Keeping Night Storage Heater On All The Time!

According to research only 38% of people fully comprehend how night storage heaters work. The Energy Saving Trust says, “Households with electric heating could be paying through the nose by not taking advantage of cheaper night rate electricity”.

The main purpose for electric storage heaters is to take advantage of cheap, off-peak electricity rates. By charging the heater overnight and using the energy in the day, you would make a saving as the excess electricity being generated by the national grid is not being wasted and it is offered cheaper during off-peak hours.

According to the guidance offered by the energy saving trust on storage heaters, “A standard electric storage heater has two controls, an output setting and an input setting. The output setting will control how much heat the heater gives out (as long as there is stored heating available). The input control determines how much electricity the heater will take from the grid during the coming night, and hence how much stored heat will be available the following day”.

“So you need to set the output dial according to how much heat you want now and the input dial according to how much heat you think you will need tomorrow”.

“If a heater runs out of heat in the evening while you still need it, or if the weather gets colder, you may need to turn the input dial up. If the weather gets warmer, or the heater never runs out of heat in the evening, you can probably save money without getting cold by turning the input dial down”.

“Turn the Output dial to zero before you go to bed or go out, so you’re not wasting energy overheating empty rooms. You can probably do this quite early, maybe an hour before you go to bed, as it will take a while for the heater and the room to cool down”.

“And when summer comes and you don’t need the heaters any more, turn them off at the wall, not just by turning the dials to zero. Remember you will need to turn them on again the day before you need the heating to come back on”.

Shay Ramani