Post by 92220 on Jan 7, 2017 9:09:41 GMT
Got close to a major disaster yesterday. Got into the workshop around 10.30 am and found the temperature was down to 7C, when it is normally constant around 21C! The workshop is heated with a storage heater (when it works!) set on a timer to work on cheap electricity. The first thought was that the timer had packed up. No. Next to check was the wiring. No. Power still getting to the heater input. Next job was to take the heater apart. Luckily when I bought it, it came as a set of parts, on a pallet due to it's weight, so I knew how it went together, so knew how to take it apart. Got the panels off sufficient to get the front layer of firebricks out. It was all warm but should have been hot. Next jobby was to find the old electric greenhouse heater. Finally dug it out and checked it was working and started to get the temperature back up. It was a bit of a job as it was only 2Kw compared with the storage heater of 3.4Kw, but at least I wouldn't get frostbite working on the heater!
Checked that power was at the temperature control so followed the wires through and found it connected to a couple of what looked like terminal blocks, but didn't really seem right. Anyway power was at the entry terminal but not the output. Could this be a thermostat that had packed up?. Why have 2 thermostats in series? Didn't seem logical but, 'Oh well', the only way to be sure was to bypass the first terminal block and get power to the second block. All this, obviously with the power isolated!! Then it was a worrying 15 minutes to find the heater element seemed to have got a bit warmer, but not a lot. I put it all back together, without the front panel and left it running all morning. By lunchtime the workshop was up to 10C. Success! But had I made the heater less safe?
I rang the manufacturer's tech dept. and asked the question. No, it was quite safe, and 'Yes' the 'terminal block' that I had bypassed was a thermostat. Turned out that I couldn't buy the replacement thermostat direct, I had to go through a distributor. Got a bit of a shock when I rang them to order. £9.50 each, plus £6.00 carriage plus VAT. Ouch! I had decided that as one had blown, I ought to replace the one that is still working as it is likely to go as well.
Had the heater working overnight with the one thermostat, and the temperature is back up to it's usual 21C when I checked this morning. At least I haven't had to rely on the greenhouse heater to keep condensation at bay, and my toes from freezing!
If anyone else uses storage heaters and one packs up, there is a simple solution, if a bit extreme: The heater is a box made up of firebricks with normal black heater elements inside the box. If your heater thermostat does die, as a last resort, to get heat back into the workshop, you can connect the heaters directly to the main switch, though I would make sure it is on a fused or preferably a RCD protected line, and on a timer.
