Storage heaters coming on later and later each day.

[Globalti]

Presently sitting wearing four layers and still cold as the storage heaters in this horrible bungalow are coming on later and later each day and right now it's a good 22 hours since they last came on. Seems the timer is slipping and loses an hour or two a day, in three months we've been round the cycle at least three times.

How does the controller work? Does anybody know?

 

[Mo1959]

Presently sitting wearing four layers and still cold as the storage heaters in this horrible bungalow are coming on later and later each day and right now it's a good 22 hours since they last came on. Seems the timer is slipping and loses an hour or two a day, in three months we've been round the cycle at least three times.

How does the controller work? Does anybody know?

I thought the electric company controlled them by sending out a signal. That’s what mine do. Bang on the same time every day.

 

[Globalti]

No these are on an old fashioned mechanical clock. Like everything else in this crappy bungalow they are broken. God I hate this place, the only good thing is that I've beaten the mice in the house though they are still in the car.

 

[screenman]

No these are on an old fashioned mechanical clock. Like everything else in this crappy bungalow they are broken. God I hate this place, the only good thing is that I've beaten the mice in the house though they are still in the car.

Did you try the eucalypsus oil I suggested?

 

[lazybloke]

If the internal timers can't be replaced, can you switch them to a manual mode and then buy some external timers?
You'd need to get something capable of handling probably 13amps. EG linky

 

[Globalti]

I got rid of the mice by blocking the huge holes under a door sill and by poisoning and trapping the ones inside. So off they went to chew my car engine.

When we get our possessions back on Thursday there will be two 2kw oil radiators so we'll bring them over to mouse-piss cottage.

 

[Dave7]

Did you try the eucalypsus oil I suggested?

How will that help his storage heater timers ?

 

[oldwheels]

I thought the electric company controlled them by sending out a signal. That’s what mine do. Bang on the same time every day.

Are you sure they start at the same time every day? My THTC seems to vary a bit according to the expected temperature somewhere else. As the winter progresses the start time creeps forward. The light is just outside my bedroom door and I hear it clicking on. I think it is a useless system anyway and is designed to make you turn on the expensive booster if you want evening warmth and the hot water is designed to disappear about lunch time just when you want it unless you turn on the expensive booster.
So far mine is not turned on yet as the solid fuel stove keeps the house warm and always has a kettle with hot water on top.

 

[Cycleops]

There are special settings for sassenachs.

 

[Globalti]

It's an old-fashioned timer clock thing with on/off stops round the perimeter. The ectricity meter has two rows of readout. I guess the timer is supposed to switch the storage heaters on at about midnight then off at about 6 but every day it slips and loses an hour. Today they came on at 1.00 so it will be warmer by the time we go to bed.

I just wanted to know if this slippage is a common problem and whether there's a fix.

 

[Mo1959]

Are you sure they start at the same time every day? My THTC seems to vary a bit according to the expected temperature somewhere else. As the winter progresses the start time creeps forward. The light is just outside my bedroom door and I hear it clicking on. I think it is a useless system anyway and is designed to make you turn on the expensive booster if you want evening warmth and the hot water is designed to disappear about lunch time just when you want it unless you turn on the expensive booster.
So far mine is not turned on yet as the solid fuel stove keeps the house warm and always has a kettle with hot water on top.

I think they maybe give you a boost when the temperature drops below a certain level. I honestly don’t mind them. Only got the hall one on just now and leave the other room doors open. I’ll try and not put the living room one on unless we get a really cold spell.

 

[screenman]

How will that help his storage heater timers ?

Hopefully he knew that I was writing about getting rid of mice from the car.

 

[the snail]

It's an old-fashioned timer clock thing with on/off stops round the perimeter. The ectricity meter has two rows of readout. I guess the timer is supposed to switch the storage heaters on at about midnight then off at about 6 but every day it slips and loses an hour. Today they came on at 1.00 so it will be warmer by the time we go to bed.

I just wanted to know if this slippage is a common problem and whether there's a fix.

It's been 30 years since I had them, but ...
I think the meter will be supplying power overnight, and the timer will be controlling the release of stored heat. those mechanical timers always fail eventually IME, so that would be most likely. Possibly it is becoming stuck for a while when it tries to switch on?.

 

[Chris S]

I've turned my living room storage heater off and replaced it with a £20 convection heater from Homebase. I've got (a lot more) heat when I need it for a fraction of the cost.

 

[Archie_tect]

Depends what type of storage heater they are... if they had time clocks at all.

The older ones just relied on a time clock at the Economy 7 meter which changed the normal tariff over to Economy 7 rate which was a cheaper unit cost for the night storage heating circuit- some people used to have their washing machines connected to Economy 7 too. If each storage heater has it's own clock it's easy just to advance each one to the right time regularly.