Making Old Storage Heaters Smart

[JohnW2]

Yes - hot storage heater bricks are hot enough to ignite ordinary office paper placed against them.

Thanks. That, in itself, only implies a temp of 230°C or so - but I presume you are implying that the bricks get a lot hotter than that?

Kind Regards, John

 

[ETAF]

you should be able to see all the previous meter readings on the bills - so you can work out the Day Units & night Units
Ec7 storage heaters should be used at the night rate.
Also you need a 40/60 split between night and day , i believe to make EC7 pay
A friend of mine has just replaced all her storage heater to Fischer heaters - so more controllable during the day - NOT sure about savings if any yet , as only a few weeks in.

Also what are the rates for Night & Day - lots of changes have occured recently for night rates done to around 4p a KWHr
what is the utility company and what are your KWhr Day & night rates

 

[JohnW2]

Also you need a 40/60 split between night and day , i believe to make EC7 pay

Yes, traditionally one needed more than about 35/65 night/day for E7 to be financially advantageous. However, as I wrote earlier, one now has to look carefully at the tariffs, since the E7 one I'm now on is (albeit only slightly) cheaper than a single-rate tariff even if I use NO electricity at night rate!

A friend of mine has just replaced all her storage heater to Fischer heaters ...

Oh dear!

Also what are the rates for Night & Day - lots of changes have occurred recently for night rates done to around 4p a KWHr

Hmmm. I think that is probably wishful thinking, but who knows?!

Kind Regards, John

 

[bernardgreen]

Waste a ton of energy by letting out so much heat during the day when no one is in

The only time I relied on storage heaters was my flat in Germany 1970's These were "smart" in that they had motorised vents that controlled how much heat was put into the room during the day. They also had some degree of "prediction" of how much heat to store overnight ready for the next day. I did use a fan heater as well when the smart bit got it wrong.

 

[LeeUK]

opening an old thread but may be of use.

We have a small flat in Glasgow. On the Economy 7 plan with storage heaters but they've been pretty useless. Waste a ton of energy by letting out so much heat during the day when no one is in.................
Would wiring them up to a wifi+weather report and automating them be possible?

I have storage heaters and quite happy with them, older ones need to be closed until you manually open the output but can be quite poor at retaining heat.
If they are connected to the night switchover unit a smart option is pointless as they should only come on at 1am and off at 7am (on mine)
the only way to help is closing the output flap, many do leave the output flap open which means it takes longer to heat up and quicker to lose it.
Mine are Elnur Gabarron units with fans (to push out stored heat and optional 750w extra if needed) and are good at retaining heat and only charging x% based on previous output requirements. Bought 2nd hand from a new build under 100 quid each? extremely complicated to set up and understand but ok once there?
If replacing with new i'd maybe look for simpler / smart type
You could add a smart switch to prevent charging if away a few days / weeks

 

[Adam_151]

Yes - hot storage heater bricks are hot enough to ignite ordinary office paper placed against them.

Thats oddly specific.... one might wonder if this was accidently discovered in an office once!

 

[JohnW2]

Thats oddly specific.... one might wonder if this was accidently discovered in an office once!

I would imagine that by the time office paper has managed to come into contact with the bricks deep inside a storage heater, one probably has other things to worry about

Kind Regards, John