Economy 10 heaters?

[u768211]

Hi all,

I have just moved in to a flat and it has economy 10 storage heaters installed, I therefore have a couple of questions.

1) Electricity supplier - is it possible to switch, I have been told by powergen that they are the only supplier to support economy 10, and I would need a new meter if I wished to switch. Is this true, or could I switch to an economy 7 supplier (or even another e10 one if they exist)?

2) How to use the things?? I believe that they have two seperate "coils" so do I just leave the things turned on all of the time, then they take in they heat at night in the cheap period, and let it out afterwards. Or should I switch them off during the day and only turn them on before I go to bed?

2.1) All of the heaters in this flat have two wall switches? At the moment I only have omne of the switches turned on, as I do not know what the other one does? Is one for the night storage facility and one for convection heating?

3) In the airing cupboard there is a "boiler", it has two switches on the wall (like the immersion on gas), what are these for? I think one is for instant heating for extra hot water etc (expensive) is this true, and if so is the other one just for the night storage coil, andtherefore should always be on??

Thanks for your help before I get a �500 electricicty bill!

James.

[trilobite]

I'm on Economy 7,  and have psychic heaters (sorry, storage heaters - it's just that you have to know two days in advance that you're going to be feeling a bit chilly). I don't know how much of the following applies to Ec. 10, but here's my experience....

My storage heaters have just one switch (E7). During the Winter the switch is left on all the time. There is no need to switch them off during the day as they do not use any electricity - in fact all youe E7 circuits will be dead until the allotted time (usually midnight or 1am). (I once did some late night electrical DIY and was trying to complete the job before the E7 kicked in as I hadn't turned the electricity off at the mains - not recommmended!)

Depending on what type of heaters you have, the second switch would be for some sort of 'boost' or 'convect'  function, using the normal rate (expensive)electricity. If the heat output from the Economy function is sufficient, there should be no need to use the boost function.

My immersion heater has two switches - normal and economy. I leave the economy on all the time. Again, it only operates in the early hours, providing me with a tank of cheap hot water for the morning. (I have no central heating).  The second switch I use to top up the hot water should I need it - in the evening, for example. This uses the normal, higher rate electricity, but since I have a tank of fairly warm water left over from the morning (the cylinder is well lagged), it doesn't take that much to bump up the temperature enough for a bath / washing up etc etc.

So, you should get by just using the Economy switches and leaving them on all the time when needed- just make sure you have the right switch !!

Hope this helps.

[emeline]

I also have Economy 10 heating.  I've often had salesmen from various companies at the door trying to get us to switch to their company but when probed none of them do economy 10.

I only have one switch on the heaters and during the winter they remain on most of the time - there are two control knobs for temperature and boost (although I've never really worked out how to use the boost).  Our immersion heater has 2 switches - one for heating the water at the same rate of electricity as the storage heaters and the other is for top-up using normal rate electricity (expensive) but rarely have to use this.  Hope this helps.