Tenants and owners who have night storage heating in their home should take care to operate it properly. A night storage heater is powered by electricity. It absorbs electricity during the night and converts it into thermal energy to release the heat into the rooms the following day. This is done by the heating elements, which are located deep in the radiator, first heating the firebricks and then releasing the heat into the surrounding air.
The absorption and release of heat energy is slow. Due to the storage, the heat can be released to the room as needed. Nowadays, instead of firebricks, heating mats made of natural stone are also used. However, these do not achieve the same storage capacity. Night storage heating has many advantages. It does not require a central boiler, piping system or pump, which serve to distribute the heat. In addition, night storage heating can be easily installed and, due to its simple operation, is hardly threatened by failure and is maintenance-free.
Even though it is quite cheap, electricity consumption should be well controlled. Therefore, for its use a second electricity meter or a second tariff meter is needed. However, the high operating costs caused by night storage heating are a major disadvantage - the electricity costs of night storage heating exceed the costs of central heating many times over. For example, in a house with 100 square meters of living space and average insulation, heating costs easily exceed 3,000 euros per year. The high prices result, among other things, because most electricity providers do not offer separate rates for daytime and nighttime electricity. Further advantages and disadvantages of night storage heating can be found on the website of the advice and information portal heizung.de.
Source: heizung.de
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