Storage heaters:Why no mentionof them for clean electricity?

When I first read the above post, I thought that it read: for old folks who haven't got 11kV down the back of the sofa……

Clive

Well that would be shocking Clive!

(I'll get me coat) 

The good old two control knob style off peak storage heaters are being replaced by new “eco” versions with complicated programs and silly little display windows that confuse old folk. Some can not use the new types recently installed as they are too complicated and confusing.

Z.

My Dad moved into a massive complex of retirement apartments (nr Bath, UK), which was generally well designed, very well insulated, but heated by electric heaters with tiny buttons/tiny complex displays situated on each heater at shin height. No remote option, even. 

They were a struggle for this then 55 year old. Dad had no chance of getting down there. Either of us would then have had to get up again to try and find suitable glasses. I've no idea what idiot specified those - the facility must have had 500 or more of them. 

No need for storage heaters if you use Voltex according to their story

Storage heaters are now regarded as “old fashioned” And the present emphasis is on “innovation and new technologies”

Used sensibly in premises that need continual heating, there is a lot to be said for storage heating. It is ideal for the elderly or disabled who spend most of the day indoors.

Storage heating is less suitable for homes that are normally empty during the day, kids at school, owners at work.

With sensible use the running costs are affordable. The traditional types are simple and reliable, with little to go wrong, they often last for decades without attention. A simple storage heater might well have outlasted a dozen gas boilers.

Simple storage heaters are also immune to daytime power cuts since they passively release heat store during the previous night.

I have storage heaters, seldom used as I find a solid fuel stove more economical. But nice to know that they are available if I become too old and feeble to use the stove.

I think “simple”, indeed any, storage heaters would be a lot better if made much bigger, and insulated to hold heat thru multiple days. Then they could be used to release the heat at times & places that were more useful. Too big for retrofits though. 

Storage heaters sold on the principle of cheap off-peak electricity, at night when only the high efficiency base-load power stations were operating. The prospect now is an increasing number of electric cars. Owners of these will find it convenient to charge them overnight. Hence the load patterns on the national grid in not so many years ahead will be very different from the present - probably a lot flatter. Hence off-peak heaters will have little advantage over direct-acting electric heaters, which are more responsive to users' needs. I see them as obsolescent.