Is a Storage heater with single tariff allowed?

Hi ​@shetland ,

If you have a Smart Meter, you can switch to Single Rate and have the heaters run 24/7 if you really want to, but it’s highly inadvisable because you’ll end up spending a fortune - and that’s not how such heaters work anyway.

They should never be allowed to run 24/7.

Roughly half our usage is off peak with storage heaters.

Since the E8 tariff we will be on is less than ideal for the times when the heaters come on, an alternatiave approach is either to leave the heaters on 24/7 but on a very low setting, or use something like a fingerbot to turn them on and off at the switch on the wall to a timed suquence of our choosing, rather than be stuck with the E8 times only.

But if changing to a single rate tariff means the storage heaters still are only going to come on at E8 times, that isn't what I'd ideally want !

I suspect the storage heaters could be rewired so as not to be connected to the smart meters E8 port so to speak, but was quoted £5,500 for that !

They said a new consumer unit had to be installed at the same time.

By E8, do you mean the Domestic Economy tariff that gives offpeak rates for eight hours overnight (00:30-08:30 during summertime)? Why is this less than ideal for you? You would be charging the heaters up at 20.15 p/kWh instead of 26.99 p/kWh at current rates - that’s 34% more expensive. For an all-electric household consuming 3900 kWh a year, half of that would cost £526 at the single rate compared to £393 on Domestic Economy.

The heaters should deliver heat when you want them to, regardless of when they charge up. Older ones are not so good at that as newer ones, but they are usually designed to deliver heat for 14 hours a day. Some users find that they run out of steam towards evening, which is the time when you probably most need the heat. That’s why many Scottish customers have opted for Economy 9 or 10 plans, which each give two offpeak slots during the day; the earlier one can be used to boost flagging storage heaters, while the later one can be used to power direct heaters (radiators, convectors or IR, say) for late evening comfort at more affordable rates. It’s also easier to run other power-hungry appliances (electric shower, cooker, washing machine, dryer, hairdryer, iron, hoover ...) at the cheaper rate when you’re not actually in bed.

The bottom line (a personal view!): running storage heaters at single-rate prices is about as effective a way of keeping warm as burning £10 notes in the fireplace.  

We consume 16,000 kWh a year, 8,000 of that with storage heaters, 8,000 of that with everything else.

Off peak rate is 24.61p a unit, peak is 28.77p a unit.

I heard of a company that their single rate 24/7 is something like 24p a unit, so if we changed to that, it would be cheaper, plus we might then be able to choose when our storage heaters come on and go off to better suite our lifestyle, than to be stuck to a specific E7/E8/E10 plan.

 

Worth remembering though - it is unwise to try to run storage heaters 24/7 or outside of the E7/8/9/10 cycles that you’re moving to once you’re off of RTS...

Why is it unwise to run a storage heater 24/7 when said storage heater has been working fine running E7 times for 50+ years ?

I would imagine it will last longer being on 24/7 than going on and off all the time, putting extra stress on components in the process.

How would running them on a 12 cycle be any different to a 10 cycle either ?
 

Two main reasons tbh…

1. It’d cost you a fortune - night storage heaters are not meant to charge up 24/7 and the idea is you charge them during the night when the rates are cheaper on a split-rate tariff
2. You’ll potentially waste a load of energy for no benefit - those heaters can’t charge constantly anyway

​@shetland have you considered ditching the storage heaters and fitting an air to air heat pump heating system? After 50 yrs of storage heaters we did this last year, uses approx 33% of electric that storage heaters use, very responsive and quick to heat the house (ZE postcode). 

I have considered heat pumps, but yet to be convinced by the maths that they are a saving long term.

I still explore that possibiliy, though at the moment, think that solar thermal might be a cheaper and more reliable long term solution.

Neither are a cheap capital investment though, whilst storage cheapers are dirt cheap, espeically when I already have some sitting in the garage doing nothing useful !

I’ve seen storage heaters charge constantly 24/7 on a low setting, so I know that is possible.

Whether they can handle such a thing or not long term I don’t know, but as it seems as they are a very simple heating design from 50 years ago I don’t see why not, unless someone can specifically tell me why that isn’t possible.

If I was to have a heat pump, I’d need at least 2, so when one fails, I can use the other to avoid freezing to death.

Same with hot water tanks, best to have two, so you don’t have to put up with kettles for everything until you get some spare parts.

I notice for my model, there was only 3 spare parts for it left in stock in the entire country and they don’t make them anymore ! which reminds me of my current storage heaters where they stopped making parts for them after 47 years, and they are 50 years old.

Which is why I have some spares i the garage from a neighbour throwing theirs away when they upgraded their heating system.

Currently testing out electric heated towel rails as a replacement, since they are cheap, especially second hand, and easy to find wall space for.