Switch on Storage Heaters

Smashee

I was wondering if someone could help me out with a problem I'm having with my storage heaters. I have two storage heaters not working in my apartment, one large one small both dual heaters on which the storage part has stopped working. The thing is they have two lit switches on the wall (one for storage part which is labelled 'night' and one for convection part which is labelled 'day') and the light on 'night' one has gone out aswell ... so I'm wondering if it's something to do with the switch? Has anyone had any experience with a problem like this or any suggestions on how to fix it before I call in the electrician ... which I can't afford at the moment!!

Also, I saw something about an annual hoovering and was wondering what that's all about? Can anyone give me more info on how to do this and why?

Thanks a million!

Victor

Smashee wrote: »

I was wondering if someone could help me out with a problem I'm having with my storage heaters. I have two storage heaters not working in my apartment, one large one small both dual heaters on which the storage part has stopped working. The thing is they have two lit switches on the wall (one for storage part which is labelled 'night' and one for convection part which is labelled 'day') and the light on 'night' one has gone out aswell ... so I'm wondering if it's something to do with the switch? Has anyone had any experience with a problem like this or any suggestions on how to fix it before I call in the electrician ... which I can't afford at the moment!!

Is it possible that the trip switch / fuse has gone? Did it work before? Have you changed your ESB account since?

Also, I saw something about an annual hoovering and was wondering what that's all about? Can anyone give me more info on how to do this and why?

Heat attracts dust. Dust is an insulator. Removing the dust allows the heater radiate heat into the room more easily.

Borzoi

Smashee wrote: »

The thing is they have two lit switches on the wall (one for storage part which is labelled 'night' and one for convection part which is labelled 'day') and the light on 'night' one has gone out aswell ... so I'm wondering if it's something to do with the switch?

The light on the 'night' section should only be on during night when the storage heating is charging - as this is fed from the night side of the meter. So check late at night, between 12 and 7 I think

Smashee

Hi Victor,

I've just looked at all my trip switches and there's none down, so I don't think it's the trip switch, besides the convector part of the heater still works so it probably wouldn't if the trip was gone for that heater. I'm not sure if the fuse is gone ... how do I check that ... Well, now I come to think of it the one in the living room hasn't worked since I moved in and I did have to create a new ESB account (but I don't think they switched it off they do a new thing now where the person who's closing the account just takes a meter reading and pays 'til then so they know when to start charging the new person) but the one in the small bedroom went recently.

Borzoi,
Thanks for the reply. Yah ... I know it doesn't come on until the heater is timed to come on (i.e. 12pm - 8am) what I'm saying is that the light for the day one comes on when I press that switch but if the switch is turned on for night at 12pm or after there's no light on those two heaters while there is on the other heaters ... which leads me to believe that it may be something to do with the wall switch. Or maybe it's something to do with the dust thing?!

Del2005

Don't forget that they are storage heaters, they take hours to heat up leave it switched on over night.

Unless your in the house all day I found that storage heaters are next to useless. They heat the room all day and as soon as it gets cold at night they are cold also. You still need to use the convection heater.

On my heaters I've powered down the storage part on the main circuit board and the convection heater still works

Dandelion6

I'm usually only in the house (and awake) for a couple hours each night during the week. At the weekends I tend to be home most of the day. Am I better off, in terms of ESB bill, using only the convection heater or is that ridiculously expensive?

We don't have this type of heater where I'm from and I find it very confusing

Smashee

Hi Del,

Thanks for the response ... I'm living in the apartment over a year so I know how the storage heaters work ... all the other ones give out heat after being switched on and the lights on their 'night' switches come on at 12 so that you know that they're on and taking in the energy to give out the heat later ... what I'm saying is that these two light don't come on anymore / never came on so I suppose what I'm kinda asking (should've made myself clearer) is if people think it's a fault in the switch or the fuse and if anyone has ever had experience of this type of fault and know how to fix it?!

Dandelion, I'm not really sure what to advise you here but from my own perspective (I'm quite a cold person aswell) I usually put the heaters on when it gets quite cold (so basically I turned a few on last week when it was kinda chilly) my apartment is usually quite warm because I'm on the top so usually the heat from downstairs rises up! I don't have them up too high, so I put the input to about 3 and the output should always be at 1 so it releases it very slowly (this suits if you're out all day) ... by the time I get home in the evening there's only a miniscule amount of heat left to release but the apartment isn't chilly when I get in (as it probably would be if there was no heat on) and what I do then is turn on a convection heater if I feel the need to top up the heat in that room. Convection heaters are very, very expensive to run so if I was you I wouldn't rely on them as a sole source of heat. From my experience, I've used the storage heaters from late October / early November to around February / March so that's only about half the year ... the other half there's absolutely no need so my bill falls drastically in the summer, but during the winter it's frikkin mental!! :eek:

Dandelion6

OK - having investigated the matter more thoroughly (sorry - told you this is all new to me) - the heaters I have are actually Dimplex Duoheat which are supposed to be more economical than regular storage/convection combis. But I'm still wondering what's the most cost-effective way for me to use it. If I'm only going to need heat for a couple hours a day, am I better just turning the heat on then? At what point does it become more cost-effective to use it as a storage heater?

Del2005

Smashee,

Sorry, maybe try flipping the circuit breaker for your storage heaters and try again. From looking at mine I've no fuse for the storage part only for the convector. But if you have a fuse, and only if you know what you are doing with electricity, power down the circuit breakers or better still the whole breaker box and take the fuse out and see if it's OK. If you aren't experienced working with electricity I'd say call in a sparks and get them to have a look. Better alive then trying to save a few Euro.

Dandelion,

I've you are going to be in the place at weekends use the storage part then. The best way to see if the it makes any difference during the week use the storage heaters for a few nights and don't use them on others and see if you need to use the convection heater more, less or the same amount. If its more or the same then there is no point in using the storage part, if less and you have access to you're meter box take some readings and try and work out what way is cheapest. If you don't have access to the meter, you can probably work out how much juice each is using and again work out which way is cheaper.

I personally found that when I used the storage heaters I had to turn the convection heater on at roughly the same time, so I didn't see any point in heating an empty place. But maybe I was lucky as I'm South facing in a top floor apartment.

Salar15

Hi,
I have 4 creda storage heater in my apartment, 2 in the living room, 1 in the kitchen and 1in the corridor. The 1 in the kitchen and the 2 in the living room stopped working at the same time. The fan part still working, but night time doesn't work.
Can anyone help me to get out of this problem?
Thanks