Creda Storage Heaters

[Baird99999]

Hi all,

Can I ask for your expert advice please?

I have two Creda storage heaters in my flat. A Creda 79142 and 79163. They both run off an economy 7 timer. When I moved into the flat 7 years ago, the heaters were very very hot. They (both) now do not provide enough heat. I have had an electrician look at the heaters a number of times. He tested and changed a number of the elements and he has changed the thermostats. As you can imagine, this has been very expensive but there has been no change to the heat output. I have also had the economy seven timer changed and it is working.

I have noticed however that the heaters begin charging when the economy meter kicks in but slow down to a trickle charge at some point during the night. Can anyone help please with some advice?

Thanks in advance

Damion

 

[ProDave]

What tests have you done during the night to establish they are still receiving a charge?

Do the switches on the wall that feed them have lights to show the power is on? if so check they stay on all night.

If he has changed the thermostats, I have noticed a HUGE difference in the temperature range adjustment from one to another. I take it you have tried them with the input setting at maximum?

Otherwise try a different electrician, he may have missed something (or not known what he was doing)

 

[sparkytim]

The heaters have an input control thermostat which if they are the Auto type have a room temp. sensor at the bottom. this automatically controls how much heat is built up inside the heater over night even when the Input control is set high.

Do you heat the rooms up in the evening by other means? if so this may be limiting the heat intake overnight of the Storage heaters.

The ther common problem is that the heat stored overnight is lost to quickly during the day, this is controlled by the other knob which simply controls a flap inside to open and allow air to flow thru, if this is set high it will allow the heat to escape quickly.

This flap can become stuck fully open and hence your heat is not held in for later in the day.

 

[Baird99999]

Hi ProDave, SparkyTim,

Thank you for helping me.

My heaters are manual heaters. They both have input and output controls. I have set both heaters to maximum input and have closed the vents throughout the night. For years, they worked well and were very hot. Strangely now both do not produce enough heat. At midnight, when the economy 7 kicks in, the night meter starts to move very very quickly indicating the heaters are charging. After about 3.5 hours (I stayed up one night and checked every 20 mins), the meter slowed right down and almost stopped moving indicating that the heaters were no longer drawing a charge.

In the heater's instructions, it suggests that an accelerator resistor is one of the parts that may cause poor heating performance. I have no idea what this is or whether my heater has one.

Is there anything else that could be causing the problem?

What do you think?

Thanks

Damion

 

[Steve3948]

How many elements were changed in the heaters when repaired, if it's a 2.4Kw it will have 4 Elements, if 2 have gone you are down 50% on output. I would normally change all when doing a repair.

 

[Baird99999]

How many elements were changed in the heaters when repaired, if it's a 2.4Kw it will have 4 Elements, if 2 have gone you are down 50% on output. I would normally change all when doing a repair.

How many elements were changed in the heaters when repaired, if it's a 2.4Kw it will have 4 Elements, if 2 have gone you are down 50% on output. I would normally change all when doing a repair.

Hi Steve, all of the elements were changed and then tested to make sure that are receiving the appropriate level of current.

 

[Baird99999]

Hi all,

Apologies for posting this again but I pressed the wrong button and closed my last post.

Can I ask for your expert advice please?

I have two Creda storage heaters in my flat. A Creda 79142 and 79163. They both run off an economy 7 timer. When I moved into the flat 7 years ago, the heaters were very very hot. They (both) now do not provide enough heat. I have had an electrician look at the heaters a number of times. He tested and changed a number of the elements and he has changed the thermostats. I have also had the economy seven meter changed.

I have noticed however that the heaters begin charging when the economy meter kicks in but slow down to a trickle charge at some point during the night. Can anyone help please with some advice?

Thanks in advance

Damion

 

[Steve3948]

Slowing down as you say called cycling which is normal and should operate several times during the night.

In your post you said several elements were changed, did all get changed ? you only need one failure and that's 25% of total output down.

 

[Doc Hudson]

Hi all,

Apologies for posting this again but I pressed the wrong button and closed my last post.

Original thread reopened and threads merged.

Doc H.

 

[Sidewinder]

Thank you Doc, I had considered trying this, but I thought it better left to those who know what they are doing!

 

[Andy™]

Thank you Doc, I had considered trying this, but I thought it better left to those who know what they are doing!

Where's Deke when you need him?!

 

[kerching]

Well,its a dog rough way of doing it but it works...

Workout the total load of the heaters, or if you. Have the time, the load on each heater,

Switch one heater on and count the revolutions on the meter or the pulse flashes. It will,be written on the meter how many rotations OT pulses per KWh....so you can do a dead rough approximation to see if each heater is charging at the correct rate. Just count the pulses for 10 minutes and mutiply it by 6.

It is most likely the charge controller or part of it that is fuffed

 

[Baird99999]

Thank you all for your help. All of the elements were changed as they were relatively inexpensive. The problem seems to be that the heater stops charging in the night and doesn't start back up. Are there any parts that could cause this bearing in mind that the economy 7 meter, the thermostats (inclusive of control arm) and the elements have all been changed? Could it be something going wrong outside of the heaters given that both heaters have the same problem?

Thanks

Damion

 

[ProDave]

Check for SURE that the power is still on for the whole 7 hour period. It sounds to me like the timer may be turning off too early as that's the only common thing to both heaters.

 

[andy_spark]

Do you have an afternoon boost on your off-peak tariff? This would give less than 7 hours overnight.  I did one last week that had nearly 3 hours of PM boost, I was actually able to test it live for a change!

Is it definitely Ecoinomy 7 or some other domestic or white meter tariff? 

You say the flaps are closed overnight when do you open them? Ideally it should be the evening.

What part of the day don't they provide enough heat?

The heaters will stop taking charge after a certain period, it's the same principle as an oven heating up and reaching temperature it cycles off then on to maintain it's set temperature.

 

[Baird99999]

Do you have an afternoon boost on your off-peak tariff? This would give less than 7 hours overnight.  I did one last week that had nearly 3 hours of PM boost, I was actually able to test it live for a change!

Is it definitely Ecoinomy 7 or some other domestic or white meter tariff? 

You say the flaps are closed overnight when do you open them? Ideally it should be the evening.

What part of the day don't they provide enough heat?

The heaters will stop taking charge after a certain period, it's the same principle as an oven heating up and reaching temperature it cycles off then on to maintain it's set temperature.

Hi, thanks for your help. There is no afternoon boost. It is 100% an economy seven meter. The economy seven period is between 00:30 am and 07:30 am. The heaters seem to stop charging midway through the night. The economy 7 meter is new and working. The heaters have new elements and thermostats. I wonder whether it could be something to do with the circuit breaker as I have heard these can go wrong even though they do not trip?