Free Storage Heater Experiment

[Joeboy]

Good to see, there when you need it.

[Stinsy]

Have you figured out an efficient way to program all your devices to react to these additional cheap slots?

[nowty]

Have you figured out an efficient way to program all your devices to react to these additional cheap slots?

No, but I know how to mess around with the settings to gain extra cheap slots now and again.

With an extra hour tonight, that means cheap roast chicken, mainly for the cat as its cheaper than posh cat food. And SWMBO gets an hour of extra ironing privileges.

Also, set the immersun to work with an external WiFi socket so I can easily program it via my iphone rather that setting the internal boost function to heat my storage heaters.

[nowty]

Picked up the storage heater at the weekend, a 150 mile roundtrip drive which was £2 in leccy.
Plenty of room in the TM3 with the rear seats down.


This is one of the newer LOT20 ones which was a bit of a punt after reading Stinsy's shenanigans with his.
https://camelot-forum.co.uk/phpBB3/view ... f=17&t=388

This one is a bit different in that its a fanless one and the daytime booster heater is an external element so its a kind of hybrid heater, part storage heater and part panel heater.


The storage heater part is only going to be used occasionally if its really cold, but I could use the 1kW boost heater by itself as a handy dump load in case of high PV generation. So I will use two WiFi sockets to control both the off peak and peak heaters independently. The 2kW heater will have its own power contactor but the 1kW boost heater can run directly off a second WiFi socket. Both heating circuits have inbuilt overtempt protection without the need to be connected to the EcoSmart circuit board.


Inside it has a completely sealed up storage box, is that what they mean when they say its a high heat retention one, there is simply no output flap.
The boost element can be seen surrounded by a black anodised heatsink along the bottom of the storage box.


Open the storage box reveals the heating elements and the insulation.


Lean the elements away to fit the rear bricks.


Add the front bricks.


All bricks now in.


I've ordered some insulated blade / spade connectors to bypass the "Eco" board without cutting any of the internal wires so I can revert it to "Eco Smart" operation if required. I have temporarily connected the wires together so I can do a short operation test tonight once the cheapslot time arrives.

[Joeboy]

Off and running once again! May the heat be with you. Good to see the layout too.

[Stinsy]

So the “storage” part solely relies on heat leaking through the insulation?

I thought the point of HHR storage heaters was that they’re supposed to work for “modern” households where everyone is out at work all day. They’re supposed to hold on to all the heat while you’re at work and deploy it on command when you get home in the evening!

Anyway, funny how stuff works out. As a society we seem to have gone back to people being in all day!

Are your smartplugs rated at 10A or 13A? Either way it is a good idea to split the elements between two plugs to give you greater granularity of control.

[nowty]

So the “storage” part solely relies on heat leaking through the insulation?

I thought the point of HHR storage heaters was that they’re supposed to work for “modern” households where everyone is out at work all day. They’re supposed to hold on to all the heat while you’re at work and deploy it on command when you get home in the evening!

Anyway, funny how stuff works out. As a society we seem to have gone back to people being in all day!

Are your smartplugs rated at 10A or 13A? Either way it is a good idea to split the elements between two plugs to give you greater granularity of control.

The problem with these things is your not exactly sure what your getting until you either pull them apart or actually use them in anger. But for £200 vs over £500 new, I can always re-sell it if it does not work out.

So your right in that the “storage” part solely relies on heat leaking through the insulation. Errrrrrr, yeah, and its supposed to boost the output when needed by running the 1kW daytime panel heater element at peak rate. We seem to have taken a step backwards.

Its also got the usual new (LOT20 Eco crap) which measures room temp, core temp, complicated timers and comfort time settings. It will delay boosting if it thinks its warm enough and the core does not need boosting for the full cheapslot time.
NO, NO, NO, I want to run it to the Nowty Towers ECO control rules which are simple,

1) If its not going to be cold enough, I don't even want it on, which will be most of the time, this is only for really cold conditions and to replace the heavy bricks in my fan oven.
2) If its hitting my cold threshold, I want it boosted to the max for the full 6 hour cheapslot, that will be my decision.
3) If I've got high Solar PV generation in Spring which could be up to 10kW, I reserve the right to switch on the booster element, the core element or both to avoid export curtailment.
4) I want easy control via my smart phone.
5) If we have have a power cut in the middle of the night I don't want the storage heater to power back up on the battery inverter. This is achieved by using WiFi sockets.

Smartplugs are 2kW (max) so the 1kW booster element is run directly off the smart plug (fused 10A) and the 2.1kW core heater is run off a 13A power contactor, both plugged into a 13A extension lead (with 13A fuse) which is hard wired back to a junction box, then 4mm cable back to a 16A MCB and RCD. Ran both circuits for an hour last night, max current 12.8A and nothing gets even warm (except the heater).

[Stinsy]

Good work.

My (TP-Link) smart plugs are 13A rated, which I know is rare, most are 10A. No prob for my little SH which draws only 1kW but worth baring in mind.

Could you automate the charging? For example set it to charge during the cheap period anytime the overnight low is forecast to be below -1 ℃ (or whatever)?

[nowty]

Good work.

My (TP-Link) smart plugs are 13A rated, which I know is rare, most are 10A. No prob for my little SH which draws only 1kW but worth baring in mind.

Could you automate the charging? For example set it to charge during the cheap period anytime the overnight low is forecast to be below -1 ℃ (or whatever)?

I think some smartplugs do the "If this then that" (IFTTT) protocol, if so it might be possible to write an applet, but mine don't do that.

[Marcus]

I suppose if it was 'smart' it could control output by charging up to a different temperature overnight, based on how the room temp held up to target on the previous day. Using the boost to compensate on a colder day.

Probably no worse than the old top flap control that was either slow release over 15hrs or let it all out in about 5hrs.