When winters arrive, all of us scroll through the internet to find heaters that could keep them cozy and warm. Storage heaters are types of convection heaters that store heat during the night at low cost and release it during the day as and when required. These enjoy several benefits that we are going to look at later.
Let’s learn more about different types, their operation principle, and the advantages it has over other heating equipment.
Types of Heaters
1.Basic Heaters
Basic ones have two main controls, an input which controls how much heat the heater stores and an output that controls how quickly the heat escapes.
2. Automatic Heaters
This automatic storage heat-generating equipment has an inbuilt sensor to monitor the temperature of the air. The heater should automatically adjust its charge to match your preferred settings while there are some exceptions that don’t have any settings, so you don’t need to customize them.
3. Fan-based Heaters
Fan-assisted ones blow warm air into the room from the bottom of the heater. Among these, some models have a 2-speed fan to control the heat output.
Combination Heaters
Combination storage heaters have a built-in convector heater. You can use this to recharge the heat in cold weather. Depending on your tariff, this booster may use energy at peak or when the prices are low – contact us if you’re not sure.
How does it work
Storage heaters are usually composed of clay-bricks or other ceramic material such as grog, concrete walls, or water containers. Some unique materials, such as feolite, can also be used for some purpose, which serves as a heat storage medium. There are electrical heating elements planted in these ceramic or special materials which can be switched on to heat the medium and thus store energy.
The stored heat is given off continuously through the process of thermal radiation and convection. To increase the heat transfer speed, these heaters may come equipped with mechanical fans that can pass the air through the radiator.
Advantages
- As these heaters run with the principle of electricity storage at off-peak hours, they do not require extensive pipework or plumbing but just a simple set of wires. This implies that they are cheaper to install than those of complete central heating equipment.
- Fan assisted heaters are usually auto-combination models, including a silent fan that helps to radiate heat more efficiently without making noise.
- These heaters can also be used in conjunction with renewable systems such as wind turbines and solar PV. They can be charged for free whenever an additional amount of electricity is being generated.
- Using these heaters allows houses to be sited in areas where natural-gas distribution systems are not available without requiring the house owners to pay higher daytime electrical-heating bills.
Disadvantages
- These heaters wastefully use energy as heat is lost from the heater while charging at night. The room’s temperature is warm in the morning, but this is due to the wasteful heating done all night.
- A storage heater can’t store 100% of the generated heat. Therefore, they are required to store much more heat than is necessary to be used in the day.
- These heaters have complicated controls; therefore, many users may not fully understand the controls. Due to this, people usually leave the output (or boost) control open at night, so that the heaters give-off heat when they should be storing it, with a consequent increase in consumption and cost of electricity.
- When the fan is used to increase the heat transfer, the air circulation will increase the airborne dust in the heated room, which can be problematic for people with allergies.
