Help! Hot Switch On Storage Heaters!

[conwayd02]

Hi, new to the forum and hope someone can help. When we moved into our flat we had Dimplex Storage Heaters but decided not to use them as most we're old or broken so the electric company came out and switched over our economy 7 circuit (which has it's own set of switches in the electric cupboard on the board) to a normal electric circuit and it now works 24/7 rather then on off peak at a standard rate. We removed the old switches, which the storage heater flex went into, and replaced them with a single plug socket, which now have 2000kw electric fires on, which are running fine and have been for 2 years.

We have one Dimplex Storage Heater left in our living room and hadn't been using it as the sofa was up against it but now have moved the sofa. So we rewired the storage heater back into the old fitting (flex went up inside and had an on / off switch panel). All worked fine but we noticed after a few days it was hot to the touch. Today I have replaced the switch panel with a new one, this also had a 13amp fuse in it. I took back the wires on the flex as the ends were old and exposed new wire. Made sure everything was still tight. However, the switch front is still becoming hot, just underneath the bottom of the switch. I have read online this can happen to dimmer lights but was wondering if this was normal? There have been no sparks / short outs and the heater is working fine.

Answers very much welcome please.

 

[conwayd02]

Hi me again, I've now turned off the electric to the heater as the switch sparked. I've seen on the old switch that it's a 20amp switch and the new one is 13amp so I'm guessing this is most likely the problem. At the circuit breaker it's 20amps. Also I'm currently using a electric radiator on an old econ 7 circuit which was switched over to normal. I've just notice on the circuit breaker it says 10 amps but I'm running a plug with a 13amp fuse, normal 240 v - 2000k/w h is this ok?

 

[flameport]

Storage heaters should not be fitted to 13A FCUs. They are normally fitted to a 20A switch.

They should not be connected to an untimed supply either, as they are designed to be charged for a specific period, usually 7 hours.

 

[conwayd02]

Hi, thank you for your help. I refitted the original 20 AMP switch but redid the wire ends and the storage heater it working fine and the switch isn't getting hot. Thanks for letting me know about the 7 hours. We only have it on few a few hours on a night, very max 5 hours so this shouldn't be a problem.