Changing from Economy Seven storage heating

[sonic25]

Hi,
I just bought a new Flat which has Economy Seven storage heaters (There is no gas supply)

I haven't moved in yet so I haven't had chance to look at the CU etc.

I want to remove/replace the Economy Seven Timer so that the new heaters can be on whenever. What will this probably involve?

Many thanks

 

[simon_d]

Hi,
I just bought a new Flat which has Economy Seven storage heaters (There is no gas supply)

I haven't moved in yet so I haven't had chance to look at the CU etc.

I want to remove/replace the Economy Seven Timer so that the new heaters can be on whenever. What will this probably involve?

Many thanks

there are a few diferent ways of doing this. basically, you need to give the off peak board an on peak feed (permanent). but be aware that this means it will be more expensive to run. or the other way is to have a changeover switch, so that during off peak times, it pulls a contactor in feeding it from cheap leccy, othertimes it runs from on peak. you could even do this to both boards (main CU and off peak CU) so that during off peak periods, everything changes over to this and back to on peak during the day

 

[Steve]

ask your supplier. they may be able to fit a dual-rate meter and feed everything from one set of tails

 

[sonic25]

Thanks,
So the existing feed to the off peek CU comes from the meter, or will there be some other intermeidatory device?

 

[simon_d]

Thanks,
So the existing feed to the off peek CU comes from the meter, or will there be some other intermeidatory device?

there are a number of ways of wiring it.

 

[stem]

Stop! Don't do it.

It will cost you an absolute fortune to run and will not work satisfactorily. My experience is that most people find storage heating expensive to run compared to say oil or gas (if available of course). anyway, and what you propose could almost double that.

Storage heaters are full of bricks which are heated at night by half price elec. This stored heat is then released slowly during the day.

If you power them during the day you will be paying full price for your elec (ie double the night rate). Storage heaters are not designed to give a quick warm up, The heat will go into the bricks and will take a while to permeate into the room. Some heaters even have a mechanism that closes the vents completely whilst they are being charged (ie at night) so all you'll get is what eventually comes through the insulated cabinet after heating the bricks.

Then at night when the cheap electricity becomes available they won't use this because they will still be hot from the expensive charge in the day.

Think about it. Why pay £200-£300 for a storage heater, when you can get the same ammount of heat from a plug in convector heater for about £25. Answer. it's far cheaper in the long run.

What you should do is suppliment your storage heaters with something just to top up the heat if required, or buy a new storage heater which has a convector built in that runs on full price elec.

Some elec suppliers offer an afternoon boost at a discounted rate, you could check this out.

 

[BJS_Spark]

If you power them during the day you will be paying full price for your elec (ie double the night rate).

I think it is even worse than that! From what I understand, if you have the E7 tariff the night rate is around 1/3 cheaper than the day rate but the day rate is already slightly more expensive than the standard tariff price.

As stem says just stick to E7 with storage heaters and top up when cold or wear more jumpers

 

[Darkness]

Sorry to jump in but can E7 be put onto a different meter in your house?

For example, I have two meters in my meter cupboard with one operating the outside electrics and the other for the house/inside electrics.

Is it possible to have the E7 just for outside and the house on normal rate?

The majority of my outside electric operates after 7pm but barely used during the day.

 

[Adam_151]

The modern way of doining it is to have a dual rate meter and one set of tails comming out of it, everything you use through those tails at night is at night rate, anything during the day is day rate thats what we have and we have no storage heaters but we try to run things like dishwasher, washing machine and dehumififiers at night when the rate is 3.4p instead if 8.3p (iirc) I checked once (sad ain't I?!) and it clicks over at about 1am, no idea when it comes back, 8am I'd presume as its E7

 

[Steve]

I just had a thought. Do Nightclubs use E7? It would make perfect sense for them!!! The timing is nearly perfect!