Should I switch to Economy 7?

Swipe

macman said:

It is still possible to buy the old-style NSH's which only require one connection to the E7 side of the metering. While banned for new sale, there are available as refurbs.

I wasn't aware of that. That's ridiculous. Anything preventing a new one just wired in on the E7 circuit only?

Gerry1

Swipe said:

macman said:

It is still possible to buy the old-style NSH's which only require one connection to the E7 side of the metering. While banned for new sale, there are available as refurbs.

I wasn't aware of that. That's ridiculous. Anything preventing a new one just wired in on the E7 circuit only?

Old storage heaters leaked heat all the time whether it was needed or not.  It was wasteful being warm through the night, ditto if you're out all day.  New storage heaters have better insulation and also need a fan on a 24h circuit to blow out the heat in the day.  However, they can be programmed to charge up overnight from a 24h circuit.

coffeehound

macman said:

It would be daft to fit convectors in the bedrooms, as these will then be running on peak rate E7. Use NSH's throughout.

Disagree:  bedrooms don't necessarily need heating during the day, and will get some heat from below anyway.  A simple plug-in heater on a timer can be left on low overnight to maintain 18℃ or whatever using off-peak rate without requiring a dedicated circuit to be installed.  Would save £100s if it avoids installing Quantums.

danrv

coffeehound said:

macman said:

It would be daft to fit convectors in the bedrooms, as these will then be running on peak rate E7. Use NSH's throughout.

Disagree:  bedrooms don't necessarily need heating during the day, and will get some heat from below anyway.  A simple plug-in heater on a timer can be left on low overnight to maintain 18℃ or whatever using off-peak rate without requiring a dedicated circuit to be installed.  Would save £100s if it avoids installing Quantums.

Thanks. All helps as I’ve been trying to figure out how to run radials to the bedrooms.
Probably won’t need anything more than a 1kw in each room having done the sums.
A complete Quantum system throughout may work well and could add property value but I need to compromise a bit. Half storage heater, half elec. rads.
Originally was considering rads throughout on cheapest 24/7 as the wiring suits. 

macman

You have 3 bedrooms to accommodate, and 4 spare fuseways, plenty of capacity.
As I said, it is possible to obtain 'original' refurbed NSH's which do not require a peak rate supply, as they have no boost function. These would be adequate for bedroom use if you don't want the expense of Quantums or similar. I bought one from these guys about a year ago:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3X-Dimplex-Creda-TSRAW-Storage-Heaters-100s-In-Stock-Slimline/274087904360?hash=item3fd0e98468:g:fLYAAOSwX8da3Lmt

danrv

macman said:

You have 3 bedrooms to accommodate, and 4 spare fuseways, plenty of capacity.
As I said, it is possible to obtain 'original' refurbed NSH's which do not require a peak rate supply, as they have no boost function. These would be adequate for bedroom use if you don't want the expense of Quantums or similar. I bought one from these guys about a year ago:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3X-Dimplex-Creda-TSRAW-Storage-Heaters-100s-In-Stock-Slimline/274087904360?hash=item3fd0e98468:g:fLYAAOSwX8da3Lmt

Thanks for the link.
3 for the price of 1 Quantum. Simple wiring too.
The four fuseways may need to accomodate the three downstairs heaters too.  Unless
the warm air heater wiring can be used. I think this bypasses the CU and connects to the 
mechanical timer via a seperate fuse.
Other consideration is heat leakage as in bedrooms. Just wondering if the Quantum heaters are improved much with insulation. 

macman

If not, your sparky will just add a supplementary board, it's not a big job. The older heaters have relatively unsophisticated controls: input and output. That's it.

danrv

Gerry1 said:

Swipe said:

Old storage heaters leaked heat all the time whether it was needed or not.  It was wasteful being warm through the night, ditto if you're out all day.  New storage heaters have better insulation and also need a fan on a 24h circuit to blow out the heat in the day.  However, they can be programmed to charge up overnight from a 24h circuit.

Thanks, I see now. The new ones aren’t convection heaters at all. Heat is kept inside and 
then distributed by fan.
Same as my Unidare warm air heater except that it does get quite hot if input is anything above 1/4 turn.
Over the years, this has cracked the walls of the cupboard. Huge steel box of bricks giving out heat where I don’t really want it.
The principle is a good idea but has been abandoned.

Gerry1

danrv said:

Gerry1 said:

Swipe said:

Old storage heaters leaked heat all the time whether it was needed or not.  It was wasteful being warm through the night, ditto if you're out all day.  New storage heaters have better insulation and also need a fan on a 24h circuit to blow out the heat in the day.  However, they can be programmed to charge up overnight from a 24h circuit.

Thanks, I see now. The new ones aren’t convection heaters at all. Heat is kept inside and 
then distributed by fan.

Think of an old NSH box of bricks as being like a hot water bottle, and a fan assisted modern one as a thermos flask.

danrv

Gerry1 said:

Think of an old NSH box of bricks as being like a hot water bottle, and a fan assisted modern one as a thermos flask.

Yes, good comparison. With the cheaper TSRAW ones being manual and non smart, there
could be a bit of juggling involved with three, predicting weather changes.
I have to be a day ahead with the Unidare with it’s 73kwh capacity.