Dimplex Quantum Storage Heater

Lisalouise1974

I have had a brand new Dimplex Quantum storage heater installed on Monday, it replaces an old Dimplex storage heater, my old storage heaters are warm to the touch. I know these new ones are much more modern, but the front panel is barely warm to the touch. The timer is set to turn the heat on at 5.15pm, on time the heater does start to kick out heat, an impressive amount to be honest. The heat is only released at the times I have set the time but I am massively freaked that this is drawing on my day rate electricity. the boost function is off etc and as I say heat is only being released when the timer switches on and is warm to the touch, I guess at I am freaked as the unit is cold to the touch the rest of the time! Please only reply if you have a Quantum, I am going away tomorrow to be with family over christmas, and worried about the electricity. Thanks in advance

QrizB

What exactly makes you think it's using day-rate electricity?

The heater should be cold to the touch, that's one of its features.

@EssexHebridean @RedFraggle @GibbsRule_No3. should be able to confirm that the heaters feel cold even when storing heat.

Lisalouise1974

QrizB said:

What exactly makes you think it's using day-rate electricity?

The heater should be cold to the touch, that's one of its features.

@EssexHebridean @RedFraggle @GibbsRule_No3. should be able to confirm that the heaters feel cold even when storing heat.

I took a meter read pre-installation on Monday (I don't have a smart heater), and then again today. I have used 36 day units (cost £10) and 32 night units (£7), since 9am on Monday until 3pm today. my average night units is 22 at this time of year (emersion and two other storage heaters) so night reading totally no surprise. I also had a radiant mirror heater installed in my bathroom at the same time (500W), obviously using on my day rate. I have also been home for 2.5 days, prepping for me to go away for Christmas, I have literally hammered the washing machine - 6 washes, two using the dryer function), ran the dishwasher 4 times, used the hoover and recharged every single mobile device, whilst also setting up and testing the new heaters. I absolutely knew my day rate would be higher given all the stuff I have been doing etc, but 36 is massively higher than expected hence why I am freaking out a little. I leave for Spain at 4am in the  morning to see my elderly father, so won't be here to monitor the meter, my partner will be but he doesn't really get involved in household stuff ( I know, I know) so given it is cold to the touch (none of the instructions etc, say it should be cold or indeed warm) and how different this is to my other two heaters I am just freaked out a little, lol

Lisalouise1974

Lisalouise1974 said:

QrizB said:

What exactly makes you think it's using day-rate electricity?

The heater should be cold to the touch, that's one of its features.

@EssexHebridean @RedFraggle @GibbsRule_No3. should be able to confirm that the heaters feel cold even when storing heat.

I took a meter read pre-installation on Monday (I don't have a smart heater), and then again today. I have used 36 day units (cost £10) and 32 night units (£7), since 9am on Monday until 3pm today. my average night units is 22 at this time of year (emersion and two other storage heaters) so night reading totally no surprise. I also had a radiant mirror heater installed in my bathroom at the same time (500W), obviously using on my day rate. I have also been home for 2.5 days, prepping for me to go away for Christmas, I have literally hammered the washing machine - 6 washes, two using the dryer function), ran the dishwasher 4 times, used the hoover and recharged every single mobile device, whilst also setting up and testing the new heaters. I absolutely knew my day rate would be higher given all the stuff I have been doing etc, but 36 is massively higher than expected hence why I am freaking out a little. I leave for Spain at 4am in the  morning to see my elderly father, so won't be here to monitor the meter, my partner will be but he doesn't really get involved in household stuff ( I know, I know) so given it is cold to the touch (none of the instructions etc, say it should be cold or indeed warm) and how different this is to my other two heaters I am just freaked out a little, lol

worth noting the infrared heater has a timer also, although very unuserfriendly comes on 4 times a day, and since I set the timer is mostly cold to the touch as it only comes on when the temperature dips below 18 degrees.

Scot_39

Not an owner,

but have you checked the  devices history / report screens - they now provide various stats like off peak energy consumption for last 7 days on one of the history screens on later versions.

For RF series gen 6, these are covered at

https://lms.gdhvacademy.com/mod/book/view.php?id=1315&chapterid=525


Cannot see a peak usage data page - but hopefully the off peak data will be high enough cf meter readings or ihd stats if you have them for last few day to reassure you before leaving on trip.

Assuming your panel is dual wired.
On that gen it shows total energy used from off peak supply, total time off peak supply detected last 7 days (should be close to 420m on e7) and even timings it was live for in last 24 hrs over 3 of the history pages.

The peak boost mode uses live 24/7 feed input.

The big risk with single feed Quantums is getting device charge settings out of step with e7 etc meter off peak times.

Dual wired the system designed such as detects off peak and uses it as needed, it shouldnt have had thosd settings changed at install time.


Other HHR panels like Elnurs can call on a lower power top up heat from live during peak as learning or if caught short on previous nights charge as warming / learning or playing catch up - not sure Quantums can. 

Re other observations

The largest quantum rf150 model has iirc a 50% higher output power rating than my old similarly sized large heater at c1.7kW max. 

That's nearly 2 bars on an old electric fire and far higher than some cheap halogen heaters (typically say 0.4/0.8/1.2kW max ) others use as only heat in a room.

It's live 24/7 boost option rated by comparison c1.1kW.

I guess you don't have an ihd smart meter setup to see the upto 3.3kWh charge being taken at e7 times.

If they felt as warm as old heaters when not used in heating ON mode - they would be leaking energy - there probably not 100% perfectly insulated - but there not by design going to be radiator warm / hot to the touch either like many old storage heaters are 24/7.

