Hi James
I've been looking for instructions for Storad heaters too but have had no luck either.
I do have some knowledge of storage heaters though (I work in the maintenance dept of a housing association) and could offer some advice on general use of the heaters:
As you're probably aware, night storage heaters work by storing up heat overnight in bricks in each heater, then releasing the heat gradually throughout the day. The advantage of this is that as the most energy is used overnight when the electricity rate is at its cheapest, the heaters are efficient to run. The disadvantage is that unless this heat is used carefully during the day, the heaters will be cold by the evening.
The heaters should start charging automatically each night (11.30pm and 6.30am) without the need to switch them on with one of the isolation switches on the wall (providing the input is above 1), however the temperature can be adjusted by the two dials you found on the right hand side of your heater. One should be marked “input” and the other “output”.
The “input” dial controls how much electricity is absorbed into the bricks overnight and therefore how hot the heater gets. Typically, this should be set between 4 and 6. If the weather is cold turn this dial up, if the weather is warm turn it down.
The “output” dial controls how quickly the heater releases the heat. It works very basically by opening or closing a flap inside the heater to allow more or less surface area for heat to escape from the bricks. This should be set as low as possible during the day and whenever the property is empty. If the output is above 3 all day, you will have run out of heat by the evening. By having the output low during the day, it can then be turned up in the evening if needed. Remember to turn the output down again before you go to bed, or you will have no heat by the next day. If the labels have rubbed off the dials, look though the grill of the heater and move each dial in turn and see which one moves the flap inside. That dial is the “output” dial.
As Night storage heaters cannot produce instant heat, only adjust the dials by 1 or 2 settings per day to avoid being left on warm days with too much heat or cold days with not enough.
The switch on the side of your heater sounds like you may have a "booster" convector heater built in to your storage heater. This will provide instant heat in case you run out in the evening however it's not a good idea to use it often as it is very expensive to use (runs off the day rate and is NOT efficient).
Final trick of the trade. When a night storage heater is used for the first time after being unused for more than a month, it needs three nights charge to bring up its efficiency again. During this time, try and keep the input as high as possible, and the output as low as possible to “charge” the bricks. After this time you can start to adjust the input/output dials a little to better suit you.
I hope this helps!
A fellow Night Storage User, February 2008
