Increasing mild Decembers may have lulled us into a false sense of security but the wintry weather of the weekend that just passed reminds all of us how temperamental our winters can be. If your boiler or heating system is due a change and your students are complaining about cold, you should consider upgrading the heating system. But before you simply replace the radiators, have you considered a night storage heater system? It could save your student tenants a lot of money.
What is a Night Storage Heater and How Do They Work?
Night Storage Heaters also simply know as Storage Heaters, look like dehumidifiers or air-conditioning units attached to a load-bearing wall. Despite design differences, they follow a basic form – a large panel structure with a grill on the top. However, the real work of the heater goes on behind this outlet. Clay bricks fitted to the wall draws electricity from the boiler which it then stores to release over the course of the following day. The user must adjust certain dials to determine how much energy the NSH will store on a given night and how fast it releases.
They work best when you are on a cost-saving plan such as Economy 7 but can save money with other systems too.
Different from Radiators
With radiators, the user tends to set a minimum temperature below which the heating should come on. If the room is too warm, turn the thermostat down. With a night storage heater, the important thing is to anticipate how could you will be tomorrow as the heat is drawn from the boiler. This can be a nuisance if a cold day follows a mild one and you didn’t change the setting, but once the user has found the right setting, the heat release will feel comfortable in both circumstances.
View them as a kind of battery and “charge” them accordingly.
Manual vs Automatic
Choosing to replace your heating system with storage heating is a shrewd business decision that will save your tenants money when used right. You will find two basic choices:
- Manual night storage heaters draw energy in a way determined by the setting of the INPUT dial and releases it as determined by the OUTPUT dial
- Automatic night storage heaters do not require regular adjustment, drawing electricity automatically during the cheap rate period. They will also have INPUT and OUTPUT dials but the former only determines how much charge goes in overnight. The latter determines how fast it is released
Automatic night storage heaters are perhaps better suited to student HMOs. That way, they will never need to think about reducing the input dial during the day and increasing the output, reversing the process every night.
Finally, NSHs is one factor that may improve your EPC rating.