Vintage electric central heating help

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WiseOwlOls

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Does anyone have a manual
 

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I doubt a manual exists. You have two time switches controlling different areas of your house. The large boxes are mercury contactors (relays) they are there to switch the heavy loads of (possibly off peak) storage heaters. Do you know what tariff you are on. As it old, maybe economy 7 or some other low night time tariff. The time switches show different times so you need to get your head around what you have. You may need (an old) electrician to advise. It certainly does not fully comply with today’s safety regs.
 
Cheers… this is one of what it runs
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I asked for an old electrician…. And the oldest I can find is 46! Haha. Too many old electricians not working these days. Must have made too much money
 
Yes that one looks like an oil filled rad. That would not store heat so is of little benefit. The installation looks to me like late 50s. I’ll do the maths for you ….70 years!!!! Time to get a younger spark in and quote for a new system if electric is what you’re thinking. Just don’t expect him/her to know what a mercury contactor is.
 
WiseOwlOls said:
a manual
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The only adjustable items are the timers: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1900/0799/files/RPTS_STANDARD.pdf?5806543096409687194
where you set the times you want the heating to operate.

It will be fairly expensive to use.
Newer electric heaters will have thermostats and better controls, so might be a bit cheaper to operate if it's left unattended, but ultimately they are all just a heating element in a case, so for any given heat output, the operating cost will be the same.
 
I can't remember when Economy 7 came in, the original had White meters, and it went to its own fuse box, I seem to remember radio 4 long wave had a signal to turn the supply on and off, however this did not allow the user to use the off-peak with washing machines etc. So latter the system was altered, and today radio 4 long wave is due to be turned off, so to have an off-peak supply we are being forced to have smart meters.

But the radiator you show does not look like a storage heater, so it will need some thought on how to use it.

The storage radiator was not really a success, as @flameport says they were expensive to run, and they would heat an office reasonably well, but at home when going out to work, by the time you get home, there is no heat left. So heating as and when required can work out cheaper, it depends on your lifestyle.
 
ericmark said:
The storage radiator was not really a success, as @flameport says they were expensive to run, and they would heat an office reasonably well, but at home when going out to work, by the time you get home, there is no heat left. So heating as and when required can work out cheaper, it depends on your lifestyle.
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I think the ideas are a bit out of date, I changed NSH arrangements a couple of years back in one of my rental properties, my tenant say far more efficient and effective and they both work from home on a regular basis, new HHR NSH gives adequate heat through the day and evening and the elecric bill has dropped.
 
I remember in the early days of electric storage heating, some council houses built with a storage room, true central heating, and it would stay warm for over 7 days if the fans not switched on, this worked very well, but where I worked we started to make the storage bricks with concrete as a binder rather than clay, and to test bricks I had a storage heater in my office, by time due to go home around 6 pm it was nearly cold, even set to lowest output.

With my oil central heating to keep cost down, the TRV's are electronic and only heat rooms when required, this option is not open to storage heater users. You simply can't turn the heater off, you can turn them down, but not off. The same applies with under floor heating, it takes ages to both warm and cool.

Our homes are also heated by the sun, and if I look at yesterday
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this varied through the day, so in winter months the heating needs to vary the reverse to maintain a constant temperature, even water filled radiators are slow to respond, it is not the storing of the energy which is the problem, it is lack of control when releasing the energy.
 
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