Worth installing a timer on the nighttime supply to storage heater?

[flowjoh]

Hi, I have a couple of Dimplex Duoheat storage heaters (about 15 years old). They begin charging overnight when the Economy 7 rate electricity comes on. I'm curious as to whether I would save some money by putting the night rate inputs on a timer so that the heaters are only building up their storage from, say, 5:30 am instead of from 12:30 am. Does anyone have knowledge on the topic?

Would you not then have less heat available to you during the day?

@dementedpixie

Would you not then have less heat available to you during the day?

yes indeed

storage heaters usually have two controls on them. One to limit the amount of electricity going into them (i.e. you need less heat stored in mild weather) and one to slow, or speed, the rate of heat release (often a simple air flap). Releasing it faster makes it warmer, but for a shorter period as it will run out sooner.

are you at home all day? Storage heaters are rather unsatisfactory if you are out until evening, and arrive home just as they are running out of heat. They're popular with retired people and families with small children, who tend to go to bed early and be home during the day.

It seems that the radiators leak some heat: I went checked the one in the living room at 4am and it was warm to the touch. So, even though the output is low overnight it seems like I'm using some power to heat the living room during the early hours of the morning. If the bricks only take a couple of hours to heat, seems like I'd be better off waiting til 4 or 5 am to start heating them. How long does an average storage heater take to fully store maximum heat in its bricks?

I work from home most of the time so I think I probably am getting a reasonable amount of benefit from the heaters being storage heaters.