Older storage heaters usually have an ‘input’ and ‘output’ dial. The input dial determines how much energy is stored in the heater overnight and the output dial determines how much heat is released through the day. The higher the input dial the more energy will be stored and the higher the output dial the quicker it will be released.
The output dial needs to be set to how much heat you want now and the input dial needs to be set for how much heat you want tomorrow. If the heater runs out of heat in the evening you may need to turn the input dial up or the output dial down.
In the summer when you do not need any heat it is best to turn the heaters off at the wall not just down to 0 as this will still use energy.
Newer storage heaters can usually be set to come on and off throughout the day and are much easier to control, you can also set different temperatures for different times of the day. These storage heaters have a much higher heat retention and you will often find they have heat a lot later into the evening than an older storage heater.