Change from "traditional" SH to Dimplex Quantums...noticed any reduction in energy costs?

Stubod

We have just aquired a couple of Dimplex Quantums to replace 30 year old units.

Just wondering if those people who have upgraded to newer SH have noticed any significant reductions in their energy usage?

EssexHebridean

We definitely did, just off the back of replacing a single heater with a quantum some years ago. The controllability of when the heat is stored -v- when it is released made a big difference to us in part because it meant we had to make less use of peak-time heating. 

Stubod

We have just replaced a 30 year old heater in our hall with a Quantum. The old heater "leaked" heat throughout the day but was going cold by early evening. (Not really too bad for us as we are generally "home all day". However we have set the Quantum to "out all day" as it is not really that cold during the day at present and we are out and about anyway.

Due to the current mild weather we are also finding it neccessary to keep turning on the "advance" mod when the comfort mod (ie heater on), kicks in, so not really tested it "in anger" at the mo.

EssexHebridean

We made the same change, although in our case we retained the very old Creda heater that was taken out, and moved that to the spare room, relacing an even older and definitely no longer functioning Dimplex "box of bricks" version.  The irony was that after the hallway Quantum was installed, that was so efficient we no longer needed to use the spare room one at all! 

Our Quantum was always set to "Out all day" - I just tweaked the timings to suit more heat in the earlier part of the day at weekends.

worlestone

EssexHebridean said:

....Our Quantum was always set to "Out all day" - I just tweaked the timings to suit more heat in the earlier part of the day at weekends.

That's interesting, the one Quantum we have in the kitchen I have mostly left to in all day, as we are, but usually click on the 'advance' option to turn the 'comfort on' fan to off. I assumed setting it to out all day would take less electricity in the charge period than doing this

Stubod

worlestone said:

That's interesting, the one Quantum we have in the kitchen I have mostly left to in all day, as we are, but usually click on the 'advance' option to turn the 'comfort on' fan to off. I assumed setting it to out all day would take less electricity in the charge period than doing this

Yes, difficult to judge really, particularly as (at present), it has not been that cold. On our version "In all day" gives you 4 different time zones when the fan is on, "out all day" gives 2 time zones. 

We just felt that at the moment we don't need that much heat during the day, so opted for the 2 zone settings, and the morning one we have re-set just to give a half hour "comfort" zone first thing in the morning.

We actually removed our old SH from the kitchen and replaced it with a plinth heater for the odd occasion we need heat. It just seems a bit of a waste to heat the kitchen all day when we may only be in it for the odd hour at a time, and the plinth heater gets it up to temperature within a minute or two.

EssexHebridean

Something we did establish for a Quantum in a “transient” area like a hallway, is that if you are up in the morning ahead of the charge period time ending then so long as the small amount of heat loss through the casing warms sufficiently, there is a good saving to be made by leaving the first “on” time for heat output to begin after the charge period has ended. This worked really well for us, but obviously probably depends on how warm you actually want the space to be. 

Stubod

..thanks for the input so far.

Ref the comment above....is it worth setting the "morning" time zone to come on while still on the night tariff. That way any heat used would be replaced while still within the economy 7 time slots??

EssexHebridean

It would, but obviously this means it will potentially be charging and discharging at the same time - this is what we elected to avoid as we found that the very gentle warmth from the casing was plenty for us - particularly at the time of year when we would be leaving the house while it was still in charging mode. If you are in more, or have longer heating periods though, that could be a useful approach (if a more costly one, of course) 

inthedepthsofthesea

Ours have made a big difference.

After a bit of tweaking they keep us nice and warm without us having to touch them any more.

Plus at this time of year, if there's a mild week they won't use any energy without any intervention from us.

Just watch when the clocks change