electric bills and boilers

joanne2008

We have a 2 bed flat ( 2nd floor) I am trying to get my £117 per month electric bill (no gas at property) down per month and have read posts about immersion heaters on timers as far as i can tell our boiler has no timer on just 2 switches on separate leads to boiler, both are switched on and there is a switch outside the cupboard which the electrician (when boiler was fixed year and half ago) said was the switch to turn on the immersion. We do not use this as always have hot water.
We have an electric shower but rarely use it as we figure this would cost more than sharing a bath is this right?
We do not have our storage heaters on as they are so expensive and do not heat the flat well. We use an oil filled radiator when it is cold and put on more jumpers.
We have put draft excluder on all windows and doors, keep bathroom and kitchen door closed as is freezing in there.
We have the storage heater (small one) on in my daughters room over night this storage heater is one which you turn on for instant heat ?
Is the kettle expensive to run?

Any one have any advice.

Magentasue

joanne2008 wrote: »

We have a 2 bed flat ( 2nd floor) I am trying to get my £117 per month electric bill (no gas at property) down per month and have read posts about immersion heaters on timers as far as i can tell our boiler has no timer on just 2 switches on separate leads to boiler, both are switched on and there is a switch outside the cupboard which the electrician (when boiler was fixed year and half ago) said was the switch to turn on the immersion. We do not use this as always have hot water.

Sounds like the switch is a booster switch. Your water is probably heated in the E7 period - can you use a plug in timer? Not sure what you do if it's not plugged into a socket.
We have an electric shower but rarely use it as we figure this would cost more than sharing a bath is this right?
Depends on rating of shower. A couple of two minute showers is probably cheaper than a bath. I think someone on here said more than 10mins and a bath is cheaper.
We do not have our storage heaters on as they are so expensive and do not heat the flat well. We use an oil filled radiator when it is cold and put on more jumpers.
We have put draft excluder on all windows and doors, keep bathroom and kitchen door closed as is freezing in there.
We have the storage heater (small one) on in my daughters room over night this storage heater is one which you turn on for instant heat ?
Not sure what your question is here! Might be cheaper to have an oil filled radiator in here if it's not a cold room and a heater only needed for a couple of hours in the evening.
Is the kettle expensive to run?
Not really. About 3/4penny for a couple of cups. 2p for a kettle full. All adds up, of course, and sensible to only boil what you need.

Any one have any advice.

Expensive things are storage heater, tumble drier, dishwasher - things that get hot!. Washing at 30deg is moneysaving, too.

space_rider

I`m confused. You say you don`t have gas but you mention a boiler. Is it an electric boiler, if so what is it heating. Do you mean you had an electrician out to your hot water immersion heater?

I think the 2 switches may be for a dual immersion heater. It`s cheaper to just heat the smaller part of the cylinder rather than the large one. If you have hot water all the time then I suspect that your immersion heater must be on all the time. I used to have an all electric house and we used to have the hot water on for 3 hours during the economy 7 times. Our children would all have a bath at night and we would use the shower. We also had a dishwasher which helped to preserve the hot water until the evenings for the baths.

The heater in your daughters room must be a convector heater as storage heaters don`t come on instantly.

It would probably be cheaper to get the storage heaters either fixed or replaced one by one. The newer ones are much more efficient.

I only fill the kettle with the amount needed. I only have low energy light bulbs and don`t leave anything on standby. I only use the tumble dryer for bedding and towels and dishwasher and washing machine are only used when full. I also have all A rated appliances as replaced them when I moved house.

joanne2008

thanks alot for your posts

The flat is rented and the boiler/ immersion heater is for hot water.

Are convector heaters expensive to run?

As you can see i have no idea about these my last place had gas central heating what i wouldnt give to have that back :rotfl:

Jo

Magentasue

All electric heating is expensive to run. Storage heaters use a massive amount of energy per heater but they are usually run on Economy 7 so cost less than using plug in heaters a lot. If you only use heating occasionally (rooms not used much, only at home part of the week, always out) it may not be economic to invest in and run storage heaters.

You could put your storage heaters on and read the meters to work out how much they cost you. You say they don't work properly and that was my experience with them - no heat for the evening if we'd be in during the day. They were efficient at providing background heating but not enough on their own. Too expensive for what we got - and, yes, certainly makes you appreciate gas CH.

Cardew

It can't be said often enough that all plug in heaters on a daytime tariff are the most expensive way to heat a property available.

That applies as much to these 'fancy' electrical systems as the humble £20 convector or oil filled radiator.

Whilst everyone would accept that storage heaters have their drawback, what heat they do provide is obtained at a far cheaper rate.