Discuss Changing storage heaters to convector heaters in the Industrial Electricians' Talk area at ElectriciansForums.net

O

Olec

Hi all, just looking for some opinions. I have been called to a flat where an elderly gent (95) has 4x storage heaters (2 lounge/ dining, 1 hall, 1 kitchen). The other 2 bedrooms have convectors on plugs that he hardly ever uses and the bathroom + ensuit have fan heaters. This gent has moved his bed into the lounge and mainly uses the bedrooms for storing stuff. He is struggling to understand what he has to do regarding the storage heaters which I can see why (input, output, summer, winter blah blah). He wants something he can just switch on and off and control temp as and when he needs it. The only suggestion I can come up with is finding a convector heater that's easy to use and replacing the 3 hall, lounge and diner heaters. There is no need changing the kitchen one as he has never used it and it goes straight through to lounge and hall so I think this would be a waste of money.
My obvious issue is the cost if his bills. If the only thing he has remaining is the immersion on e7, would I be right in thinking he'd be better on flat rate so to take down the day rate? Has anyone been asked to do this before and did you?
Thanks
 
You are right in that many E7 tarrifs only become viable if enough units are used, otherwise better to be on a flat rate tarrif. The only way to be sure though is to ask the supplier.
Just be careful that you don't end up with too much load on the RFC if considering going to ordinary plug-in heaters in place of storage. Your other option of course is to take those SH point cables back to the main CU and give them their own MCB.
 
Modern storage heaters are meant to be just about automatic, once the initial set up is done then they can be left as is and they accommodate changing temperatures. It may be worth putting in a couple of ten minutes for two days to set up new storage heaters for him and then he can turn the heat up and down as required.

Using just an immersion on E7 would not be worth it I think the power consumption generally has to be about 60% E7 to make it viable, however I may have got that figure totally wrong. Anything less than that and single rate is the way to go.

Modern panel heaters advertise that they are much more efficient at delivering heat, but I do not know the truth on that score.
 
Modern panel heaters advertise that they are much more efficient at delivering heat, but I do not know the truth on that score.

Unfortunately it is a myth.

Modern electric panel heaters are very efficient, 100% in fact, as are old panel heaters.

Fact remains to get 1kW heat out, you burn 1kW electric, end of.

Modern heaters may warm up quicker than old ones due to use of different design of heater elements, but they will also cool down quicker.
 
Whats the question again? a little confused fella

Apologies, I know it was a drawn out post, just wanted to get as much info as poss into it.
Guitarist, yes I should have explained I will not overload the RFC and will be using existing SH circuits that I'll be re routing into on peak DB.
 
There are many options to offer,if the storage heaters are going to be ditched then E7 tariff would work out more expensive if only for HW,try dimplex and Rointe heaters,some can be set up on timers with little user adjustment which looks to be what is required in this instance.
 

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