JSHarris

Working through the list:

Washing machine if on a low energy wash cycle will use around 1kWh to 1.5kWh per wash at a guess, so six washes could be 6 to 9 kWh

The dryer will use more, typically 2kWh to 3kWh for every hour it's been run.  Could add another 4kWh to 6kwh to you day usage.

Dishwasher is going to be similar to the washing machine, around 1kWh to 1.5kWh on an eco cycle, more on a hot cycle, so that's another 4kW to 6kWh.

Infrared heater is going to use about 0.5kWh for each hour it's run since Monday.  No idea how long you've had it on, but could account for maybe 2 or 3 kWh.

Hoover is likely to be around 500W to 800W, so if run for an hour in total maybe 0.8kWh.

Testing and setting up the new storage heaters by charging them or boosting them during the day will be a big hit I suspect.  Not sure what yours are rated at but if they are, say, 1.5kW units then each hour of daytime testing is going to be another 1.5kwh usage per heater.

No idea what your normal usage is without this extra stuff, but at a very rough guess what you've listed has probably added around 18kWh to 20kWh on top of that.

Lisalouise1974

Scot_39 said:

Not an owner,

but have you checked the  devices history / report screens - they now provide various stats like off peak energy consumption for last 7 days on one of the history screens on later versions.

For RF series gen 6, these are covered at

https://lms.gdhvacademy.com/mod/book/view.php?id=1315&chapterid=525


Cannot see a peak usage data page - but hopefully the off peak data will be high enough cf meter readings or ihd stats if you have them for last few day to reassure you before leaving on trip.

Assuming your panel is dual wired.
On that gen it shows total energy used from off peak supply, total time off peak supply detected last 7 days (should be close to 420m on e7) and even timings it was live for in last 24 hrs over 3 of the history pages.

The peak boost mode uses live 24/7 feed input.

The big risk with single feed Quantums is getting device charge settings out of step with e7 etc meter off peak times.

Dual wired the system designed such as detects off peak and uses it as needed, it shouldnt have had thosd settings changed at install time.


Other HHR panels like Elnurs can call on a lower power top up heat from live during peak as learning or if caught short on previous nights charge as warming / learning or playing catch up - not sure Quantums can. 

Re other observations

The largest quantum rf150 model has iirc a 50% higher output power rating than my old similarly sized large heater at c1.7kW max. 

That's nearly 2 bars on an old electric fire and far higher than some cheap halogen heaters (typically say 0.4/0.8/1.2kW max ) others use as only heat in a room.

It's live 24/7 boost option rated by comparison c1.1kW.

I guess you don't have an ihd smart meter setup to see the upto 3.3kWh charge being taken at e7 times.

If they felt as warm as old heaters when not used in heating ON mode - they would be leaking energy - there probably not 100% perfectly insulated - but there not by design going to be radiator warm / hot to the touch either like many old storage heaters are 24/7.

thanks so much for this, I can see from the report function that the heater did indeed use the off peak for 425 minutes so absolutely satisfied that the off peak is working! What a star you are!!!

Lisalouise1974

@JSHarris thank you for working through my list, I daresay hammering the other appliances, ( I forget to mention running a dehumidifier for 14 hours albeit a 240v ) is probably to blame! I feel much much better! I think I will need a bit more trial and error on my new bathroom heater, the controls are not as configurable as I would have hoped!

EssexHebridean

Big question for me is why you would do all that washing etc during the day when you are on economy 7? Of course there are always times when you have no choice but to use peak electric for stuff of that type, but generally load shifting to thr overnight would save you a fortune over a year! 

As for the Quantums, I reckon just about everyone who has ever had one installed has exactly the same thought that you have - it’s crazy isn’t it that they stay so cool! The report function on the newer models is great - when RedFraggle first mentioned it on here I had quite substantial heater-envy as mine, being an older model didn’t have that level of functionality. 

GibbsRule_No3.

Lisalouise1974 said:

I know these new ones are much more modern, but the front panel is barely warm to the touch. The timer is set to turn the heat on at 5.15pm, on time the heater does start to kick out heat, an impressive amount to be honest. The heat is only released at the times I have set the time but I am massively freaked that this is drawing on my day rate electricity. the boost function is off etc and as I say heat is only being released when the timer switches on and is warm to the touch, I guess at I am freaked as the unit is cold to the touch the rest of the time! Please only reply if you have a Quantum, I am going away tomorrow to be with family over christmas, and worried about the electricity. Thanks in advance

I have three (4 if you count the one in the kitchen, I did not want!) new RF Quantum’s. The outer casing does get slightly warm to the touch when they are charging overnight on E7, (I’m of an age that I need the loo in the middle of the night, old NSHs that released heat all the time, made the bungalow warm at that time and I was worried I’d be freezing cold going, but it is warm enough as the case is warm when charging) then again when the fan at the bottom sends the heat out, mostly during the day the case is cool to the touch as they retain the heat better than the old NSHs, I have them set as “Out All Day”, so they come on in the morning and then from 17:30 - 22:30, retain the heat and don’t run out.  My Smart meter shows they run at less than £5 a day at present but I am a single person, so daily E7 immersion, a couple of wash cycles a week, bit of cooking, lighting, ironing etc.  I set it to “Away” a few weeks ago when I was in NY and the cost per day was less than a £1, including the standing charge granted the temp setting was 8 degrees just to take the chill off.  I did notice when I had to use the Boost at the beginning, due to install error, that the case never warmed up, heat was only from the fan at the bottom. I do have two feed switched, no red light on either unfortunately. E7 goes off at 7:30 at this time of year for me.

BellaBlondykeTheThird

Whilst sorting out my divorce O have a temporary flat with these heaters. Very efficient and sent out heat when I wanted. Very cheap to run and easy to program.