Storage heater problems

[lilacben]

I wonder if any one can help my daughter. She has storage heaters and in the middle of the night she says they are boiling hot but by the afternoon they are cold.She is expecting a baby within a couple of weeks and it is far to cold for the baby. When she moved into the house there was no instruction on how to use them. It would be helpful if she knew what output/inputs should be. many thanks Brenda

[raysparx1]

Hello lilacben,

On the top of the heater there should be two control knobs, "input" and "output" the input is the thermostat so you set that onto a higher number the colder the weather gets, the "output" is allowing the heat to come out set that to the lowest number you can, then if you need a bit more heat to come out in the evening turn the output knob to a higher number, but turn to 0 or 1 before going to bed, hope this helps, good luck, Ray

[handygran]

I think that is how storage heaters are supposed to work they go on at offpeak times so it is cheaper. I understand the problem though with her expecting a baby, I hope you can find a solution.

[lady_p_gold]

Storage heaters are pretty useless and the problem is that they 'store' the heat at night when it is cheaper, you can usually tell when it starts as the lights momentarily dim slightly when they start. There should be some sort of timer on them and basically she wants to try and keep them low so that the heat stays in them until the evening. Unfortunately this is not easy and they tend to get very hot first thing in the morning .. however they should not be hot at night. If she has a baby I would suggest she got an alternative form of heating for that room, say a convector heater which could click on and off with a thermostat, or I daresay there are some small appliances which would be safe for a baby's room.

[buildersmate]

The 'output' knob that Ray refers to (above), controls a mechanical flap inside the heater that prevents the stored heat from coming out. So what Ray says is right. She just needs to appreciate that the heat gets in there at night, and she needs to keep it in there until she opens this knob to control its release. Once its out, there's no more heat until it 'recharges' the next night.

[Scarlett]

I make sure I have mine set on the LOWEST output available and highest input. So it heats up to the highest available amount, but stores the heat for the longest time. Apparently you can turn up the "output" button if you need a boost of heat but I have never done this. If the output button is not on minimum, it is pushing out heat, which then will be gone by lunchtime. By keeping it at 0, it stored it in for the max amount of time.

[lilacben]

Many thanks to youall for your help. I have given them to my daughter and she is very pleased. once again thanks Brenda