Energy Price Rise, Storage Heaters, Council Property

EssexHebridean

brendan79 said:

coffeehound said:

@brendan79 are your storage heaters meeting all your heating needs, or do you need to use extra peak-rate heating in the evening?

Well this is a good question.  Weather in this country is a lottery lol. How do I know what to set my heating to from one day to the next? I know I can check the weather? but who makes a daily choir of looking at the weather to adjust their heater programme so that they have just the right amount of warmth. It just isn't practical. Even if you check the weather it could turn out to be wrong.

To answer your question - I think more than meeting my needs, the storage heaters are brand new replacements and I honestly think theyre too big for the rooms they are used in.

Hi Brendan - we may have found one of your issues! I’m afraid the answer to who makes a daily chore of looking at the weather every day is “the person who has storage heaters and   Smaller electricity bills than you” in a lot of cases. You need to get into the swing of at least checking every few days to work out whether you need to think about altering settings. 

What model are your heaters, and have you checked that you’re fully up to speed on how best to set them up? It IS a learning curve - we’ve had our newest one (a Dimplex Quantum) for a few years now and I’d freely admit we’re still learning more about it every year. The more you know about the heaters you’re using, and their setting options, the more you’ll get out of them. 

brendan79

Aylesbury_Duck said:

brendan79 said:

coffeehound said:

@brendan79 are your storage heaters meeting all your heating needs, or do you need to use extra peak-rate heating in the evening?

Well this is a good question.  Weather in this country is a lottery lol. How do I know what to set my heating to from one day to the next? I know I can check the weather? but who makes a daily choir of looking at the weather to adjust their heater programme so that they have just the right amount of warmth. It just isn't practical. Even if you check the weather it could turn out to be wrong.

To answer your question - I think more than meeting my needs, the storage heaters are brand new replacements and I honestly think theyre too big for the rooms they are used in.

Isn't that what a thermostat's for?  I don't change my temperature or timings, I just set the thermostat at the desired setting and let the system do the rest.  Why would I check the weather forecast?

I dont have a thermostat. I have to decide how much heat i want for the next day, the heaters then charge up overnight on the off peak electricity.

brendan79

EssexHebridean said:

brendan79 said:

coffeehound said:

@brendan79 are your storage heaters meeting all your heating needs, or do you need to use extra peak-rate heating in the evening?

Well this is a good question.  Weather in this country is a lottery lol. How do I know what to set my heating to from one day to the next? I know I can check the weather? but who makes a daily choir of looking at the weather to adjust their heater programme so that they have just the right amount of warmth. It just isn't practical. Even if you check the weather it could turn out to be wrong.

To answer your question - I think more than meeting my needs, the storage heaters are brand new replacements and I honestly think theyre too big for the rooms they are used in.

Hi Brendan - we may have found one of your issues! I’m afraid the answer to who makes a daily chore of looking at the weather every day is “the person who has storage heaters and   Smaller electricity bills than you” in a lot of cases. You need to get into the swing of at least checking every few days to work out whether you need to think about altering settings. 

What model are your heaters, and have you checked that you’re fully up to speed on how best to set them up? It IS a learning curve - we’ve had our newest one (a Dimplex Quantum) for a few years now and I’d freely admit we’re still learning more about it every year. The more you know about the heaters you’re using, and their setting options, the more you’ll get out of them. 

One thing that did stand out to me - you’re talking about a thermostat, but storage heater systems don’t usually have a traditional thermostat? 

Sounds like we have the same one. Mines the dimplex Quantum QM 150. And yes a big learning curve. This is my first year with it as it was only installed last summer. Not sure what gave you the impression I have a thermostat though? I dont have a thermostat. 

EssexHebridean

Aylesbury_Duck said:

brendan79 said:

coffeehound said:

@brendan79 are your storage heaters meeting all your heating needs, or do you need to use extra peak-rate heating in the evening?

