In the
United Kingdom it is possible to buy
electricity during "off peak" hours (i.e. during the night) more cheaply than standard peak time generated
power.
A storage heater consists of heavy,
heat retaining
bricks warmed by an electric element, which can
store this energy during the night, and release it as heat during the day.
The storage heater gives out it's heat in two ways :- Firstly by direct radiation; the bricks warm the outside covering of the heater, which the
radiates the heat directly into the room. Secondly flaps in the heater allow cold air to be drawn in and warmed over the bricks to give out heat into the room via
convection. Fan assisted models allow a "heat
boost" to be given to the room, at the expense of much faster loss of the stored heat.
Practicaly, these heating systems only really give background warming to a
house, unless very good
insulation is present and usually need to be suplemented by
conventional heating systems.