Electricity cost high - immersion heater!? :-(

Inthedeep_2

Hey all - long time lurker first time poster! Hope someone can help me out here..

Ok brief outline - lived in a flat for 2007, it had damp so we had the heating & hot water (Gas) on time for every morning and ever night for 2 hours each plus a further few horus on the night in winter as it became so cold. Our av costs were about £60 a month i seem to remember. This included a duel fuel discount. We also had lighting on alot as the flat was quite dark, none of the bulbs were energy saving, cooker was gas and used every day for 40 mins and also fridge freezer wasnt the most efficient.

Queue moving to new unfurnished flat - bigger space, energy saving light bulbs and no gas cooker, newer appliances (bought by ourselves) which meant we chose energy efficient (saving) washer, dishwasher and fridge / freezer. We do not have the lights on much as the flat is bright and spacious and we have never had to use the heaters (theyre horrible electric heaters anyhow) - our habbits have not changed post move (still watch same amoutn of tv, use pc same amount etc) and we only take 2 showers a day - max of 15 minutes each in the morning. Hot water is not used for washing the dishes, only for washign hands after the loo etc! Also we now unplug all equipment that is not in use and nothign is left on standby uneccesarily!

The prob is our electricty bill is now averaging at £68 a month - i am baffled as to how it's went up when in reality our energy consumption has went down!? I know prices ahve increased but i cannot undertsnad it going up so much that even without any form of heating we are paying more!?

The only thing i can put my finger on is the water heater (pulsacoil 2000) - we have 3 'on / off sockets on the wall next to the device. The bottom one turns the power on / off - the middle one is amrked water heater and has a red light on it when switched on, the top one is not marked. We presumed that button was a boost button referred to in the very poor user manual!? so we have always left it off .. We are not on energy 7 (not available in our building) so therefore we pay a standard rate of 8.308 KWh@p and then a daily standing charge of 15.14.

I knwo thats very limited info and what not but is there anythign anyone can suggest to sort this problem out, we don't have access to the electricty meter (working on that one tho and trying to get access) but i'm just so stuck as to what to do about this (that is even if it is a problem and these costs are totally fine!?)

Cheers guys

Farway

Do you actually leave the immersion on all the time?

Your post does not make this clear

If you do then that would be the obvious culprit, assuming your tank is lagged as well, and the tank thermostat is not at max

1carminestocky

Immersion heater on all the time would be a major boost to your leccy company's profits!! Very difficult to discover exactly how much it's costing you (the people on here who slag off wireless energy usage monitor users whilst extolling the virtues of those plus-in energy usage monitors go very quiet when asked how they get it to calculate the cost of immersion heaters, lol). You can't rely on the power rating as that's the maximum figure and they are thermostatically controlled. My usage monitor *suggests* my immersion heater costs a maximum of 45p per hour to run. Let's assume the *real* cost is a third of that, still works out at a considerable sum over the course of a month. Suffice to say, FAR too power-hungry to leave 'always on'.

spiro

Googling the type of water heater you have, its designed to be used with E7 electricity. You say it is not available to you, why do you say that as it would seem strange for a builder to install such an appliance and not wire for it.

Cardew

1carminestocky wrote: »

Immersion heater on all the time would be a major boost to your leccy company's profits!! Very difficult to discover exactly how much it's costing you (the people on here who slag off wireless energy usage monitor users whilst extolling the virtues of those plus-in energy usage monitors go very quiet when asked how they get it to calculate the cost of immersion heaters, lol). You can't rely on the power rating as that's the maximum figure and they are thermostatically controlled. My usage monitor *suggests* my immersion heater costs a maximum of 45p per hour to run. Let's assume the *real* cost is a third of that, still works out at a considerable sum over the course of a month. Suffice to say, FAR too power-hungry to leave 'always on'.

So by those calculations(taking a third of 45p an hour) it will cost 15p an hour.

Therefore left on 24/7 it will cost £1,314 a year to run an immersion!!!

Mmmmm that 'suggestion' is in line with some of your other pronouncements.

Whilst nobody is suggesting that immersion heaters should be left on 24/7, the loss from a well lagged tank is surprisingly small.

There have been plenty of tests to show that a full tank of hot water will lose the equivalent a 2 - 3 kWh per day. So in real terms the difference between a heater on 24/7 and on just enough for your needs is not huge(but worth having) See:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=934559&highlight=energy+loss

1carminestocky

Most people would be distressed to have one stalker, I appear to have 2. :eek: Like I have demonstrated, almost impossible to accurately measure the cost of each household's immersion heater (at least I had a go, unlike some self-appointed experts I could name....but won't :rolleyes: )

Cardew

1carminestocky wrote: »

Most people would be distressed to have one stalker, I appear to have 2. :eek: Like I have demonstrated, almost impossible to accurately measure the cost of each household's immersion heater (at least I had a go, unlike some self-appointed experts I could name....but won't :rolleyes: )

You join MSE this month and have 2 stalkers! You flatter yourself!

You seem not to understand the basics of electricity, economics or thermodynamics, and are apparently determined to demonstrate that fact in your posts.

Correcting the misleading nonsense you post is a service to the readers on this forum; not stalking!

sparkle_SC

Is it a conversion you live in? If so, alot of the conversions don't support off peak tarrifs but because of the type of building they can't put gas in.

Most of these flats use a wet heating system that can only be run on a normal domestic rate which is very expensive to run.

As for your consumption, can you try to have your emersion heater switched off for a couple of days and record the elec reading when you switch it off and again when it goes back on so that you can check your consumption over this time. Then the next week record the readings at exactly the same time with your emersion heater on so that you can compare your consumption? If you do it at the same time each week it is likely that your routine will be the same and therefore giving you a more accurate comparison (ie don't do it with the emersion off on a monday, tuesday when you may be out at work and then try to compare it to a saturday and sunday when you might be in the house more if you know what I mean!)

xpl51

If your property is all eletric it will cost more to run. than one with GCH. It seems odd that you are all elec & no Economy 7 meter as you have the E7 to heat hot water & heaters( when required) as you pay higher rate for daytime then get 7 hours at appprox 2/3 cheaper to offset.
Also you have to have access to your meter regardless in case of Emergency.

PasturesNew

15 minute showers are excessive.
Immersion heaters should be turned on only when you need them.

I have 3-4 minute showers if I am washing, 6 minutes if I am doing shampoo/conditioner too.

I have an immersion heater, but never use it. Not used it once (been here a year). I boil the kettle for washing up. A big load takes 2 kettles. I let the washing machine heat its water, so I am only heating what it needs.

My electricity is 12p/kWh and my bill is about £30-35

For heating I have a storage heater, which I don't use. I use a small electric fan heater instead.