Dimplex Quantum Series Heater

Stayathomecatmum01

Hello!

I have had these heaters installed in my two bedroom flat.  This is the first winter I am going to use them and am after some tips on how best to use them, whilst obviously trying to save money.  I worked out that when I have heating on, it costs approx £10 per day in electric and a lot less when they are not being used (I only have electric, no gas).

They are set to heat up overnight on economy rate and then use a fan to blow out the heat during the day.

I am at home most of the day and suffer with a couple of autoimmune diseases which unfortunately make me feel cold.

Am I best to have all the heaters on or just the ones in the rooms I use most?

Which setting is best - Home all day (which I am) or for them to come on 4 times a day (which is what I use as this was what was set up when I got them)?

If they start to heat up in the early hours of the morning, am I able to have the heaters blow heat at this time, or do I have to wait a few hours?  My bedroom is particularly cold at night and at present they are set to come on at 5.30 but ideally could do with coming on at about 3am (would this work?)

When the fan blows the heat out during the day, is this costing a lot of electric?

I would just like some information on the effectiveness of use with these from people who are in the know! 

Thank you all in advance.

Swipe

If it's costing you £10 a day then they could be configured incorrectly if using the built-in timer to charge them. If they are wired into both peak and off peak circuits then check that your smart meter is charging you the correct off peak price when they are drawing power.

Or it simply could be that you need to do some comparisons and choose a supplier with a much cheaper Economy 7 tariff. For example, my off peak rate is 5.2p with Utility Warehouse and I have a 3.4KW living room storage heater on full and two smaller ones in the bedroom and kitchen on low and they are currently costing me about £1.60 per day.

Someone with in depth knowledge of the Quantums on here will be able to advise you on the best settings to suit.

gambleruk

First of all as above you need to make sure they are charging at your Economy 7 rate, I have set my own charge times on mine as on a single circuit.

The fan running using very little electricity, so little I do not notice the difference when they start running in the morning.

You can amend the times you want them to turn on in the menu, so if you select Home all day then modify you can preset all the 4 times to whatever suits you for each indivdual heater and each day as well. 

There are plenty of tutorials on Youtube to watch, they make a huge difference compared to normal storage heaters in our house once they are set up as you want them. 

The only thing I have noticed is that if I change the settings to either charge longer or switch times during the day then they can take a couple of days to catch up on how much heat they store.

WiserMiser

If you have two circuits supplying them then all you need to do is to tell each heater how warm you want the room to be and when.  The heaters will then do the rest; Home All Day et al are just simple options for those who don't want to set their own times (bit like Smash vs. peeling and boiling real potatoes).

However, if there's only one circuit it's imperative that you set the internal timer to mimic your meter's switching times precisely, otherwise you could be charging at the expensive day rate.

The only way you can do this accurately is to look at the meter on the wall and note when it changes over.  Note that there may be a gap in the middle e.g. 2230-0030 and 0230-0730.

Stubod

There are some good You tube vids that take you through the various settings .....one enclosed below, (I think they are available throught he Dimplex website as well):-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C00HFuyMbvQ

You can set them to "out all day", which gives you 2 "heating times", or "in all day" which give you 4 "heating times".

You have the option to set when these times as to when they "start and end", to suit your requirments. They are basically the times when the heaters will turn the fan on and "blow" the stored heat out into your rooms. 

Although we are "in all day", we leave ours set to "out all day". Although quite efficient, we find that some heat will "leak out" during the course of the day.

We only have ours on in the rooms we use. If you have rooms you don't normally use it is probably more economical to use a basic electric convector / fan heater as and when you want to heat them.

We don't bother heating the bedroom with them, we use an electric underblanket, and have a convertion heater we put on in the bedroom which we put on for 15 mins to heat the bedroom before we go to bed.

..and for reference, when we check how much energy the fan uses using our smart meter it was 1p an hour per heater...

If you need more heat than that which is "stored in the heater" they have a seperate element that will give out more heat, but beware, as this is the same as using a normal electric fire at peak rates, so can be expensive!

RedFraggle

If you've only just turned them on they'll take a lot of energy to get the core temperature up. We heat our flat at 21c from 7:30 to 22:30 and are averaging about £6 a day at this time of year but we have  decent insulation. 
The first few days aren't representative of ongoing costs but it depends how well insulated your property is.
Also echo checking you're on the correct E7 tariff and they're charging on the off peak