Well this is a good question.  Weather in this country is a lottery lol. How do I know what to set my heating to from one day to the next? I know I can check the weather? but who makes a daily choir of looking at the weather to adjust their heater programme so that they have just the right amount of warmth. It just isn't practical. Even if you check the weather it could turn out to be wrong.

To answer your question - I think more than meeting my needs, the storage heaters are brand new replacements and I honestly think theyre too big for the rooms they are used in.

Isn't that what a thermostat's for?  I don't change my temperature or timings, I just set the thermostat at the desired setting and let the system do the rest.  Why would I check the weather forecast?

You wouldn’t check the forecast because you have gas central heating, with the controllability afforded by. Thermostat. With storage heaters, you ARE the thermostat. 

Ultrasonic

brendan79 said:

I have always thought my bills were too high even taking into consideration the fact that my flat uses storage heaters that are known to be expensive and wasteful.

I assume you have an Economy 7 electricity contract to go with our storage heaters? If so storage heaters really aren't that bad. I don't have them now but did in a previous flat and it wasn't like my energy bills at the time were way higher as a result. What is expensive is if you end up using on-demand electric heaters to top-up the heat from your storage heaters.

Torry_Quine

I've got storage heaters and do check how the weather is for the next day. It's not difficult and forecasting is pretty accurate.  They aren't complicated to work either

Gerry1

Do your NSHs have both an E7 supply switched by the meter and a 24h supply?  If they have only a 24h supply you need to take great care to make sure the NSHs are slaved to the times of your meter.  Not what the web, or the heater supplier or E.On or the neighbours say the times are, it's what your meter does that counts.  The only way is to watch the meter switch over (or look at the neon indicator on the immersion heater).

If there's an upper immersion heater on a 24h supply, make sure it's left permanently off.

EssexHebridean

brendan79 said:

EssexHebridean said:

brendan79 said:

coffeehound said:

@brendan79 are your storage heaters meeting all your heating needs, or do you need to use extra peak-rate heating in the evening?

Well this is a good question.  Weather in this country is a lottery lol. How do I know what to set my heating to from one day to the next? I know I can check the weather? but who makes a daily choir of looking at the weather to adjust their heater programme so that they have just the right amount of warmth. It just isn't practical. Even if you check the weather it could turn out to be wrong.

To answer your question - I think more than meeting my needs, the storage heaters are brand new replacements and I honestly think theyre too big for the rooms they are used in.

Hi Brendan - we may have found one of your issues! I’m afraid the answer to who makes a daily chore of looking at the weather every day is “the person who has storage heaters and   Smaller electricity bills than you” in a lot of cases. You need to get into the swing of at least checking every few days to work out whether you need to think about altering settings. 

What model are your heaters, and have you checked that you’re fully up to speed on how best to set them up? It IS a learning curve - we’ve had our newest one (a Dimplex Quantum) for a few years now and I’d freely admit we’re still learning more about it every year. The more you know about the heaters you’re using, and their setting options, the more you’ll get out of them. 

One thing that did stand out to me - you’re talking about a thermostat, but storage heater systems don’t usually have a traditional thermostat? 

Sounds like we have the same one. Mines the dimplex Quantum QM 150. And yes a big learning curve. This is my first year with it as it was only installed last summer. Not sure what gave you the impression I have a thermostat though? I dont have a thermostat. 

Yes - apologies ai misread a post of  someone else’s talking about thermostats as being yours. I’ve deleted that paragraph now! 

The Quantums are great but you definitely need to get to grips with how they work. Check they’re set right for your needs in terms of home all day or out all day. Make sure that they aren’t set to come of in the morning before the charge period finishes - although they don’t “leak” much heat they do leak enough to provide a background warmth, so you may as well get the benefit of that while they’re still charging!  We find that the output temperature translates to a room temperature of around 2 degrees lower. 

Set yourself a reminder on your phone to check the weather each evening, or at least every second evening, then adjust your temperatures if needed. A separate thermometer is incredibly useful as ultimately the room temperature is the main thing you need to know. I’ve found that sometimes adjusting the input times is more effective than adjusting the output temperature too.