Storage Heaters

[Oldgreybeard]

actually a friend of mine was on the committee which agreed this... Have you ever heard of anyone getting a shock from putting their fingers round a plug? I'm not sure it has ever happened.
The real story is that when we got decimal new pennies, kids quickly found that one would fit perfectly between the 3 pins, so schools were crippled by a spate of circuits tripping, and as fast as you found which plug had a penny between it and the socket another had been sabotaged!
Hence the redesign of plugs to prevent it. Reading the comments above I reckon it would have been better to have had special "School plugs."

You're right, I've never heard of anyone getting a shock like this, and the schoolboy prank thing sounds far more likely to have been the reason for the change. I had a plug fail like this, melted all the insulation away around the live pin. The surprise was how thin the pin is under the insulation (it was visible after it had melted), it's only about 1/16th inch thick, no wonder they overheat.

[ALAN/ALAN D]

Quote. "Have you ever heard of anyone getting a shock from putting their fingers round a plug? I'm not sure it has ever happened."

Yuppp. I managed a 15 amp plug back in 1957

the diameter and length of the pins was much bigger. A kid could easily get many fingers up between the plug and socket and touch all three pins at the same time. was a bit before. R.C.Ds.

[chris_n]

Just fiddling with my new units As expected they're very simple and very old; the smaller one has 2 heating elements at 850W each, the larger one 4.

The output dial literally mechanically moves a metal plate to create an airway out of the insulated chamber so the warm air can rise out, or closes it so it can't. This is a bit simple for me and I'm worried that rooms will either always be too warm or too cold. So retrofitting a fan.. somehow.. that I can control with a thermostat will be a high priority I think. I just need to find something that will fit in the space and not melt with what could be pretty hot air coming out. Wonder if anyone has suggestions on what sort of thing to look for, I suppose I wouldn't mind them just being cable-tied to the outside of the grille if they had to be..

Not sure how the input works yet, there must be some sort of thermostat on it so it takes into account residual heat from the previous nights heating; if I rotate it I can see the resistance across it (its inline with the power to the elements) suddenly change from 0 to 1MOhm, so effectively turning them on or off. I guess the higher this is set, the hotter the bricks end up being.

You would be better off putting the fan on the cool side and blowing air through the heater. You could probably use one designed for hanging on a radiator.

[Joeboy]

A very welcome 21kWh in today from the PV. Continuing to reduce the SH's that are on as the weather has bounced back and central hallway is at 22.9 degs with no WBS1 assistance!

Next up when we return to Scotland is to run up all four of the 850's to max charge and see which two output the best. Those two will be placed in and around the big lounge area to keep the chill off while WBS1 gets up to speed on the Winter mornings.

Below is last night's load as I went by. EV was not charging. HWT, stack and remaining SH's were.


As an aside, the rising outdoor temps and SH ongoing output from last nights self restricted charge window means we do not have to fire up WBS1 tonight, a few more days like that will be nice not only for clean air but to show ourselves the flexibility in our overall system of many parts.

[Joeboy]

Last one on this from me for a while. Last night with only the stack charging to 100% and the SH's we left on we used 30kWh of power from the grid. 4kWh of that went into the stack. The house was at 22.1 degs this morning and wonderful to walk around in. 26kWh to the SH's, so that's under £1.50 a day to heat a 5 bedroom home. That seems quite good to me?

P.S, the house is currently at 22.8 degs so I think we have it about right for the time of year, not overheating.

[Caesium]

Getting the bug for this now I thought I did well by getting the two ancient XLS SH for £40, but this feels like a steal..

Scored a fairly modern TSRE070 for £20! Built-in fan and thermostat. Shame about the dents in the front, its been dropped at some point. Might see if I can hammer them out. But otherwise it's as tidy as you like.

Bizarrely when I got this the offpeak and peak terminals were commoned together, so as soon as I plugged it in to check the fan and display worked, it started the heating elements up.. Has this thing been used incorrectly since installation? Sheesh There might be a way to schedule it in the menus somewhere I guess, but the manual does say "not suitable for single supply".





Dead pleased with that

[nowty]

Bizarrely when I got this the offpeak and peak terminals were commoned together, so as soon as I plugged it in to check the fan and display worked, it started the heating elements up.. Has this thing been used incorrectly since installation? Sheesh There might be a way to schedule it in the menus somewhere I guess, but the manual does say "not suitable for single supply".

Unfortunately, the new regulations (Lot 20) are a backward step for us renewable and time shifting folk. I had to rip all the smart crap out of my last second hand storage heater and used blade connectors to get it to work as I wanted it to.

[Stinsy]

Bizarrely when I got this the offpeak and peak terminals were commoned together, so as soon as I plugged it in to check the fan and display worked, it started the heating elements up.. Has this thing been used incorrectly since installation? Sheesh There might be a way to schedule it in the menus somewhere I guess, but the manual does say "not suitable for single supply".

Unfortunately, the new regulations (Lot 20) are a backward step for us renewable and time shifting folk. I had to rip all the smart crap out of my last second hand storage heater and used blade connectors to get it to work as I wanted it to.

Yep. I too had to circumvent the LOT20 silliness on my SH.

[Joeboy]

That's the last storage heater in place. On a mechanical timer, will see if it keeps decent time. All on last night for varying amounts of time, probably about 85% of charge capacity used. House was at an excellent 20.5degs this morning while 8 degs outdoors.

Even now 14 hours after power off to SH's...


Dull day, zero solar gain.

[Moxi]

We had to light the WBS two nights ago due to the overcast weather - not so much for the warmth to the house but to dry the clothes on the pulley maid. Last three days generation has all been sub 5kWh for the day.

Moxi