Storage Heater Replacement

SozBbz

Hi all,

Looking for some advice.

Current situation - duplex with 4 storage heaters downstairs - 1 in kitchen, 1 in hallway, and 2 in the living room (upstairs has electric radiators fitted in bedrooms and not really an issue currently).

I am looking at replacing the storage heaters downstairs as they are bulky, ugly, hard to control and extremely dated. From what I can tell, the input feature is ok, but regardless of whether the output is set for low or high, they give out the same heat all day and once its gone, its gone. In the winter last year, I found that I was feeling the cold after 8/9pm as the storage heaters hadnt regulated their heat well enough

Can someone please advise me of my options? Are modern storage heaters much more manageable? Or should I be looking at a different type of system altogether?

Has anyone any experience with replacing such heaters recently?

By the way, moving to gas or another fuel type is not an option as the entire development is electric only.

Latro

I doubt that changing one resistance based heaters to other even the most modern ones will change much if anything at all. You'll just spend a lot of money for little to no difference.

If you have to stick to this type of heating the only solution imo is to use them more. Switch on earlier and switch them off later.
Are you happy with the running cost atm? They are relatively expensive to run. I would only consider them if I had passive or near to passive small house.

You can also consider heat pump or even better improving insulation and air tightness first before deciding on any heating upgrades.

John.G

Dimplex Quantum look pretty impressive, they allegedly retain ~ 50% of stored heat after 24 hours so they might be worth considering. I dont have any personal experience of them.

SozBbz

Latro wrote: »

If you have to stick to this type of heating the only solution imo is to use them more. Switch on earlier and switch them off later.
Are you happy with the running cost atm? They are relatively expensive to run. I would only consider them if I had passive or near to passive small house.

You can also consider heat pump or even better improving insulation and air tightness first before deciding on any heating upgrades.

I think they're relativity expensive but I've no real other option as I'm part of a larger development. I do have a night rate meter so at least when they're charging, they're doing so at a reduced rate.

What I'm trying to find out is if there are better options for people using electricity than storage heaters in this day and age.

The ones I have are origional to the property and as such are 20 years old and are ugly beige monstrosities. Even if I can't improve performance than much, getting something smaller, neater and more attractive would also have some value to me.

I don't understand the comment about using them more? I'm not limiting them in anyway, they charge (heat up) over night, and probably go give out enough heat over the day. My issue is that they give out their heat too quickly, so that they are depleted by evening time. This happens even when I have the output set to the lowest setting. They're incredibly basic devices so theres no way of turning them back on - they're just programmed to absorb heat for 7-8 hours at night and release it throughout the day. My issue is that this release happens to quickly, so the house is probably most toasty in the morning/afternoon when its least needed.

Dardania

John.G wrote: »

Dimplex Quantum look pretty impressive, they allegedly retain ~ 50% of stored heat after 24 hours so they might be worth considering. I dont have any personal experience of them.

I'd agree - the technology looks like it would do what OP needs. It uses storage from off-peak, plus it adds a boost instantaneous element for the late evenings:

http://www.glendimplexireland.com/brands/dimplex/domestic-heating-systems/quantum-off-peak-heaters

The fact also that there's a controller in-built adding smarts should be useful.

It would require an additional, all day power outlet at each rad position.

John.G

SozBbz wrote: »

I think they're relativity expensive but I've no real other option as I'm part of a larger development. I do have a night rate meter so at least when they're charging, they're doing so at a reduced rate.

What I'm trying to find out is if there are better options for people using electricity than storage heaters in this day and age.

The ones I have are origional to the property and as such are 20 years old and are ugly beige monstrosities. Even if I can't improve performance than much, getting something smaller, neater and more attractive would also have some value to me.

I don't understand the comment about using them more? I'm not limiting them in anyway, they charge (heat up) over night, and probably go give out enough heat over the day. My issue is that they give out their heat too quickly, so that they are depleted by evening time. This happens even when I have the output set to the lowest setting. They're incredibly basic devices so theres no way of turning them back on - they're just programmed to absorb heat for 7-8 hours at night and release it throughout the day. My issue is that this release happens to quickly, so the house is probably most toasty in the morning/afternoon when its least needed.

The biggest problem with storage heaters is that they aren't/weren't but the quantum is a big step forward IMO. For example if you consider the QM150 which outputs 1500W and has a input of 3450W and a fully charged capacity of 23.1 Kwh and assuming a 50% heat leakage over a 24 hour period then this translates into a heat leakage of 481 watts/hour which will keep a room quite/very warm but if one is out all day and returns at say 5 PM, and assuming that it was fully charged at 0800 hrs there should still be theoretically 18.7 Kwh remaining and even if its then run at its full output of 1500 watts until 11 pm then there should still be nearly 10 Kwh charge remaining.
If one is in all day then that 23.1 Kwh charge will use up 21 Kwh up to 11 PM with 2.1 Kwh remaining.
I'm not sure how they operate if you stay up "late" and still want some output, I assume that they will still charge (after 11 PM) at the 3450W rate and bring in their auxiliary heating element which is probably 1500W?.

They possess some "smart" processing that looks at the previous days usage and only charge the unit to the capacity required for that period which probably has pros and cons, one pro probably is that if the weather heats up and if you only need say a "1/2" charge then the heating "bricks" dont get as hot as for a full charge and therefore the heat leakage is reduced which helps to prevent room overheating when not needed.

I will edit this shortly and give a link to some UK users.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4756577&page=2

ercork

I moved into my 2 bed terraced house a few years back. It came with storage heaters but they were completely unsuitable for me as nearly all of the heat had gone out of them by 6 or 7 in the evening - which was when I needed it the most! I replaced them with Lucht electric radiators. These are on-demand heaters which you just turn on when you need them. This means that most of the time you're using full price electricity so they are expensive to run but given that they weren't heating the house all day long (while I was at work) I ended up with slightly lower bills. So, an improvement but a marginal one.

Then earlier this year somebody suggested an air to air heat pump to me. I did some research and got one installed last April (missed the March snow unfortunately!) and have been using it a fair bit over the last 2-3 months. I've had it switched on far more than I used to have the electric heaters switched on and the house is much warmer. So far I've only had one bill and it's €30 less than the same period last year!

So it's a bit early to say it's a complete success - I will have to see how Jan, Feb, etc. go - but so far I'm very happy with it. Very quick installation process, no bulky rads on walls and reasonably cheap to install (compared to air to water, gas boiler, etc.).

dmboards

Hi ercork

Know this is an old thread but just wondering if you have any update on the air-air heat pump?

I'm renovating a house and have removed the old storage heaters with current plan to use the Lucht rads instead. But like you someone mentioned an air-air heat pump instead.

Apart from the efficiency/cost angle I'm also interested in if its noisy, and if it blows dust around the house - my understanding is that its effectively an air conditioning system (hence the noise question)

Just for info my downstairs is now open plan (approx 50 sq metres floor area) with pumped and internally insulated external walls, triple glazing and I'm also installing mechanical heat recovery vents (Obvs not looking for a validation or design of my solution just giving some background :)

Any info appreciated

Thanks, DM