each day to see how much heat I get from it. I'm sure I'll get the balance right eventually.

ianpwilliams

matelodave wrote: »

it can't overflow as there is the equivalent of an adjustable electric ball-!!!! (the input control) - if it's not turned up high enough then the bucket will only half fill and you wont have sufficient heat stored

So if it can’t overflow, and if I had the input higher than it needed to be on a particular day (eg because the day was warmer than predicted), would I be wasting energy? Or would the heater stop taking on heat once it was full?