Alternative to Storage heaters for evening heating?

squirrel6767

Hi

Currently have large storage heater in appartment that, as per design, comes on and charges at night - 11pm to 8am (via ESB night rate metre) and gives off heat during the day.
The output is set to zero to throttle the heat it gives out so that it gives out heat for longer but by the time you get home from work its pretty much all discharged and room is cold again.

Storage heaters in my view are great for houses where there is someone in the house by day but not great for those that require the heat in the evenings.

The fact that they can only be controlled by the ESB metre on the cheaper night rate which you cannot tamper with means there is no way of it charging by day and giving off heat in evening.

There is no gas/oil in these appartments.

So the question is .....
- has anyone come up with a way to get better use out of storage heaters in the evening?
- if not what alternatives are there that are cheap, efficent, effective and safe to have a house cosy warm when you get back from work at around 5pm and will last well into the evening? Really talking about something that would be on a timer and something that is not going to cost a fortune on day rate and most importantly not going to cause a fire. (Gas and oil are out - too expensive to install)

Thanks in advance
Patrick

Pete67

Is the input dial turned up to maximum so that the concrete inside gets heated to a higher temperature? If so it should retain enough heat to heat the room in the evening if the output turned to minimum until you get home. When you come home turn the output up and turn it back to minimum when you go to bed.

If that doesn't work, a lot of storage heaters also have a separate convection heater built in which can be operated at any time of the day or night (obviously uses the day rate if you switch it on outside of the night rate hours). If so, there will be two electrical supplies to the heater, one will only be live when the night rate is active, and the second will be live continuously.

Good information and tips for operating storage heaters here:

RKQ

Only cheap alternative is a Paraglow heater - kerosene 68c / litre.

No timer, but fast heat at 3KW ( same as a small stove )
Relatively portable with safety turn off, if knocked over. One heater could heat a whole one or two bed apartment.

Good evening / weekend back up heater.

Johnnyghia

Hi
On my storage heaters I have the input set to 4 and the output is also set at 3 which the instructions said was the setting for evening heat discharge. I think the lower output releases heat early in the day.
And the place is nice and warm all day.


output =1 No boost
output =3 Evening boost
output =6 afternoon boost

Cheers

dlambirl

Johnnyghia wrote: »

Hi
On my storage heaters I have the input set to 4 and the output is also set at 3 which the instructions said was the setting for evening heat discharge. I think the lower output releases heat early in the day.
And the place is nice and warm all day.


output =1 No boost
output =3 Evening boost
output =6 afternoon boost

Cheers

So if you want it throwing out the heat in the morning - whats it best to set it at?? 1?

Johnnyghia

I would reckon so but these things I have found are not an react science and even with the instructions took some playing with to get right.

squirrel6767

dlambirl wrote: »

So if you want it throwing out the heat in the morning - whats it best to set it at?? 1?

Thanks for all the replies.

Just to confirm the above. The Output should be set high (typically 8) if you want it to throw all the heat out in the morning. All you are doing by turning the dial to the max is opening a vent, on top of the "brick" that is being heated over night, thus releasing the heat quicker.

As previously mentioned if you want the heat to be trickled out slowly all day and hopefully into the evening then set the Input high (heats "brick" to max over night) and Output down to the minimum (keeps vent closed).