Hi,
I have these very old fashioned radio controlled heaters which turn on at a certain time and store heat and diepsnse it slowly through the day and they are absolutely rubbish!
What I was wondering is there perhaps a way to bypass the radio controlled part to turn them on whenever I want to ?
thanks
I assume you are referring to economy 7 heaters. You do know that the 'instant' heat will be more expensive, perhaps by a factor of 3?
I'm not entirely sure what they are called to be honest. Would you be kind enough to explain the the difference in factors ?
Basically it gets quite cold and I have bought some other heaters to help warm the room up as the radio controlled hearters don't heat so great but if I can get them to come on at command it would be of help I think
Thanks
There is no radio control. They are just boxes of bricks heated by an element run on a timeclock, set to use very cheap night time electricity. These is no alternative except a proper heating system with a boiler, although more efficient and smaller storage radiators might be of use.
My landlords said they are radio controlled and come on at 11pm to 6am, perhaps he was wrong.
Is it possible to get at the timeclock to make them come on when I flick the socket to turn it on ?
What you have got is storage heaters - which use off-peak electricity to heat up during the night, and then give their heat out (if you're lucky!) during the day. They are not very controllable, and you have to anticipate what the weather is going to do. Even so, they will probably have lost all their heat before it's time for another overnight recharge.
Off-peak electricity costs a lot less than normal rate (daytime) electricity - so the supplier will only let you use the cheap stuff at night when there's less demand. To put heat into these heaters during the day, you'd need additional wiring connected to the peak supply - and it would cost you much more per unit.
Best to throw the lot away and get a proper gas-fired heating system which will be cheaper to run, *and* give you heat all day.
Ok - _if_ you are on ecomomy 7 electricity - your bill from your current supplier will show this, or the meter cupboard will have two readouts.
At night (1AM-8AM?) you pay around a third of the price for electricity during the day - this is more or less competitive with gas, in some parts of the country it can actually be cheaper.
The heaters - when operating properly - they may not be - heat up an internal load of firebricks or something to well over boiling during this time, and then slowly release it - usually on a timer, over the day. There may be a timeswitch on the heater itself, which controls when the damper - which seals the bricks from the room air - turns off.
The damper needs to be in the position to let the air circulate freely, or nothing much will happen - and very little heat wil get out.
No, the time is set by the electricity supplier and should be untamperable. I once had these in a house and the time clock was 12 hours wrong, so they worked well. (Must tell them about that some day)
The radio control (or 'teleswitch' replaces the timeswitch and has the (theoretical) advantage that (a) the electricity supplier has more flexibility to adjust their load, and (b) they allow more charge-up time if the following day is expected to be cold.
If you have a teleswitch, you won't have a timeswitch.
Even if you did over-ride the switch, the heaters are designed to charge up with heat over 7 hours and release it slowly - they are useless at instant heating.
You should have two controls on the heaters - a charge, and a damper or output control. You *must* ensure the output control is turned to MIN when you go to bed at night, to allow the heat to build up, and then you can turn it up progressively during the day/evening to allow the heat out. Once it's run out of heat you get no more until it recharges the following night.
Unless you have a recent installation in a modern well-insulated property, storage heaters are frequently undersized.
Owain
Not entirely true.
My parents when they lived up in Aberdeenshire had radio controlled switching of the storage heaters. The switching was controlled by the power company to give them more flexibility in controlling demand (and consequently offer cheaper electricity).
As a system it seemed to work reasonably well and it included the option to boost the output of some heaters on reduced rated elctrcity (although not as cheap as the storage heater rate).
Tim
He is
Nope.
If its rented accomodation you are screwed basically.
Buy some cheap electric convector radiators and use those instead and as well.
Leave the property as soon as possible and tell the landlord why.
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As has been explained, they contain heat ceramic blocks that are heated overnight. The principle is that the heat absorbed overnight is enough to warm the room during the day, and there is a cost benefit because you are on two price rates, one for daytime and a cheaper for night time. In my experience (admittedly very limited) they usually have a slider control that allows more air through the bricks and allows some control of how and when the heat is released.
See if there is a slider and use it.
The tariff is switched on by a signal that is (I believe) transmitted on Long Wave. This is better than any type of time clock as there are no individual units that can go wrong - it also allows for British Summer Time changes. Night tariff is about 30% of day rate cost.
I agree with what has been said - but some have an input thermostat - to govern the intake of heat - as well as some sort of output control - some even have a fan to blow the heat out. My daughter's place had a heater with
4 elements that had failed over a period of time - hence "It wasn't much good before it packed up altogether" A set of elements of EBay has improved things considerably.Try Googling for the instructions.
Absolutely - transmitted, I believe, on the Radio 4 long wave signal.
Friend's storage heater, a Unidare (?), needed both a new element and new insulating material. Couldn't find any source in the Milton Keynes area even though we tried a range of trade heating and electrical factors. Eventually we found a supplier in Norwich (
One of the big problems with storage heaters is that they don't provide heat in the evenings when it's needed.
In fact for some people with the right sort of lifestyle (out at work most days, not at home some evenings) instantaneous heaters might actually have a lower total running cost.
It usually not too difficult rewire the storage heater circuits to the permanent supply and change the storage heaters to convectors. The work is however notifiable (Part Prescot) and not in the lower or intermediate diy jobs.
However your landlord needs to be integrated into this process. Installing GCH (if available) would be the best idea but is incompatible with people living in the flat.
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