How to drive Fischer Novo Rad

[Chris Holmes]

Hi,

A few years ago a friend’s landlady said she was going to replace the big old storage heaters with “modern efficient heaters”.

In the event only the one in the lounge was changed and the two in the bedrooms were left.

The bedroom ones still switch on automatically overnight (don’t think she has economy 7 tarrif or similar.

The new “rad” isn’t auto switched, but has its own radial and a switched connection unit.

It also has an electronic room stat which I suspect allows different temps or at least on / off to be set over 24 hours and maybe different for different days….

So, to the question…. The “Rad” has a “Mica clay core”.

How should it be used?

Turned on overnight (on an economy 7 or similar tarrif) and then just topped up during the day if necessary?

Or just turned on during the day when heat is wanted?

[Paul]

Somewhere on the ad copy, it says "requires electricity 24/7".

I guess this is what we call "<begrudging> truth in advertising".

*******

Compare the advertising for the other product, to this one.

It looks like it was written, to embarrass the other company. Just by the nature of the thoroughness of the description.

"Once the core is hot, cold air is drawn from the floor and up through the flutes to create convection heat."

"Once heated the heat plate will retain heat for well over 30 minutes, transferring heat to the metal casing and flutes of the Radiator."

You will see, in reading the rest of that description, you have a very good idea what you're getting.

Paul

[Theo]

It depends on the lag between applying power and heat coming out. A traditional storage heater takes hours, so you put heat in at night and it is hot by morning, and it gradually releases the heat through the day. An electric fire takes seconds to warm up and seconds to cool down.

I can't find a spec sheet anywhere but they say "Featuring a 23mm Mica Clay core" which doesn't sound very much, although mica can take quite a high temperature - so maybe they heat it up red hot and let it cool gradually? It would be possible to do some calculations based on the specific heat capacity of mica clay, but not if we don't know how hot it gets.

TBH without any data I have no idea. If they can't be bothered to publish data I'd be running a mile, but not very helpful for your situation.

Theo

[Chris Holmes]

Thanks for that.

I think the landlady was duped by some advertising into thinking she would be doing herself and the tenant a favour.

Storage heaters aren’t ideal, but I think was probably more economical than this especially if used on an economy 7 type tarrif.

[Theo]

A simple test might be: run the heater for a long time, eg overnight. Then turn it off. How long does it take for the heater to feel cool? That will tell you how long it'll output heat for if run off Economy 7.

Another thought might be to switch to a smart tariff like Octopus Tracker or Agile. If the thing will output heat for a few hours after being turned off, it would be enough to get you through the 4-7pm peak period when Agile is expensive. You might be cooking your tea at that time though, so that would be on the expensive rate. With Tracker you get a daily rate which is roughly similar to the E7 night rate. The downside is that they are both linked to daily/half-hourly wholesale pricing, so if there's another spike in energy costs like there was in 2022 then you are exposed to that (capped at £1 per unit).

Theo