New to Storage Heaters

[wcavanagh]

Hi All,

Hope you can help me. I have just moved into a rented flat, that has two storage heaters. They are made my Dimplex. I cant work out how they are meant to work.

I thought they stored energy overnight on cheap rate, then slowly released over the day. According to what I can find on the web setting the input to max will store the max amount of energy overnight. But when I do this, during the day I notice 2kW being used around lunchtime, if I switch off at the wall, Storage Heating Supply, the 2kW goes away. Now I thought the heater could only draw power from the Storage Heating supply at night. It seems that the supply from the extra meter is on all the time.

Here is the storage heater controls.

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• wcavanagh
• 11 Mar 2013
• 1

Here are the FCU's

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• wcavanagh
• 11 Mar 2013
• 1

And the E7 meter

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• wcavanagh
• 11 Mar 2013
• 1

And the whole lot

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• wcavanagh
• 11 Mar 2013
• 1

Can anyone help me? I dont want a massive bill, but then dont want to be cold, as the heater seems to work well at heating the room.

Cheers,
Will

 

[bernardgreen]

The meter is controlled by radio signals which tell it when to count the units used on the low cost ( night time ) counter and when to count on the normal cost counter.

When counting on low cost themeter also turns on the supply to the storage heaters so they are only energised on the low cost counter UNLESS you pres the boost button to heat them when low cost is not enabled.

The timings are set by the supplier and in your case they are giving a midday period of low cost supply.

 

[wcavanagh]

Thank you very much. I used to have Gas Central heating in the old place and never had electric before.

Just wanted to make sure they are not charging me loads if the heater decides to store during the day. So there is no timer that could be set wrong etc, it is all controlled from the supplier automatically?

Thanks Again
Will

 

[phatboy]

Are you sure you have Economy 7? There are other services available that offer 8 or 10 hours of heat, spread out across the day/night.

Here, my heaters work from approx. 2am - 6am, 11am - 1pm & 8pm - 10pm

Looking at that heater, I would expect it to be using 2.55WK.... if you are getting a reading of 2KW, are you maybe using the convector on the front? This does not operate on the cheap rate, and can be turned on any time as a boost

 

[wcavanagh]

Hi,
Maybe it's not E7, Scottish Hydro called it specialist heating rate?

I'm just using a clamp meter to monitor usage over the day, I will put the input up to max now, and let it log the graph for the next 24 hours and see if it is like you say.

It is not the front conv heater, I have that off at the moment. It is defiantly from the storage heater supply side as if I switch that FCU off the usage drops to 130W.

Cheers

 

[phatboy]

If you have a clamp meter that logs then thats great and will help you suss it out easily I reckon

 

[wcavanagh]

Yeah, I have the AlertMe smart monitor, just setup it now, so will see tomorrow night.

 

[phatboy]

Very posh!!! I just have one that shows me current power usage, and a running total of units used

 

[Lectrician]

You have combi storage rads by the looks of it - Turn the CONVECTOR part off - This will consume power 24/7, and is designed for a boost if you run out of heat, or mis-judge the weather the next day.

Edit - Sorry, skim read, seems that has been mentioned!

 

[wcavanagh]

Hehe, it's all good to see where our money is going, I find myself turning things off to get usage down, so got to be good for the cash flow.

 

[flameport]

The two control knobs on the storage heater are:

The left one just opens a cover inside to let more air pass over the bricks and therefore let more heat out. This should be set to minimum.
The idea being you could turn this up later in the day to release heat more quickly.
If left open, heat will pour out while it's charging, so your house will be very hot overnight and in the daytime, but most of the heat will be gone by the evening.

The right knob is how much heat is stored. Set as required depending on how cold it will be the next day.

As already said, turn off the convector switch and only use it if you really must - it will cost a fortune.
I'd take the fuse out of it to avoid it being switched on at all.

 

[wcavanagh]

So today's energy readings. Not sure what to make of this.

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• wcavanagh
• 12 Mar 2013
• 1

 

[phatboy]

can you get it to show every hour on the bottom? Will make it a bit easier to work out.....

 

[wcavanagh]

This seems to show slightly better.

06:49 Was when I used the electric shower, so I guess the data is good.

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• wcavanagh
• 12 Mar 2013
• 1

 

[wcavanagh]

I will not touch the controls today and see if the same pattern is tomorrow.

I am guessing the peaks at 2kW are the Storage heater.

The 1.7kW peaks at 05:40 to 06.30 are my oil filled rad in the bedroom, on a thermostat and timer