"Tim Downie" wrote in message
...
EricP wrote:
On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 17:31:21 -0000, "tishtash" wrote:

Hi,

I have these very old fashioned radio controlled heaters which turn
on at a certain time and store heat and diepsnse it slowly through
the day and they are absolutely rubbish!

What I was wondering is there perhaps a way to bypass the radio
controlled part to turn them on whenever I want to ?

thanks

There is no radio control. They are just boxes of bricks heated by an
element run on a timeclock, set to use very cheap night time
electricity.

Not entirely true.

My parents when they lived up in Aberdeenshire had radio controlled
switching of the storage heaters. The switching was controlled by the
power company to give them more flexibility in controlling demand (and
consequently offer cheaper electricity).

As a system it seemed to work reasonably well and it included the option
to boost the output of some heaters on reduced rated elctrcity (although
not as cheap as the storage heater rate).

Tim



The tariff is switched on by a signal that is (I believe) transmitted on
Long Wave. This is better than any type of time clock as there are no
individual units that can go wrong - it also allows for British Summer Time
changes. Night tariff is about 30% of day rate cost.


I agree with what has been said - but some have an input thermostat - to
govern the intake of heat - as well as some sort of output control - some
even have a fan to blow the heat out. My daughter's place had a heater with
4 elements that had failed over a period of time - hence "It wasn't much
good before it packed up altogether" A set of elements of EBay has improved
things considerably.

Try Googling for the instructions.