Storage heater
- Thread starter Adrizzy
- Start date
https://www.dimplex.co.uk/sites/default/files/assets/XLN_XLSN_GDC_Operating_Instructions_Issue_1.pdf possibly on night rate tariff so may not have power to the isolator during the day
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The economy 7 and 10 are tariffs used with storage heaters, in the old days there was a white meter which only switched on at night, but then the systems used have altered through the years to allow a boost, or washing machines to use off peak, so how the off peak is used varies from installation to installation.
Basic idea of heater is over night it heats blocks of iron, normally clay and iron mix, but there has been some concrete and iron mixes, the blocks often called bricks, these can store the heat, and are put in an insulated container, heated to around 900°C in some cases, (input heat control) then there is a control (output) which allows air to circulate past the heated bricks during the day.
The problem is there is a limit to how good the insulation can be, so with stand alone heaters they tend to give one a really warm office in the morning, but by 6 pm it is getting rather cool, OK with an office, not so good with domestic.
There were versions where the heat store was central to the house, true central heating, and it used fans to distribute the heat when required, these could store heat for a week, and gave reasonable control, but to try and make the stand alone work we got economy 10 which had a boost time during the day.
Due to over heating at night and under heating in the evening many people removed them and went for simple panel heaters, the difference between off peak and on peak charges in early days was massive, with the system you paid a little more for on peak and a lot less of off peak power.
It seems in Scotland the system is still used, but getting an economy 7 tariff today unless you already have it is not easy, and the difference between on and off peak is a lot less. And it seems the long wave radio 4 time signal is in question, so often it needs user settings to be entered to switch on devices at the right time, which has resulted in errors and huge bills.
Often there was a dedicated fuse box for the off peak heaters, which allowed the whole of the system to be turned off with one master switch. Often a row of 15 or 16 amp fuses, where a normal fuse box or latter consumer units, would have an array of sizes from 5/6 amp to 45 amp depending on what they fed.
As said in latter years a single consumer unit was used, and often a trigger supply to switch on heaters.
The other problem is most fuse boxes or consumer units are designed for a maximum of 100 amp, using a separate unit for storage heaters resulted in up to a 200 amp supply, but once combined that drops to 100 amp, a 28 kW gas central heating boiler would need 122 amps to convert it to electric, at even 2 kW each and 14 areas to be heated in this house, that is 28 kW, but electric supply to this house is 13.8 kW total (60 amp).
To be frank the 18 kW oil boiler is good enough most days, and I do have an open fire if required. But although the whole idea of the ring final and the 13 amp socket was for homes to be electrical heated developed near the end of world war II, this was a pipe dream, and in real terms never happened, due to Ronan Point gas was banned in many high rise flats, so they were forced to use electric or communal heating.
The economy 7 was seen as an easy way out to heat the home without the need for open fires or central heating, it could never really be called central heating as there was no real central control, except for some odd homes, but it was sold as such, £375 for storage heater v £70 for a radiator plus £800 for boiler it would seem electric not cheap, but by time the plumbing was included the electric option was seen as a cheap alternative by many builders for small homes in the 70's and 80's, and no flues were installed, so would cost to much to get gas, oil or solid fuel later.
Basic idea of heater is over night it heats blocks of iron, normally clay and iron mix, but there has been some concrete and iron mixes, the blocks often called bricks, these can store the heat, and are put in an insulated container, heated to around 900°C in some cases, (input heat control) then there is a control (output) which allows air to circulate past the heated bricks during the day.
The problem is there is a limit to how good the insulation can be, so with stand alone heaters they tend to give one a really warm office in the morning, but by 6 pm it is getting rather cool, OK with an office, not so good with domestic.
There were versions where the heat store was central to the house, true central heating, and it used fans to distribute the heat when required, these could store heat for a week, and gave reasonable control, but to try and make the stand alone work we got economy 10 which had a boost time during the day.
Due to over heating at night and under heating in the evening many people removed them and went for simple panel heaters, the difference between off peak and on peak charges in early days was massive, with the system you paid a little more for on peak and a lot less of off peak power.
It seems in Scotland the system is still used, but getting an economy 7 tariff today unless you already have it is not easy, and the difference between on and off peak is a lot less. And it seems the long wave radio 4 time signal is in question, so often it needs user settings to be entered to switch on devices at the right time, which has resulted in errors and huge bills.
Often there was a dedicated fuse box for the off peak heaters, which allowed the whole of the system to be turned off with one master switch. Often a row of 15 or 16 amp fuses, where a normal fuse box or latter consumer units, would have an array of sizes from 5/6 amp to 45 amp depending on what they fed.
As said in latter years a single consumer unit was used, and often a trigger supply to switch on heaters.
The other problem is most fuse boxes or consumer units are designed for a maximum of 100 amp, using a separate unit for storage heaters resulted in up to a 200 amp supply, but once combined that drops to 100 amp, a 28 kW gas central heating boiler would need 122 amps to convert it to electric, at even 2 kW each and 14 areas to be heated in this house, that is 28 kW, but electric supply to this house is 13.8 kW total (60 amp).
To be frank the 18 kW oil boiler is good enough most days, and I do have an open fire if required. But although the whole idea of the ring final and the 13 amp socket was for homes to be electrical heated developed near the end of world war II, this was a pipe dream, and in real terms never happened, due to Ronan Point gas was banned in many high rise flats, so they were forced to use electric or communal heating.
The economy 7 was seen as an easy way out to heat the home without the need for open fires or central heating, it could never really be called central heating as there was no real central control, except for some odd homes, but it was sold as such, £375 for storage heater v £70 for a radiator plus £800 for boiler it would seem electric not cheap, but by time the plumbing was included the electric option was seen as a cheap alternative by many builders for small homes in the 70's and 80's, and no flues were installed, so would cost to much to get gas, oil or solid fuel later.