storage heaters not working!

bada_bing

Hi,

i recently moved into an apartment in cork and the only means of heating is the storage heater in every room. Now the heaters work when you activate the constant heat which is obviously an expensive method. But i can't get them to store electricity and release the heat slowly through out the day.

What i've done is leave them on overnight and set the input dial at 5 which determines how cold the apartment is. Then i set the room temp boost dial to 1 as i only want to store electricity. Then the following day after 18 hours of leaving them on in both rooms, i turned the room temp boost to 8 or 9 just to see if there would be any heat released and it never works.

I do have a theory and i was hoping that someone might be able to verify this. Besides each heater there are two wall switches and when i switch both of them on, the red light on the first one always comes on but not for the second one and i did check after 11 pm or midnight just to see if it's connected to the night rate meter or something. I have no idea what the second switch is for and i think it's related to storage part of the heater.

have a look at the attached images and hopefully someone out there will know what the second switch is for and why i can't get the storage heating to work.

seamus

You're right, one switch is for the convection heater and the other is for the storage heater. You have a combi heater there and each is wired to a different circuit. The switch for the convection heater should always light up when it's on, the second switch should only light up when the night meter kicks in at 11pm (12am during the summer).

Set the input dial at 5 and the heater should be roasting the next morning (or even an hour later). If it's not even warm, then the heater isn't coming on.

Assuming you have left the second switch "on" overnight and it doesn't light up and the heater doesn't work, then chances are the switch has blown. Had storage heaters myself in the last place, and this happened at least once with all of the heaters, usually when switching them back on for the first time in October.

If you're comfortable wiring a plug, then replacing it should pose no problem. Buy a replacement switch in Woodies or wherever, €10 or so, turn off the power at the box, swap them out, bingo-bango.

Actually what I'd be inclined to do is buy a standard switch plate with no light and use that for the convection heater, then use the convection heater's switch for the storage heater. That way you always know which one is which. You don't really need a light on the convection heater's switch because it's not on the night circuit.

solargain

The thermal cutout/ fusable link could be gone in the heaters , ( if you put anything up on them it happens) or there could also be a devi reg controller on them as the nights are not really cold yet , that could be holding them off, especially if it was not set up correctly. If the second switch is not lighting up on all of those heaters after midnight , then the problem is at the board , ie contactor or clock or devi reg controller.

bada_bing

thanks for the responses. They helped me to convince the landlord that an electrician was needed to have a look and it turns out the ESB were at fault as the night circuit was not working. They finally got around to fixing it yesterday and i woke up to a nice warm apartment for the first time.