Night storage heaters??

[what..the?]

Please may I ask peoples views and experiences of these, I am interested in buying a small bungalow which has these fitted, theres only like a couple of rooms in the house so not much worth heating really, the buildings gross area is 41 sq m / 443 sq ft. It is on the coastline in Cornwall so winters are fairly cold from my experience living nearby.

The energy efficency chart on the house details doesnt look too good at a 'F' rating from A to ( G being the worst)

Please can someone tell me how a storage heater works, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of having them. I had one as a student and it never seemed to work but then again I didnt have a clue how to use it.

Thanks is advance

[vulcan]

the storage heaters we had years ago were metal boxs with special heat retaining bricks and filaments to heat them.the heating was done at night with off peak electricity running on a different circuit. we found they weren't particularly efficient or convenient and never gave out much heat.they didn't stay too long and were replaced by an oil fired system.

[buildersmate]

They are efficient, in that they convert 100% of the electrical energy put into them into heat.
However that doesn't make them cheap to run because they use off-peak electricity which still costs far more than an equivalent gas or oil sourced system (by a factor of about x2 in the case of gas).
The other issue with them is that they are at their warmest in the morning and gradually cool down during the day. This is utterly useless for people who are generally out during the day. This is caused by how they work - by heating up the thermal bricks inside the insulated tin box at night, then gradually letting the heat escape during the day (when no more heat goes into them).
The only advantage of them (in my opinion) is that they are relatively cheap to purchase and install.

[what..the?]

Thank you so much for your answers, that would make sense the night storage heater I used as a student was working its just I would only need it in the evenings and it was cold by then.

Thanks for all the information, it good to get peoples views and also the con's and buying I place with these fitted the cost of installing gas or oil wouldnt be cheap, and this needs to be considered if we put an offer on the house.

Thanks again.