Very High Night Units on Economy 7?

Captain_Howdy

Hi all,
like a lot of you it seems, we live in an all electric flat with NSH and Economy 7.
I have just checked the meter and it seems that we are using a massive amount of night units, and I can't think why.
We have not had the night storage heaters on at all since the start of the year and make sure all appliances other than fridge/alarm etc are turned off at the wall.

In the period between feb and now we have used aprox 2000 units (day) and coming up for 3000 (night). I had a nose at the readings for the other flats and they look substantially less.

Can anyone suggest what could be using up all this energy? Would the water heater alone do this? If so then why would my neighbors' not be the same?

I would really appreciate any help! :rudolf:

KimYeovil

They only have their water heaters on for the one-and-a-half to two hours that is required instead of leaving them on all night?

Magentasue

Could your water heater be faulty? When we moved into our present house, the immersion was on, even when switched off. Took us a month to realise - damage done by then. We had a horrendous electricity bill.

Captain_Howdy

KimYeovil wrote: »

They only have their water heaters on for the one-and-a-half to two hours that is required instead of leaving them on all night?

Thanks for the quick reply Kim. There are no timer controls for some reason so unless the other owners get out of bed at 1am to turn it off it coudn't be that..

And Magentasue, I don't think it could be faulty as the power light turns itself on and off when we would expect it to.

Premier_2

You appear to be using almost 11kWh every night :eek:

Even if the immersion (3kW) is on for all 7 hours, the water really should he heated up after 1 - 1.5 hours (assuming average size tank) and then it would only cut in to maintain the temperature. If the cylinder is adequately lagged, and presumably you are not using hot water at night, then this shouldn't be that much just to maintain the temperature.

Usually the culprit is a thermostat set too high. Turn off the electric to the immersion heater and take the cover off, you'll see the thermostat. It should be set to about 55C - 60C. I've seen many set as high as 80C+ which if the immersion is at the bottom of the tank, the water down there may never reach that temperature whilst it is bubbling away profusely at the top of the tank.

If that's not the cause, then wait until the off-peak period, turn off everything and ensure the meter isn't turning. Then turn on each item one by one that you would normally have on and see what is using the electricity. Leave the immersion heater til last as that will spin the meter quickly whilst heating the water.