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How can this be possible?

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  • Mikeyorks wrote: »
    We had a similar configuration in a farmhouse on top of a windy Yorkshire moor - for 18 years. Storage heaters (background heat only) supplemented by big multi-fuel stoves, and water heated by immersion.

    That was costing me £120 per month 4 years ago ..... when power was considerably cheaper than now. And that was purely the electricity - the several tons of coal / logs were extra.

    It's likely you're on Economy 7 if you have storage heaters - but worth a check and worth shopping around for the best price. Put the immersion on a timer .... you need one that's specific for an immersion, as general purpose timers overheat. You should get one around £30 / £40 and they're easy enough to wire in (for an electrician ... it's not a job for the unknowledgeable) And replace the thermostat in the immersion at the same time (as that sounds a bit dubious) as they're less than £10. If your dad's useful - might be worth replacing the immersion at the same time. We had water from a bore hole and it ate immersions. Not one lasted more than 12 months - so I always had to keep a spare in as they always blew at weekends. Got an 'aggressive water resistant' one once - and that lasted less than 6 months - as the water used to calcify limescale around the heating rods. Which then overheated and exploded. The water tank had more bits of immersion in the bottom than it did water when we sold the house!

    But - the water heating is at the margins. Regret most of your money is going into the storage heaters which are very expensive to run. A 2.4kw heater will use most of 17 units per 7 hour overnight charging period - so that's up to 120 units per week. Hence the need to be on a cheap tariff overnight, and then maximise the use of it.


    Thankyou very much for your post, it has been very reassuring! I was starting to wonder if I was actually paying for next door's electricity as well!

    Have the same problem. The storage heaters only really provide background heat in the winter, so the fire also costs about £30 a month. We are on economy 7, but last winter we still went through about £200 a month of electricity! :eek:

    I will have to give my Dad a call and ask him about a new thermostat and a timer. Even if I do pay him to come up here and fit them, it sounds like it will still save me some money. Will also have a think about whether we really need to use the storage heaters this winter. Will invest in some more blankets instead perhaps! :rotfl:
    :naughty:
    OD £lots Egg Card £329.04 Parents £650 Sofa £741.78
  • I thought I should really report back to you all to let you know how I got on. I turned the water heater off during the day completely, and to one-shot instead of continuous. I think (although I am not 100%) that this means it just heats the tank once during the night, and then the heating element is off for the rest of the day and night. :confused:

    We don't seem to have had any problems with this. The water is hot at 5am, and still warm enough for OH to bath at 5pm! Have occasionally had to have an afternoon one-shot at the weekend or if we have used a lot of water, but generally, it has been off all day.

    So in a month of this set-up, we have reduced our water usage from almost 30 units a day, down to about 11! We are using about £40 a month of electricity, even after the recent price hikes! We have been having a fire most evenings, as it seems the weather has turned, but we are agreed that we do not want to turn the storage heaters on this winter if possible.

    So thank you all, you have made me an immersion-heater-understanding money-saving success! Cheers! :beer: :j
    :naughty:
    OD £lots Egg Card £329.04 Parents £650 Sofa £741.78
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