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Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Field Marshal Dr. Opti on 06 February 2017, 09:59:58

Title: Had a look inside an electric storage heater this morning.
Post by: Field Marshal Dr. Opti on 06 February 2017, 09:59:58
Technologically advanced and sophisticated it certainly is not.

A rudimentary heating element (much like an electric kettle) some insulation, and 8 grey bricks.

Not quite sure what I was expecting but I thought it would look more up to date.
Title: Re: Had a look inside an electric storage heater this morning.
Post by: omega2018 on 06 February 2017, 10:05:06
the less efficient an electric device is the more energy will come out as heat..
Title: Re: Had a look inside an electric storage heater this morning.
Post by: aaronjb on 06 February 2017, 10:59:20
Yep, the good news is that electric heating elements are basically 100% efficient.  Of course electricity isn't the cheapest fuel per kWh, so not necessarily the cheapest method of heating..
Title: Re: Had a look inside an electric storage heater this morning.
Post by: Doctor Gollum on 06 February 2017, 12:07:24
Setting a fire in the middle of the living room carpet is as effective as any plug in heater...

... with the added benefit of being able to cook on it :D
Title: Re: Had a look inside an electric storage heater this morning.
Post by: Field Marshal Dr. Opti on 06 February 2017, 14:20:21
Setting a fire in the middle of the living room carpet is as effective as any plug in heater...

... with the added benefit of being able to cook on it :D

I like this approach.......and if the house belongs to somebody you don't like there is the added bonus of burning it down.
Title: Re: Had a look inside an electric storage heater this morning.
Post by: Field Marshal Dr. Opti on 06 February 2017, 14:23:18
Think how many fires there must have been in 'ye olden days' ::)

Man comes home pissed as a fart, knocks the candle over then falls asleep.

Pretty common demise.

Title: Re: Had a look inside an electric storage heater this morning.
Post by: Rods2 on 06 February 2017, 14:27:39
Gas appliances have to be a bit more sophisticated, so you don't get uncontrolled explosions. 8)




....Most of the time. :o :o :o
Title: Re: Had a look inside an electric storage heater this morning.
Post by: Rods2 on 06 February 2017, 14:38:23
Think how many fires there must have been in 'ye olden days' ::)

Man comes home pissed as a fart, knocks the candle over then falls asleep.

Pretty common demise.

By far the biggest cause of death in the 'olden days' was disease.

Relatively common in Eastern Europe during a -20/-25deg C cold snap for the vodka soaks to fall over and fall asleep for the last time outside. :o :o :o
Title: Re: Had a look inside an electric storage heater this morning.
Post by: TD on 06 February 2017, 18:10:44
Yep, the good news is that electric heating elements are basically 100% efficient.  Of course electricity isn't the cheapest fuel per kWh, so not necessarily the cheapest method of heating..

Yes, I read that recently about electric heaters.....you put 1Kw of leccy in, you get 1Kw of heat out.....but as you say Aaron....gas heating will be cheaper....unless you have a dinosaur gas boiler that likes to gobble up gas and gives not much in return.... 
Title: Re: Had a look inside an electric storage heater this morning.
Post by: TheBoy on 06 February 2017, 18:39:26
Mum has an electric boiler - basically a frekkin great big 3 phase 12kW storage heater like the one you dissembled, but with pipework through it to heat rads and water cylinders.

Obviously on E7, and ensures her appliances only usually go on overnight, but her energy bills are much different to mine. So tizzy isn't always more expensive.  Plus the boiler has nothing to go wrong - in 30yrs, its needed one fan and one element (both easily replaced).
Title: Re: Had a look inside an electric storage heater this morning.
Post by: Ever Ready on 06 February 2017, 19:03:40
Electric central heating boilers are making something of a come back, been seeing a few in the wholesalers,

as long as we don't get a resurgence of electric underfloor heating like we had in the ''good old days'' nightmare to repair and installation was usually done by the'' two houses a day'' rewire monkeys
Title: Re: Had a look inside an electric storage heater this morning.
Post by: Ever Ready on 06 February 2017, 19:10:45
Yep, the good news is that electric heating elements are basically 100% efficient.  Of course electricity isn't the cheapest fuel per kWh, so not necessarily the cheapest method of heating..

Can be quite funny watching somebody opening up one up and seeing the bricks fall out ;D ;D

De-commissioned loads of them, sound idea but most run out of heat too quickly. Last ones I had in an ex-council flat were stone cold by early afternoon, not much good on a freezingSpring Scottish morning with young 'uns on the go
Title: Re: Had a look inside an electric storage heater this morning.
Post by: Tony H on 06 February 2017, 19:46:28
I have storage heaters on economy 7 pretty efficient, for their age.The main drawback is limited control.  You have to predict the weather 24 hours ahead if the outside temperature started to warm up . It brings back memories of the marketing battle hosted in newspapers adverts between British Gas and the electric companies many years ago. It was a cartoon ad. showing how to adjust the two heating systems gas showed a hand turning down the control it then showed a storage heater customer hurling the radiator out of the window  ;D
Title: Re: Had a look inside an electric storage heater this morning.
Post by: Ever Ready on 06 February 2017, 20:17:47
Control is / was indeed the biggest drawback with storage heaters Tony

A lot of council houses had them due in no small means to only having to run one kind of energy line to the houses,

This would have been very appealing due to the reduced cost to build.

Maybe if gas lighting had still been in vogue then we could have had gas heating, cooking and fridges. May have been a bit costly to develop other gas powered appliances :)
Title: Re: Had a look inside an electric storage heater this morning.
Post by: TD on 07 February 2017, 08:26:34
One of my neighbours is on E10 (comes on for 3 hours in the afternoon as well as overnight)

His leccy bill is about double my combined energy bill......
Title: Re: Had a look inside an electric storage heater this morning.
Post by: Viral_Jim on 07 February 2017, 09:41:21
The way things are atm, best route is to insulate the opps out of your house and then heat it with whatever you like.  My parents went down this route with the last place they refurbished. Fancy double glazing, plus at least 75-100mm XPS insulation in floors/walls and a load more in the roof. With so little energy escaping, what your energy source is hardly matters.

They then went down the route of electric heating and water - low installation cost plus they're able to walk away and leave it for a month or so safe in the knowledge there's less to go wrong.Retrofitting insulation on that scale is an expensive job though.  :-\