Free Storage Heater Experiment

[Gareth J]

I wonder if it's worth considering the toll on your heating element? Will running constantly for several hours significantly reduce service life? It may not and may in actuality be better for it than cycling on/off I don't know!

[billi]

Interesting approach Joeboy , i assume your night time units are much lower in the UK ... to make that idea viable , here its over 20 euro cent per kWh

I have a plastered Brick wall behind my stove , and behind that wall is my primary living area , so instead of using the stovefan to blow the warm air into the "hardly used" room , i decided to let them blow against the wall

[Joeboy]

Interesting approach Joeboy , i assume your night time units are much lower in the UK ... to make that idea viable , here its over 20 euro cent per kWh

I have a plastered Brick wall behind my stove , and behind that wall is my primary living area , so instead of using the stovefan to blow the warm air into the "hardly used" room , i decided to let them blow against the wall

That's pretty much the same thing as I am doing. Just been out for an estate walk and came back to the thermal mass emitting at 95 degs. Chucked a couple of logs on the WS and we are away again. The nulling out of the peaks and troughs is fantastic. There is I think 265kgs of mass around the WS and a further 180kgs of mass in traditional element heated storage heaters dotted around the house. They do indeed run at a cheaper rate through the night(5.5p per kWh for 5 hours). All that combined together has a very pleasant effect on the mean temp in the house. Wish I'd done it years ago.
I applaud anyone who gives it a go and Nowty now has another (slightly odd) string to his RE bow!
Crucially though, he is taking control of his FF consumption and actively making decisions for the good. If only we were all like that!

[nowty]

The bricks are in heavy duty baking trays which I already had and never used so still no extra hardware costs. They slide out nicely and they can be stored out of sight on the kitchen floor under the worktop cupboards.

New brick configuration with 70% more capacity and I cleaned the oven more to reduce any smell. No car charging tonight so I'll up it to a 3hr hot bake overnight, 2:30am to 5:30am.

[Stinsy]

I’ve set my oven to turn off when the cheap rate ends before. However it sounds an alarm that goes on indefinitely when it does so…

[nowty]

I’ve set my oven to turn off when the cheap rate ends before. However it sounds an alarm that goes on indefinitely when it does so…

Yeah, I get that on my dishwasher. Even though it has a delay function specifically for off peak running, you cannot turn off the end of cycle beeping and it goes on and on and on. Don't want that at 5:30am.

PS - I'd used all my spare bricks, but I found a solitary block paving brick lying around, so now with 85% more capacity.

[billi]

Yeah, I get that on my dishwasher. Even though it has a delay function specifically for off peak running, you cannot turn off the end of cycle beeping and it goes on and on and on. Don't want that at 5:30am.

Oh , heaven help us not the dishwasher next.... filled with bricks and the extra gained hot water circulated through the central heating

....She says " Nowty, my dear , no place to have a roast for dinner , nor to wash the dishes , everthing here is full of bricks , lets go out to the restaurant "

[nowty]

So for some reason I did not sleep too well last night and I went downstairs at around 5am. Oven was very hot, less smell, just a slight sweetness like I was baking some biscuits.

Oven temp was set to 250 degrees and bricks were between 200 degrees at the bottom and 230 degrees at the top.


In the morning, I had a nice surprise.
At 8:30am, 3hrs after the oven heating had switched off, the cooling fan which blows hot air out from just above the door was still operating and the air coming out was at 40 degrees. So it was operating a bit like some of the newer types of storage heaters which have a fan assisted function.

This really suits me as I want a fast charge up towards the end of the cheapslot and a relatively fast dumping of heat over the first few hours to help the heatpump heat the house in the morning without resorting to gas.

By 9am the cooling fan was no longer operating and the brick temps were 110 at the bottom to 130 at the top.


SWMBO was happy I had given the oven some heavy duty cleaning , but the addition of the extra bricks impressed her a lot less.

[Moxi]

Nowty,

Is this more efficient than say filling a barrel of water and heating the water for the same period and then running the heat pump loop via the heated water ideally on the outside of the tank sandwiched between tank and insulation ?

I suppose it depends on the availability and size of barrel, insulation and space to locate as your current set up is "free" and infinitely flexible as to "as and when needed".

I'm curious I guess as this is a very specific application and seasonal requirement.

Moxi

[nowty]

Nowty,

Is this more efficient than say filling a barrel of water and heating the water for the same period and then running the heat pump loop via the heated water ideally on the outside of the tank sandwiched between tank and insulation ?

I suppose it depends on the availability and size of barrel, insulation and space to locate as your current set up is "free" and infinitely flexible as to "as and when needed".

I'm curious I guess as this is a very specific application and seasonal requirement.

Moxi

It might not be any more efficient but I'm not going to be installing another water based heatstore for something which is only going to be used a few times a year.

My application is purely to help run Nowty Towers comfortably without gas in really cold conditions with sub zero temp nights and ONLY using cheapslot leccy.

This means ALL peak period power MUST be provided by my home battery and battery inverter. Therefore total load cannot exceed 6kW and the 50kWh capacity battery cannot be exhausted during peak times. This means the storing of heat is essential as well as battery charging during the cheapslot time.

My solution might end up being something more simple like adding another storage heater, maybe one the newer high performance ones.

One only truly learns what is possible through experimentation of theoretical ideas.