Feasibility of “reverse” storage heater?

[littlespark]

Ok. Just thinking out loud here.

I’ve cut through from my house into the attached garage, and have the laundry machines out there and a spare freezer. Combo boiler already there.
We are finding it really cold in there just now.
Would it be possibly to connect up a storage heater on a timer that would heat up through the day, using free leccy from solar panels, and keep some residual heat going into the evening?
Just worried about frozen pipes, even though they’re lagged

 

[SparkyChick]

Look into Solar Diverters... I've installed a couple for clients, they look at the flow of electricity and if you're exporting, they turn on the connected load.

They both use them to heat their hot water and they've saved a lot of money.

 

[littlespark]

I’ve just had a quick read and they seem to require a wholly resistive load, such as an immersion.
I’m looking to heat the space, so an old storage heater would be ok, just nothing with an electronic control.

 

[dmxtothemax]

IT'S POSSIBLE !
But remember that most space heaters use plenty of electricity, so you will need plenty of panels and some batteries if you want to go into the evening, all possible but not cheap.

 

[rolyberkin]

I have a solar diverter and 10 450w panels on a really sunny summers dayday I may have enough residual energy to run a washing machine/dishwasher due to other stuff drawing power in the background, I divert to my immersion during the summer but wouldn't be confident of winter heat with a storage heater.

 

[littlespark]

It’s just to take the chill off in the garage. There’s gas central heating elsewhere in the house.
The other thought was to build a partition wall halfway along, separating the utility room area with the rest of the garage

 

[StephenRowley]

#8 If the boiler is in the garage then it would be simple to add another radiator in there maybe on its own zone so your not heating the hole house. Or install trace heating on the pipe work your worried about freezing. Would be more cost effective than trying to run an electric storage heater off your panels.

 

[pirate]

Yup, I agree...add a rad to your boiler. I had exactly the same problem, and fitted a spare rad in the garage. Obviously, I couldn't really measure how much it cost to run it as it's a gas boiler, but I think gas will always be cheaper than electricity, and adding one extra rad isn't going to make the boiler work too much harder. I only turned that extra one on in the coldest months, and an added bonus was that my car was nice and warm on a winter morning.
I'm installing trace heating in a workshop next week, but that's purely to guard against pipes freezing, and it won't provide any space heating!

 

[Dan]

Yeah I think the radiator is the way to go on this one. Also some draught exclusion around the garage door etc stop draughts coming in will massively help prevent heat-loss. Get some expanding foam on the go too.

Cheapest to setup, and run. Even if it's just on its lowest setting on a thermostat it'll take the chill out the air enough to not get a shock when going get the extra beers.

 

[littlespark]

Ok. Binned that idea.

@Dan The garage door is new, so I haven’t done the expanding foam yet, so that’s contributing to the cold.
I’ve already got 14 rads coming off the boiler, it might struggle with another one, but something to think about.

I’ve got a beer fridge out there, but the little freezer at the top defrosted itself.
Freezers don’t like the ambient temperature too low.

 

[rolyberkin]

I have an office which we only heat when I am in there, put it on a seperate 2 port valve and a simple time clock which we boost for an hour at a time, works for me.