Heating season?

[Adokforme]

I wouldn't run the A2A all night personally. One of the key benefits of an A2A (particularly one oversized as yours is) is that they heat up a space very quickly. If I were you I'd leave the doors open overnight and have the A2A come on in the last hour of your E7 cheap period. Maybe have it running on it's lowest fan speed overnight if we get a REALLY cold spell.

Hi Mart, Stinsy, that's what I tend do here with ours, catch the last hour or so of cheap tariff when the unit's draw most from the grid leaving on until 9 - 10 o'clock and adjust there after depending upon need.
With a long conservatory on the south facing side of lounge then In these shoulder months something I've only just thought to do on sunny days with the excess heat in there is to open the bifold doors and put the A2A unit on max fan only to hopefully circulate the warmed air further into the property. Checking the metered supply it draws a mere 15W's on this setting. Why ever didn't I think of trying it 5 years ago.

[Ken]

If you need the heat what is the argument for not running it at night on a cheap TOU tariff ? The thermal mass of the house will absorb the heat and release later. The temp of the fabric of the house is just as important as the air temp.

[Stinsy]

If you need the heat what is the argument for not running it at night on a cheap TOU tariff ? The thermal mass of the house will absorb the heat and release later. The temp of the fabric of the house is just as important as the air temp.

The point is that you're paying to heat the house at a time that you don't need the heat and most of that heat will be lost. If you were heating a deep and super-insulated concrete slab under your house with an ASHP then sure, run the HP for the whole of the cheap period. However an A2A in a typically-insulated British home is better at providing heat at the same time the heat is needed. Particularly this time of year when the A2A will require only 30mins or so to bring the room up to temperature.

[AGT]

Been out all day in Edinburgh, House feels colder despite heating settings staying the same except for 1 storage getting an extra , hour of charge taking it to 6.5hrs/11.591kWh for that heater don’t know if that’s the lack of kids PC, XBox, kettles getting boiled etc as outside temps seem the same yesterday.

Stove cleaned out this morning so a carrier bag of soot removed, so more room to fill it with wood!

66kWh used yesterday, majority on heating, some on the EV too.

[Joeboy]

Been out all day in Edinburgh, House feels colder despite heating settings staying the same except for 1 storage getting an extra , hour of charge taking it to 6.5hrs/11.591kWh for that heater don’t know if that’s the lack of kids PC, XBox, kettles getting boiled etc as outside temps seem the same yesterday.

Stove cleaned out this morning so a carrier bag of soot removed, so more room to fill it with wood!

66kWh used yesterday, majority on heating, some on the EV too.

Snap! In Edinburgh too, a little brisk air down here. Brought daughterly a dehumidifier and managed to convince that 17.5 degs is ok. Amazing, no regard when I was paying back in the day! Leave a light on for 3 secs extra now.. look out! Our first triple digit day yesterday charging car for the run South.

[Stinsy]

Been out all day in Edinburgh, House feels colder despite heating settings staying the same except for 1 storage getting an extra , hour of charge taking it to 6.5hrs/11.591kWh for that heater don’t know if that’s the lack of kids PC, XBox, kettles getting boiled etc as outside temps seem the same yesterday.

Stove cleaned out this morning so a carrier bag of soot removed, so more room to fill it with wood!

66kWh used yesterday, majority on heating, some on the EV too.

Snap! In Edinburgh too, a little brisk air down here. Brought daughterly a dehumidifier and managed to convince that 17.5 degs is ok. Amazing, no regard when I was paying back in the day! Leave a light on for 3 secs extra now.. look out! Our first triple digit day yesterday charging car for the run South.

100kWh is LOADS! A big day for me is 60kWh!

[GarethC]

I'm sure discussed before but is an A2A system (multisplit or ducted) to a home's main rooms, coupled with storage heaters for the secondary rooms (bathrooms, utility rooms, spare bedrooms) a potentially good combo? Tricky to duct A2A to all rooms, so easier to install storage fills the gaps. Both provide cheap, low carbon heat, one via high COP, the other via cheap off peak electricity. Both draw at different times, reducing peak electricity load. Trying to think of good strategy for my Victorian Edinburgh home. Villa divided into three big flats.

As an aside, can anyone explain why modern storage heaters are so expensive? Don't seem to get much change from £500 for the smallest ones, which remain insulated boxes full of bricks at the end of the day.

[Stinsy]

I'm sure discussed before but is an A2A system (multisplit or ducted) to a home's main rooms, coupled with storage heaters for the secondary rooms (bathrooms, utility rooms, spare bedrooms) a potentially good combo? Tricky to duct A2A to all rooms, so easier to install storage fills the gaps. Both provide cheap, low carbon heat, one via high COP, the other via cheap off peak electricity. Both draw at different times, reducing peak electricity load. Trying to think of good strategy for my Victorian Edinburgh home. Villa divided into three big flats.

Yes!

A storage heater or two is the perfect addition to any heat pump system but you can do ordinary resistive too. How well one or two A2A units work at heating your entire house has a lot to do with the layout. However the warm air circulates better than you could possibly imagine. I can watch the temperatures rise on the WiFi TRVs on my downstairs radiators from the upstairs A2A (with GCH switched off). An A2A is however defeated by a door. Therefore I use the A2A to heat the bedrooms in the daytime/evening (when doors are open) then use an oil-filled in each bedroom to bring them up to temp in the mornings when doors are typically closed.

SHs work well in combination with wet ASHP systems too. We have a chronic problem in the UK of heating engineers oversizing heating systems. This causes excessive cycling which throws efficiency out the window and causes unreliability. The SHs allow a heat pump system to be sized very conservatively so it can run 24/7 even in the shoulder months and the house will still be cosy in unusually cold conditions.

[Joeboy]

As an aside, can anyone explain why modern storage heaters are so expensive? Don't seem to get much change from £500 for the smallest ones, which remain insulated boxes full of bricks at the end of the day.

Depending on home layout, a lot can be done to hide storage heaters. Hidden in corners, behind screens, tables, sofas and rad covers if need be. My personal fave is the single element 800W unit with the bimetal release control. They fit in just about anywhere, we have six of them.


I don't think we have a single storage heater under 30 years old. Every one sourced from the secondhand market. Why buy new? I also don't see £500 per unit. In fact £50 down to free was my preference.

They are now running minimal timing at home on IO, no WBS, no GCH and home is about 16 degs with 10 degs outdoors.

Total win.

Below is home stack and SH charging last night.



P.S For anyone going this route try and fit a big SH as close to centre point in the home lower floor. It really does make an effective difference.

Personal datum point for unoccupied house.


There is also the cumulative effect over time felt in air temp speed of response and as we found last year SH's not needing to take a full charge overnight.

With an A2A in the main living space I think that to be a hell of a combo.

[Stig]

I finally gave in and performed the annual ritual of re-lighting the pilot light for the GCH. I always try to put it off as late as possible (being away last week helped) but it was struggling to get above 17C even with good sunshine. I have a small storage heater as 2nd output of the PV diverter but winter shading is now robbing me of the best 2hrs of midday generation so it's not getting much of a look-in. It'll be useful again in March when the big tree is bare but until then I'll have to rely on fossil fuel.