Help re electric heating charge times

aclarkson13

QrizB said:

aclarkson13 said:

xeny said:

It's a while since I used storage heaters, but I worked on the basis of charge them until as late as economy 7 allowed, and for as long as necessary to store enough heat, so I'd start with an 07:30 off time, and then experiment setting the on time progressively earlier until they were warm enough during the day.

Minimise any operation at the non economy 7 rate so far as possible.

So if I charged it from midnight right through until 7am would there still be some heating on overnight (sorry if this question is stupid the user guide wasn’t much help).
Also, I work from 7am-8pm 3 days a week out this house but surely the house would still be warm when I get home?

Can you telll us the model of the storage heater?

Given its features, I'm wondering if it's a High Heat Retention (HHR) model. If it is, it's much more likely to keep the heat in during the day when you're out.

Thanks for your reply.

I’ve got the dimplex quantum QM150RF in my living room and kitchen and QM050RF in hallway and bedrooms.

aclarkson13

EssexHebridean said:

QrizB said:

The forum Dimplex storage heater expert is @EssexHebridean - hopefully they'll be along in a minute!

Too kind!

aclarkson13 said:

Hi all,

I upgraded my very old storage heaters to new dimplex ones and am looking for some advice. My previous heaters I just had to switch on and that was it but with these new ones I have to input charge times. I am on economy7 heating with Scottish power which is from 22:00-07:30. This is what I have set it to, any advice at all re changing times to make it more cost effective would be really helpful.

Thanks.

OK - so I presume this one is on a single electric feed rather than having the secondary feed installed also? Mine are easy - two feeds - one of which is only active during the E7 hours, so my quantum (same as yours, by the look of it?) can ONLY charge during the "cheap" (well, it used to be!) times with no need for me to do anything. Obviously that's MUCH easier!

One thing I would observe is to make absolutely certain that you're correct on your E7 timings, too. It's certainly possible that in Scotland you get an extra bit of time over the "usual" 7 hours due to the tendency for it to be slightly (!) colder and windier up there but I confess I've not heard of that. At the moment down here we're "on" for night rate at 0115 and "off" at 0815 - that is obviously specific to our meter but does fit in broadly with what most people on straightforward E7 seem to be experiencing from what we've seen discussed here. On setting yours up, personally I'd got for a "safe hours" block of time - so say 0200 > 0700 which should give enough time to allow the heater to fully charge - you'll be able to experiment with that ahead of the properly cold weather though - without a risk of it running into pricier times. You certainly don't want that 2000 > 2100 timeslot in there though - you might as well burn £10 notes to keep warm! 

Your heater is indeed a HHR model so it'll "lose" relatively little outside of its set output times - and again make sure those are set to benefit you the most. On days we're both out at work I set mine for "out all day" and work on the basis that there is little point in overlapping output time with charge time - there is still a little heat leakage while the thing is actually charging up - the the bulk of the heat output from ours is set for the late  afternoon/early evening in a bid to ensure that the place is cosy when we get home. 

Keen an eye on the weather and amend the temperature setting as needed - the heater will also do some of that work for you based on ambient temperature too but best not to let it second guess things too much. If worst comes to worst and you're hit with an unexpected cold snap or just one of those days when you're feeling the cold more you can use the "boost" function to give you a little extra warmth, but do remember that will be at day rate so again, we're back to burning those £10 notes. 

Thank you so much for your detailed response. I’ve changed the timing to start at midnight now so will definitely start charging during the cheaper energy hours. I plan to set it to away all day when I’m at work so when I get home around 8:30pm the house should still be warm. 

In regards to being on a single electricity feed, I think this is the case. The electrician upgraded the previous electric box in the cupboard which I’ve attached a photo of. 

littleteapot

aclarkson13 said:
In regards to being on a single electricity feed, I think this is the case. The electrician upgraded the previous electric box in the cupboard which I’ve attached a photo of. 

All of the MCBs are 16A in that consumer unit, which implies those are all radial circuits for storage heater feeds. I would expect there to be another consumer unit somewhere with a range of RCBOs from 6A for lighting, to 32A for ring circuits, and possibly 40A+ for cooker, or MCBs of a similar range of ratings and 1 or 2 RCDs.

Usually this 'secondary' consumer unit (in photo) would also fed from a supply switched by the E7 timer built into the meter during off peak hours only, and the permanent live feed for the heater controls, fan and boost element would be provided by either fused connection units on a ring circuit, or separate radial circuits from the primary consumer unit.

However thats just an example of a typical E7 heating setup. There are other ways of achieving the same ends.