Storage Heaters

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Lauren

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I've had a look through old threads on storage heaters and can't find the exact answer although some really useful stuff there on the subject..however my question is...

Can you tell if the storage heater is working without waiting all night to see what it emits the next day?

Where exactly is this timer thingy for the storage heating usually placed? I read that its normally installed by the ESB however where might I find that? I've looked beside the fuse box but don't see anything there...Any ideas?
 
There should be a separate Nightsaver meter in your meter (not fuse) box which controls storage heaters and all other Nightsaver electricity use. Basically all daily electricity use is recorded on the main meter and the night use (11PM-8AM winter and 12AM-9AM summer as far as I recall) is recorded on the night meter.
 
We don't have any timer on our storage heaters so I'm not sure how they know what time to come on at - I can only guess that was set somewhere when they were installed , also the meters are in a locked rooom in the underground carpark so I can't get in to see them, and we have yet to get a full esb bill to see exactly how much they are costing us.

BTW we had to put ours on overnight to see if it worked.
 
As far as I know the night meter switches the storage heaters charging on and off at the appopriate times. I think that they normally charge during the full Nightsaver period (i.e. the winter and summer time periods mentioned above). There is no timer on the heaters themselves.

What do you mean that you had to put them on overnight? Just switching them on (the storage heater switch and not the convection switch if they are dual mode heaters) should mean that they are on and ready for charging overnight.
 
ClubMan said:
What do you mean that you had to put them on overnight? Just switching them on (the storage heater switch and not the convection switch if they are dual mode heaters) should mean that they are on and ready for charging overnight.
Click to expand...

We had to turn on the storage heating part of it (only 1 is a dual heater) and leave it for a night to make sure it was working - ie there is no switch to flip that instantly shows its working
 
Ok I'll have to try it when I move in then. I was at my "apt to be" today and there didn't seem to be signs of life when I turned the storage heater on. Fingers crossed it works ok once I move in. Thanks for your replies folks.
 
ClubMan said:
the storage heater switch and not the convection switch if they are dual mode heaters) should mean that they are on and ready for charging overnight.
Click to expand...

Ok, I don't understand this, our apartment has storage heaters and we have these two switches, can you please explain to me, I am blond :D Have no idea how these heaters work, drives me nuts!!! It just blows out hot air and that keeps me warm so I am happy but it bugs me that I don't know!
 
Storage heaters will have 2 control switches, input and output - this is for the storage heater part of it, some will also have another heater function - like a fan heater.

On my there is another switch (which is on the wall) If I turn this on and turn up the output switch then hot air comes out the bottom of the heater which will eat electricity.
 
Our combined storage and convection actually have five controls:
  • A master switch on the wall beside the heater to control whether or not the convection part is operable.
  • Another that controls whether or not the storage part is operable.
  • A red switch on the heater that switches the convection part on/off (subject to the master switch being on)
  • A storage heater input dial control numbered 1-8 or something like that controlling the charge that it takes overnight.
  • A storage heater output dial control labelled min-max which controls the output of the heat. We usually leave this at min and find that OK for maintaining background heating levels (in fact we rarely need to supplement the storage heaters with other forms of heating even late in the evening). Supposedly you can turn this to max to get a boost output of heat in the evenings but we never really use that and I think it simply opens some vents above the storage heater bricks. Hardly advanced technology.
Storage heaters only (i.e. not combined storage and convection heaters) should at least have the master wall switch, input control and output control. Normally the manuals for such heaters are left with a new house but you should be able to obtain/download them if necessary.

Hopefully that explanation makes sense even to blonds (male I presume?)? ;)
 
paddyc said:
On my there is another switch (which is on the wall) If I turn this on and turn up the output switch then hot air comes out the bottom of the heater which will eat electricity.
Click to expand...
Are you sure about that? Is it a convection heater control? If it is I would not expect the output dial to have anything to do with it (this usually only affects how quickly the stored heat as opposed to convection heat is released). Maybe anybody who has questions could find out the make and model of their heaters so that we can check the specific manuals?
 
ClubMan said:
Are you sure about that? Is it a convection heater control? If it is I would not expect the output dial to have anything to do with it (this usually only affects how quickly the stored heat as opposed to convection heat is released). Maybe anybody who has questions could find out the make and model of their heaters so that we can check the specific manuals?
Click to expand...

Yes the only controls on the heater itself are the input and output - It maybe only designed to use as a boost, but either way I haven't had the need to use it yet.
 
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