American Stabilis softline storage electrical heaters

[bucyluca]

Hi, I can't seem to find any information about these electric thermal storage heaters on the internet. Does anyone know if the company or the product is still sold? I bought my house with these units , but I use mainly my monitor for heating.

I am looking for a Variomatic T-100 micropressor electronic control system for these units. It was an option which I don't have.

Also, if any user manuals, literature is available on these units.

Thanks

[bucyluca]

Anyone have any info?

[HayZee518]

check out this pdf file.

http://www.markel-products.com/01-MenuSystem-CatalogPages/01-Built-inHeaters/MarkelBuilt-in/ConvectionHeat-DraftBarrier/om.pdf

[bucyluca]

thanks for the link, but that's not for the thermal storage heaters. I think the company went bankrupt or was purchased/ taken over by some other company in the 80's or 90's.
I had already seen that link before.

[HayZee518]

I looked at several web sites on ETS heat. Unless your utility uses off peak metering you really won't save energy. Hot water heaters used to use an additional meter just for off peak water heating. I know in Massachusetts and New York, the utilities don't use off peak metering anymore. The water heaters are radio controlled through the power lines to turn on and off the other element which is fed through a two pole breaker.

[bucyluca]

My meter has off peak hours from 11:30pm till 7am. I followed the wires to and from the meter and my electrical panels inside the house. One wire from the meter triggers a transformer in a sub-panel at 11:30pm for the storage heaters.
What puzzles me is the ETS themselves. Each unit has two dial settings, one (mild, medium , or cold temp) and the other (early afternoon, afternoon, evening). Only wires leading to the units are the power supply wires, 240v. How can the unit know early afternoon or evening. There is no clock or anything electronic on the units.
They do get extremely hot and remain hot all day and night.
To make sure they don't run during the day, I installed a pilot light in the subpanels, one for the night rate, and another in the 240v feed of the ETS.
2 weeks now, and they work properly from 11:30 onwards.

[HayZee518]

Inside your meter socket there are two extra lugs - called fifth and sixth lugs that are internally connected to a time switch and their contacts. next time look at your meter. On the outside of the glass right in the center is a plastic lock and a knob. this knob you can use to reset the internal clock to the correct hour or when you want the heat to come on. So--- at 11:30 pm these sets of contacts close feeding curent to your sub panel.