62 ms·
Night storage heaters are ideal when you have too much base-load available at night compared to use. So ideal to what they were facing in the 60s and 70s: a lot
by legulere 4y ago
Night storage heaters are ideal when you have too much base-load available at night compared to use. So ideal to what they were facing in the 60s and 70s: a lot of nuclear power plants were being built that couldn't be regulated much (that improved a bit now). Electricity use was very low during night.
The issues and possibilities we are facing now are different: With heat pumps we can use electricity way more efficient than with resistive heating. When excess electricity is available doesn't follow a simple curve anymore but can be predicted only some time ahead.
- RobinL 4y agoAt least in the UK, demand is consistently lower overnight (e.g. see https://grid.iamkate.com/ https://grid.iamkate.com/) and wind output alone is close to meeting overnight demand on windy nights. So storing large amounts of cheap overnight energy can be very useful - especially if it means we can turn off heat pumps at peak times. In fact, in the UK we already have a scheme that pays consumers to not use electricity at peak times: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/10/octopus-ovo-energy-pay-to-cut-electricity-use/ https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/10/octopus-ovo-e...