Storage heaters any advice?

[RestingButchFace]

Very boring but my Dd is moving into her own place next month. It has storage heaters I have never lived anywhere with them and have heard nightmare stories about the cost of running them. Anyone have/had them and can give me some tips to pass on? She is only 19 and is going to be stressed so I don't want her not using them for fear of bills.

Other than rip the bastard things out I have no advice. I used to set in input high and set the output somewhere in the middle but they were still pretty useless and fairly expensive to run. I would make sure everywhere is as well insulated as possible, heavy curtains at the windows etc.

The thing I don't understand is it is a fairly new build flat and I thought they were antiques! I am tempted to buy her some oil filled radiators. There is no gas supply hence the storage heaters.

Are they definitely storage heaters or just electric radiators?

I have electric radiators as no gas here. They are great and have a thermostat and timer so are pretty efficient!

They are absolutely awful and I would categorically not live anywhere with them.

Can she get oil heaters in the short term? They won't be cheap either, but they'd work for a while so you could sort a long term solution.

I have only seen the estate agents advert and it says storage heaters. I will have to go and see with her when she gets the keys. She lives 2 hours away so I couldn't go to the viewing with her as I was at work.

Storage heaters are ok if you know how to use them and keep an eye on the weather forecast.

It's chilly at the moment so I'd set the input to the maximum, and the output to the minimum. The "output" dial should only ever be turned up as a last resort as it lets the heat out far more quickly. It's useful in the evening if it's gotten cold, to let out any heat left in the heater.

If you open the output dial during the day you'll be freezing by the evening!

Economy 7 can be quite cheap if you use it as intended. Helps to run the washing machine overnight if that's an option!

We have storage heaters, due to viewing our flat in July when it seemed to be far less of an issue...

In fact so far our electricity bill hasn't worked out any more expensive than our combined gas & electric in our old 2 bed semi. This might be because we now have a downstairs and an upstairs neighbour to insulate us, and because my worries about the extra cost caused me to invest in a sofa blanket, but I think if you're careful it doesn't have to be too bad.

The thing to remember is that everything happens on a delay - so you need to decide the evening before that you're going to be cold the next day. You also need to get to grips with the input/output dials. If you have the input too low then whatever you do with the output the next day you still won't get much heat out of it, whereas if you have it on a medium to high setting you have a fair amount of control over when the stored up heat comes out.

For me the worst thing is how hot it gets at night when the heaters are heating up. If there is a way to have heating in the bedroom without waking up at 5am hot and dehydrated I would love to know what it is.

I'm told that the current generation of storage heaters are actually a lot better as you have more control over the output than with old ones like mine, as they had to meet new EU energy efficiency regulations, so perhaps if it's a new build flat your daughter might be lucky?