I boost

Legacy_user

Hi has anyone ever run a storage heater from their I boost or will know if it will work I have seen one on ebay very near by and is very cheap thanks

pinnks

It should be fine as long as there are no fancy electronics. I have the immerSUN and thought about doing this with mine. In the end opted to run oil-filled radiators instead.

As long as the load is a pure resistive load with no fancy switching electronics you can put onto a diverter.

HTH

gefnew

hi
normally there are two relays on these that you can set to fill immersion heater when that is full the secondary relay will divert to resistive load when there is spare capacity from base load.
A oiled filled radiator or similar.
regards

Heedtheadvice

^^^ Not strictly true!
Although there may be two separately controlled outputs the IBoost like the Immersun and some others do not use relays to control the output supply but electronics.

This is so that they can output a variable voltage to control and vary the power supplied the heater to be only that which would have been exported (the excess) rather than just switching on full mains voltage. Hence as Pinnks writes they need to have resistive loads such as Immersion/tubular heater or simple storage radiators (all just use heating elements) as their loads. [ It might be possible to use a kettle or other appliances too if they do not have motors or electronic controls!]

Other than that gefnew is correct that the IBoost has two controlable outputs. A simple oil filled radiator should be no problem but beware those storage devices that have electronic control units that rely on a supply of full mains voltage and may also use that mains voltage to vary the radiator output. A simple non electronic on/off thermostat (usually a bimetallic strip) will work fine.


EDIT 2: A second not strictly true - this time mine!! As reminded in another thread by Pinnks the Immersun does have (in addition to the variable voltage outputs) a multipurpose relay output. This can be configured in a variety of ways, two variably control a third heater or to provide straight relay switching with a selection of control methods. Thanks Pinnks for the reminder.

System

Thanks for every ones comments ill maybe look at oil-filled radiators then would it be ok to use say a 1.5 kw or will it damage the heater and need to be 3kw which wont be cheap to buy

silverwhistle

pinnks wrote: »

In the end opted to run oil-filled radiators instead.

Any recommendations?

I've been looking at them as I've been exporting a lot after heating up my HW tank. My early iboost only has a single output, so I'd be manually switching, but with a monitor to hand and lazing or working from home that shouldn't be a problem.

pinnks

I first bought a 1.5kW radiator and then 2 more similar ones at 2.5kW when I added another immerSUN in the living room, which takes any excess power not being used by the main immerSUN. This saved running wires from the first unit into the living room.

So, at that time I had the small one in my home office running alongside the immersion heater and then the second immerSUN with 2 x 2.5kW rads in the living room. Each rad plugs into its own trailing socket as the max load must not exceed 3kW.

I use 2 rads as the one taking power reaches full temp and turns off quite quickly. With two of them, one is always on as the hot one cools down enough before the cold one reaches its max temp. On a good days you'll be self-consuming 2.5kW all afternoon and have a hot tank of water too.

Mine are from TLC Direct which is local to me in the south and west. This link is to one of theirs looking very similar to the ones I bought https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/HEC3711T.html

They have 3 heat (kW) settings, an adjustable thermostat and a mechanical timer - the sort where you press in 15 or 30 minute tags to force it to switch or unswitch, you know, like those on some older boilers.

I leave the kW on max, thermostat on max (usually) and have made the timer always on. This just leaves the immerSUN to manage how much power the rad gets.

Our downstairs is quite open but if I close the doors I have about 45m2 to heat and the two rads can lift the temperature in that space by about 3 degrees on good days (after the immersion is full) and you still export 10% or so overall.

I have mounted the immerSUN on an old kitchen unit door and have a trailing lead to plug it into the wall and 3 trailing sockets for the 3 outputs. https://www.dropbox.com/s/jc8bsigzqbgfn18/immerSUN.jpg?dl=0

We now have1.8kW of UFH in the new kitchen, wired into the main immerSUN, so there is a lot less available for immerSUN 2 and at the moment I use only one of the rads in the living room and get about 3kWh of own consumption on good days.

So, on the recent good days, 2.5kWh into the water tank; 5kWh or so into the floor to get it to 22 degrees over 22m2 and 3kWh into the radiator. Base load covered and still export about 2kWh.

Have fun...

System

does anyone know for sure if a Convector Heater is also classed as a resistive thanks

Heedtheadvice

In general yes as it has a resistive heating element.


You just need to find out if it has electronic temperature and/or timer controls. They might not work so probably should be avoided.

EricMears

Heedtheadvice wrote: »

In general yes as it has a resistive heating element.

You just need to find out if it has electronic temperature and/or timer controls. They might not work so probably should be avoided.

Or of course some 'convector heaters' are fan assisted in which case the fan motor won't take kindly to a reduced voltage.

silverwhistle

silverwhistle wrote: »

Any recommendations?

I've been looking at them as I've been exporting a lot after heating up my HW tank. My early iboost only has a single output, so I'd be manually switching, but with a monitor to hand and lazing or working from home that shouldn't be a problem.

I'm sat at my desk typing with the oil filled radiator alongside me still pumping out the heat although it's on the cusp of not having enough for the lowest setting. In the end I bought it from Dunelm: it's a 2kw model with three heat settings 800/1200/2000.