On Sun, 30 Sep 2012 10:37:18 +0100, PeterC
wrote:

Yes you can so long as it has the capacity (amps/Kw). Many are only
1.5Kw.
They work by turning on and off, on for longer as you turn
the control higher. They are NOT a thermostat.
They need a live, neutral and switch wire. any fourth terminal is for
a pilot light.
However you need to be sure the overheat protection on your heaters
still functions.
I seem to remember some older Dimplex heaters had a lead fuse.

Yes, a simmerstat will work but, as Harry says, watch the power - cooker
rings are 2kW max. I've used simmerstats on other applications but never
2kW. If the points fuse together...! It controls only energy on/off, not
power or temperature.

Cheers chaps.
I'll give it a go later. I have a new simmerstat kicking around
somewhere, need to see what rating it is. I can also fit a clip-on
stat to the heater body and an overheat stat to bring the things up to
some sort of safer later spec.
The equivalent model now is selling for 150quid, but has much better
controls on it.
I don't know what the output of these are - likely a minimum of 2kW
going by what they belt out at full-on.