How to use electric storage heater controls

Electric storage heaters are the most common type of electric heating – and the second most common type of heating system behind gas boilers.

Understanding how your electric storage heater controls work and knowing how to use them properly can help to run your heating system more efficiently. This helps you lower your energy bills by ensuring you’re only using your heating when you need it.

If you live in Scotland, you may have different type of meter that gives you afternoon or evening period for your storage heaters as well as an overnight charge. If that’s you, visit Home Energy Scotland to understand your tariff and controls.

More modern storage heaters use digital controls, whereas older heaters have manual controls. Depending on the model, you might even be able to control your storage heater using an app.

Modern storage heaters usually come with:

• An automatic charge control. This helps regulate how much energy you use by storing more or less heat during the night, depending on how much heat you needed the previous day.
• A thermostat. This lets you set the temperature you want the storage heater to heat to.
• A programmer or timer. This lets you set specific times for when you want your heating to come on and off. Some have modes like ‘out all day’ or ‘home all day’ to make this easier.

Manual controls usually include:

• An input dial. This controls how much heat the heater stores as it charges overnight.
• An output dial. This controls how much heat the heater releases during the day.
• A boost function. This tops up your electric storage heater by getting electricity from the grid as you need it.

Modern, digital electric storage heater controls are easier to run once it’s set than manual controls. This is because they’ll automatically store enough heat for your set routine:

Set your temperature

Select a temperature that’s comfortable, usually somewhere between 18°C and 21°C. Remember, setting a lower temperature means your storage heater doesn’t need to store so much heat, saving you money.

Set your timer

Most modern storage heaters have timer modes like ‘out all day’ or ‘home all day’ for convenience. Select one of these modes and the heater will release heat at set periods throughout the day in line with your routine.

If you prefer, you can specify set periods for your storage heater to turn on and off.

Consider your setback temperature

Some storage heaters have a ‘setback’ temperature. This is the temperature the heater will try to keep the room at while it’s set to ‘heating off’.

This can be useful to stop the room getting too cold. It may also mean the heater doesn’t need to work as hard to bring the room up to a comfortable temperature later on.

However, if you set your setback temperature too high, your electric storage heater will use up its stored heat faster.

Set your input dial ahead of time

The higher you set your input, the more electricity the storage heater will use and the more the heat it will store. How high you set the input dial depends on how cold you think it’s going to be the next day.

If you think it will be cold, set your input high so the heater stores enough heat to last you the next day. If the weather will be milder tomorrow, turn it down so you don’t store more heat than you need.

Remember, the higher the setting, the more electricity you will use and it will cost more to run. Also remember that any changes you make to your input setting won’t happen until the next day.

Adjust your output dial to suit your daily routine

The higher you set your output dial, the quicker the heater will release its stored heat. If you set this to minimum, the heater will still release the heat that’s been stored – it just does it more slowly.

Think about your daily routine and see if you can set your output control to suit this. To make the heat last all day, we recommend you leave the output dial on the minimum setting if you’re out during the day.

If it gets colder during the evening, turn the dial up higher to let the remaining heat escape faster.

Adjusting the output dial won’t cost you any money. This is because it’s only releasing the heat you’ve already paid for – it’s just released quicker.

Turn your output to ‘low’ at night

Make sure you set your output dial to minimum when you go to bed. This will stop heat being given out while you’re asleep, and the storage heater can focus on storing heat for the following day.

Only use the boost function if you really need it

You should only use your ‘boost’ if you’ve run out of stored heat, as it may use the most expensive electricity rate if you’re on an Economy 7 tariff. Try to use this only in the coldest weather and when you’ve run out of stored heat.

You should keep your storage heater on for as long as you need the heat.

Some specific storage heater models that use particular time of use tariffs may need to be on all the time. If you’re unsure, check the manufacturer’s instructions.

If you’re using an older storage heater, you might be able to turn it off when you don’t need it.

For example, if you know you won’t need it for a longer period you can turn it off at the wall. This would likely be in the middle of summer.

But remember that you’ll need to turn it back on the night before you think you’ll need the heat again. This gives the storage heater time to store heat, ready to release the following day.

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