The idea behind storage heaters is that they charge up overnight on cheap rate electricity, store heat in thermal bricks and then release it when required. First, make sure that you are on an Economy 7 tariff with your electricity provider - this gives you cheap rate electricity between certain times - usually midnight to 7am, but this can vary. The cost of this electricity is around 3p per unit - much cheaper than day rate.

Secondly, there will normally be a timer somewhere around your property, which regulates when these heaters start to charge by switching the heating circuit on and off (often, by the meter). Find this and make sure that it is set accurately - if your timing is off by an hour, you'll be paying for your electricity at a higher rate than you need to.

Once that's done, your heaters should be charging up from midnight to 7am (check that these are actually the times used by your electricity supplier). The "input" control regulates how much energy is stored up overnight - how high to set it depends upon the size of the area being heated, the ambient temperature and many other factors... but as a rough guide, it wants to be on maximum during the coldest weather we experience (i.e. clearly below freezing), on 3 or 4 with the kind of temperature we have now, lower in Spring and Autumn and off during the summer.

Output controls are more variable and do depend on the sort of heater - but remember, the heater will only output the energy that it has stored up (unless you have a daytime boost setting - don't use that unless you really have to).

For the downstairs heaters, I would set the input controls quite high over winter (heat stored which is not later released does not leak out quickly and should just mean less heating is needed the following night) and play with the output controls until you are comfortable. For maximum efficiency, turn these down when not needed and up when you want more heat, but it is possible to find a comfortable level and leave it alone (I used to adjust mine about once a month).

For the upstairs heaters, you should definitely use the timer... the natural tendency of a storage heater is to release heat slowly throughout the day, so if you use only the thermostat, you will be maintaining the desired temperature during the day when it's not needed. The heater will be warmest in the morning and coldest in the evening. Set the timer to turn off approximately when you get up (some heat will remain while you get downstairs) and to turn on an hour or two before you typically start using the bedroom. This will keep most of the heat stored during the day and begin releasing it in time to make the bedroom comfortable before you retire to bed.

Finally, locate and read the manuals for your particular heaters (search online if you have to). The above is generic advice and heaters do vary. If you're worried about the cost, read the meter regularly and do your own calculations for a week or two rather than waiting until the bill comes in. The cost of bottled gas is likely to be higher than the cost of cheap-rate electricity, so you probably want to handle 95% of your heating requirements with the storage heaters and use as little bottled gas as you can.

Hope that helps,

Keith