Scottish Hydro Total Heating Total control

lg723

Afraid so, electric is always going to be more expensive than say mains gas or oil. Storage heaters seem to be the cheapest form of electric heating however.

We're currently paying about £35 a week (pre-pay meter) for 3 storage heaters, hot water plus the usual lights, washing machines etc

Mains gas would be nice

JayBee34

Ig723: When comparing the cost of different forms of energy, remember that gas and oil incur heat losses in the flue. Electrical energy for heating is 100% because the losses have already been accounted for in the generation process; anything requiring an electric motor of course has further losses in the conversion from electrical power to mechanical motion.
Other comments: As I understand the system, Scottish Hydro use a signal carried on Radio 4 to operate a contactor in your premises, switching on or off, subject to their minimum guaranteed day and night storage charge periods. By switching customers in different groups of postcodes in sequence, they can even out the off-peak load (unlike the original simple off-peak meters which caused a large increase in load all at once).

benderloch

My estimated bill is going to be £2,400 according to Hydro. I phone them up to see if I was paying the cheapest tariff which they said I was. They then told me that I'd used £800 worth on the Storage Heating unit during the summer months yet we bearly used then. Ah1 they said, do you have a timer on your water heater? No I said. That's the reason your using so many units during the summer months.. You need to get an electrician to instal a timer. Does this mean that I'm doing away with the direct feed via a booster which we have never used in the 21 years since we built the house and installing a timer which will only heat the water for when we come home from work at 6pm? instead of the continual heating of the tank at present? Any help or advice would be most appreciated. Cheers!

Terrylw1

benderloch wrote: »

My estimated bill is going to be £2,400 according to Hydro. I phone them up to see if I was paying the cheapest tariff which they said I was. They then told me that I'd used £800 worth on the Storage Heating unit during the summer months yet we bearly used then. Ah1 they said, do you have a timer on your water heater? No I said. That's the reason your using so many units during the summer months.. You need to get an electrician to instal a timer. Does this mean that I'm doing away with the direct feed via a booster which we have never used in the 21 years since we built the house and installing a timer which will only heat the water for when we come home from work at 6pm? instead of the continual heating of the tank at present? Any help or advice would be most appreciated. Cheers!

THTC relates to the meter set up rather than the tariff really. So the obvious question is, has this meter been in here for years and have all previous years been correct? The teleswitching signal to the meter is regulated based on factors such as temperature/weather reports by the distributor. Now if everything has been consistent through the years, its not necessarily what they say, so what do the bills look like i.e. are they right, do readings match, are they the right way round, etc. Aside ftom that, has the heating been on all summer? If not, does it sound like what they are saying scans?

jalexa

benderloch wrote: »

...They then told me that I'd used £800 worth on the Storage Heating unit during the summer months yet we bearly used then. Ah1 they said, do you have a timer on your water heater?...

That is not a particularly smart suggestion by the Hydro Electric adviser. A better suggestion would have been to check the insulation on the hot water cylinder. With good insulation there should be no pressing need for water heating on a restricted supply to be on a timer.

Anyway you are in charge of your own home and your consumption. Start getting a handle on that by recording each of the 3 meter readings daily for a week. Post the results for further advice.

Premier_2

benderloch wrote: »

My estimated bill is going to be £2,400 according to Hydro. I phone them up to see if I was paying the cheapest tariff which they said I was. They then told me that I'd used £800 worth on the Storage Heating unit during the summer months yet we bearly used then. Ah1 they said, do you have a timer on your water heater? No I said. That's the reason your using so many units during the summer months.. You need to get an electrician to instal a timer. Does this mean that I'm doing away with the direct feed via a booster which we have never used in the 21 years since we built the house and installing a timer which will only heat the water for when we come home from work at 6pm? instead of the continual heating of the tank at present? Any help or advice would be most appreciated. Cheers!

Give them accurate meter readings so that an accuate bill can be prepared for you, as suggested on the bill

I'm very surprised they didn't ask you for this when you contacted them.