DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hi all,
I have a question concerning my brother's storage heaters. He has a converted flat (an old mill) with electric storage underfloor heating.

The Living room underfloor heating has broken and he is unwilling to rip the floor up to fix. So we are looking to add a wall hung storage heater.

Can we connect the storage heater to the broken underfloor supply?This is located in a junction box just below the thermostat in the living room. This will allow the heater to be controlled by the heating timer and thermostat.

Thanks in advance

Firstly, you cannot wall mont a storage heater, they are full of bricks and too heavy. They must stand on an even/level floor, and be retained bu wall fixings, simply to prevent them toppling forward.
You may be able to use the "junction box" if it has a fuse 13amp and cabling of the correct size, 2.5 T+E, and the correct fuse back at the relevant fuse/distribution board.
I would suggest that the fault could be things that dont require rippng the floor up.
One of the 2 fuses mentioned above could have failed; most underfloor systems require quite a low rated fuse, and these do sometimes fail.
The programmer could have failed, but replacements are readily available.
If the system has been working, it is unlikely to have failed imho, unless someone has done something to damage it, but is checkable with an ohmmeter.
You should have a note of the installation resitance, probably with any guarantee.
Lastly the sensor probe could have failed, but this is under the floor, but usually quite near the programmer, but if this were the case, I would expect the programmer to be giving strange readings.
Do you know the programmer and system manufacturer?
I would investigate the above before going for and expensive storage heater option. It may well be cheaper.

Thanks for the reply, quite a lot of good advice there, will find out that info and post back here if you don't mind. My brother has said that the programmer has been playing up, maybe we can look into that. we can see if we can check the Ohms reading.
The heating is fed from a consumer unit with circuit breakers (its about 3 years old) and they are working fine, Do you think there would be fuses elsewhere?

Thank for the info, its really helpful

I would have thought that there would be a fused switchspur outlet near the programmer.
They are the same size as a single socket, have a switch and a pull out door, marked fuse.

hth

Just been round there again, and definitly no fused spur located near the programmer, There is a consumer unit near by with circiut breakers & relays that operate the heating & they are all switching fine & passing voltage through ok. There is power to the thermostat on the wall in the living room (there is one on every room), Which then feeds power to junction box wall plate which connects the heating tails to the supply from the thermostat, this is not fused & there is definatly 240 volt present when thermostat calling for heat.

As he is renting flat out this week he has decided to get a storage heater for now and look at repairing at a later date.

Thanks for your help

CReeky

Hello again,
Have purchased a storage heater & have fixed it in position, Am I able to wire it myself? If so what do I need to connect it to the ring main? Would I need to wire it to a double pole fused spur then have that fed of a timer of some sort?

Thanks in advance

Creeky

IMHO storage heaters should be on a separate dedicated circuit.

Cheers

If a true storage heater, and on an Economy 7 system, they should be on a dedicated 15/16 fuse/breaker in the fusebox which only becomes live at time when the low tariff is applied, by the supply company.
To see if this is the case, look at yor bill, you shouls have 2 readings, or at your meter, where 2 readings are available.
It will make a great difference to running costs if you connect a storage heater to your normal sockets, as they will probably be using high tariff electricity.
However, some storage heaters come with an additional convector heater included, for day time additional heat. These need to be hard wired via a spur for the storage element, and plugged into a normal socket for the convector.
I would need make and exact model no to know what you have and give better advice
HTH

"Am I able to wire it myself?"

Not notifiable under Part P if connecting to existing adjacent point. In other words as far as Building Regs are concerned the answer is yes. How you deal with the MWCert is another matter entirely.

Such work IS is notifiable under Part P if the work includes a new circuit and the answer is therefore no unless you are a "competant person" able to self certify.

Cheers

Thanks again for your replies, We have now hired a sparky to wire the heater up.

Cheers

Creeky