Storage heater recommendations

[Deleted User]

Hi,

JadeGurl said:

Last month my day consumption was 23464 and night was 37259 

no, that's the cumulative reading since meter was installed.

Take a reading now, and again about this time tomorrow, subtract today's reading from tomorrow's and that will tell you what you've used in one day.

As already said, good idea to take monthly readings, and why not set up a wee spreadsheet to keep an eye on usage and cost.

EssexHebridean

lilac_dawn said:

@EssexHebridean can I please ask the rough size of your living area? We really struggled with 2 storage heaters in our living room to get it to 16 degrees when we had the cold snap. Were wondering if upgrading one to a Quantum would help. Well versed with NSH as have lived with them for 15+ years but moved to a bigger place last summer.

The living room is 17’ x 11’ at one end dropping to 8’ at the other - that’s the room we’ve got the older style large XLN in. Do you know what models yours are, and roughly what age? While I hesitate to risk being accused of mimicking @Gerry1 in some way again (although there would undoubtedly be far worse people to be “mistaken” for!)  - he has a very useful Storage Heater Sanity test that I believe might help you to work out whether your heaters are still working as efficiently as they might? 

During the very cold snap back in December our living room one was turned up to input full, output minimum - and was still almost too hot to touch by mid evening. We were managing to maintain a temperature of around 18 - 19° for the most part.  We leave the output turned right back to minimum all the time but tweak the input on almost a daily basis depending on outside temperatures and our own plans etc. right now it’s turned back about a third of the way round the dial, and will be turned back slightly more ahead of tonight as it’s relatively warm here at the moment. 

Gerry1

EssexHebridean said:

While I hesitate to risk being accused of mimicking @Gerry1 in some way again (although there would undoubtedly be far worse people to be “mistaken” for!)  - he has a very useful Storage Heater Sanity test that I believe might help you to work out whether your heaters are still working as efficiently as they might?

Here's the link.

Storage Heater Sanity Test

lilac_dawn

Thanks, both. They are old heaters (circa 2006) but I had them serviced Oct 2021 as the wiring was odd - two were wired to be on permanently, which defeated the objective of storage heaters. There was also one in the bedroom which we swapped out and put in a panel heater - although now I wonder if we did the right thing, as it is seriously cold in there without any heat on. One in the living room is FXL24N and the other XLS18N. I think they are both functioning fine but will check out the link above. The living room is 28 ft by 14 ft with the kitchen off of it adding another 12 ft so I suspect (and know via the dimplex calculator) we don't have enough power in here to reach a decent temperature. The helpful electrician who serviced them has disappeared however so we need to find another local bod with some decent knowledge. 

EssexHebridean

Ahhh yes that is a big space to try to heat isn’t it - I see the problem. Even if both heaters were the larger capacity I suspect they might still struggle.

We’ve never managed to get on with using the NSH’s in the bedrooms at all - just find it gets too hot overnight when they are charging, hence we don’t use them at all. 

lilac_dawn

That was my experience when I was younger - used to have a NSH in a bedroom when growing up; woke up absolutely roasting! I'm going to see if it's possible to add another NSH to the living room but I'm not at all sure about the electrical side of things and if that would be overload. Do you know if there's much difference between the fan-assisted ones (like the FXL one here already) and quantum? 
On a side note, I wish I had ignored all the general advice about not switching electricity suppliers. When we moved 18 months ago we continued with the supplier that we 'inherited' as the unit price was no real different from that of our previous supplier. When the bill shot up, I just put it down to the horrendous price everyone is now paying. Not so: I discovered EDF is MUCH cheaper for the night rate, although more expensive than the day rate, However, even when I worked out the percentages for the summer with the heating off, EDF is preferential.   I have now switched so am more of a mind to add a heater, if it's possible, as have got a better deal. Hence me following this thread with interest!

EssexHebridean

I’ve not got experience of a fan assisted standard one, but the Quantums have the advantage of being far more controllable. For a start you set an output temperature - rather than just having “guesswork on a dial” - and the output “flow” is controlled automatically dependant on the timings you set. So for today for example mine was giving out heat between 7.30 - 8.30am, and has kicked back in again from 4.30pm. It’ll go off at 10.30pm. The rest of the time, it feels just warm to the touch. It loses far less heat while it’s actually charging too - if I walk past it overnight, again it feels just warm, where my standard one in the front room you can feel the heat coming off it. 

The Quantums use a fan to push the heat out too - so when they operate there is a faint noise of that working - but you’re probably used to that from your own fan assisted one. 

And yes - E7 and similar tariffs are pretty much the one area where switching can be really beneficial. I switched myself a few months ago to get a better night rate too.

lilac_dawn

That's helpful, thanks. I'm going to look into getting a Quantum and hope that it can be added to the strange circuits we have here. I think too there has to be an extra power socket installed to operate the fan on a Quantum? 

EssexHebridean

lilac_dawn said:

That's helpful, thanks. I'm going to look into getting a Quantum and hope that it can be added to the strange circuits we have here. I think too there has to be an extra power socket installed to operate the fan on a Quantum? 

In an ideal world, yes. They can be run from a single fused spur, but the risk then is that if they aren’t programmed correctly you can end up using no energy at peak rate times, having the second connection makes this less likely. When we had ours installed I seem to recall it didn’t cost a huge amount to get the extra cabling done. 

macman

You don't have to use Quantums. you can buy refurbished NSH's (please, not via Gumtree) which are perfectly serviceable, but new Lot 20 ones have to have the boost function. Much more controllable, but equally much more expensive. It's your choice and all depends what your budget is. 
NSH's are hard-wired to an FCU, usually on their own radial circuit, since they typically draw 3kW, spending on the size. You certainly can't just 'plug them in' to the ring main.
While you are thinking about this, get yourself off E7, as you are paying a big penalty for all your peak rate use, which is 17 hours per day.
Your EA has a very creative approach if they describe a 19 year-old development as a 'new-build'...