Crazy amount of units used everyday- HELP!

Rushmore

Hi

Wondering if anyone can help me with a problem I seem to be having after moving into a new flat. Easiest to just pedantically go through situation and then pose question...

Moved into a new flat about 3 weeks ago. Flat is two-bedroom and has no gas, just elec shower and 3 old-ish storage heaters. We are on a tariff called 'Off-Peak 5' which I can find no info on and seems to be a bit of a relic. Meter set-up is modern digital meter for 'off-peak' elec, old meter for 'on-peak' elec, we are due a changed meter for the 'on-peak'. I've noticed that the 'off-peak' clock is not the right time, and so I think our heaters come on earlier than they should, but shouldn't be a problem as they only come on when we have off-peak, right? We have elec cooker, but certainly do not use more elec than the average person as have no weird gadgets eating it up.

Anyway, the things that are confusing me after numerous calls to the elec board are:

- Why do our off-peak and on-peak meters run at the same time? Surely they're supposed to be one or the other.

- I've noted some meter readings and we seem to use between 30 - 40 units a day (with only 2 heaters on at lowest setting). This seems enormous and would results in a £200 a month bill on our tariff. Is something going wrong here?

- Finally, if it's purely that the heaters are massively inefficient (and after reading other posts here, it seems 15 units a day is inefficient, not 40!), can I petition my landlord to do anything about it? It's going to be pretty difficult to afford a £200 bill every month.

Thanks for your time reading this and I really appreciate any light anyone can throw on this...

Nick

Cardew

The electrical set-up in in properties with off-peak electricity varies.

Similarly there are mass of different off-peak tariffs - particularly in Scotland

As you indicate, most storage heaters are wired so that they only come on when you switch to off-peak.

Again the majority of properties have all their electricity at the off-peak price during the off peak period.

However some setups have only storage heating(and usually immersion heater) at off peak rates and all other electricity is at the same rate 24/7 - which appears to be your situation.

How do you get 30 to 40 units a day(for your heaters) to come to £200 a month. (900 to 1,200kWh) What rate do you pay for off peak? It shouldn't cost more than 5p/kWh? so £45 to £60.

Magentasue

I don't think 30-40kwh a day is a lot if you have storage heaters and an electric shower - maybe immersion heater too?

Storage heaters are a nightmare. I moved into a house with them and couldn't believe how high our bills were for that winter. And we had to supplement with plug in heaters and open fires. That was a big Victorian house, though. As Cardew says, the off peak hours when the heaters are drawing energy will only be costing about 5p kwh.

Your landlord doesn't have to do anything about it - you chose to live in an all-electric flat. You choose to use the heaters. You have the option to move. I know it's not always that simple but, put bluntly, your landlord is not at fault here. We moved into our house intending to put gas CH in anyway. I would have been gutted if we'd been stuck with the storage heaters but would have considered it my fault for not doing the research.

Rushmore

Thanks for your quick replies.

I thought I did my research beforehand, knew that storage heaters would increase energy bills, but not quadruple them! I know landlord is not responsible for elec cost, but was wondering if faulty heaters were causing high readings. Looks like I underestimated how much they'd use...

Finally spoke to someone useful at elec company and they've quoted our prices as different (and cheaper) to the prices we'd been using for comparison; these were taken from a left-over bill from previous tenant. Therefore it brings bill back down to 'expensive but what we expected' levels. Get our first bill end of the month so will get to see the real situation then.

Once again, thanks very much for your advice.

Cheers

Nick

Rushmore

The plot thickens...

After being told we were on cheaper rates (10p/6p) by two representatives of EDF, we've now been told that these numbers are nonsense and that we're actually on 18p/8p.

So, based on readings taken since we moved in, we use 15 day units at 18p and 39 night units at 8p. All this is based on only use two night storage heaters turned down low and regular other elec (eg. TV, fridge etc). Comes to around £171 a month (using full decimals).

Surely that's high? 39 units a night for two, low-level storage heaters? I knew they weren't great, but that seems ridiculous; maybe one is broken?

Obviously we're going to carefully consider what elec we use and try to minimise units and therefore this cost, but if anyone can let me know if this seems a reasonable amount of units in the circumstances, at least I know it's my fault for moving here rather than something that can be sorted out!

Any comments appreciated...

Nick

Bill7

hi, i'm in the same situation and coming to the realisation that theres not much solution when it comes to storage heaters.

All my investigations are posted in this thread if you would like a read-

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1388941

You will see the comparison and the nightmare i'm having with them as well.

butler_helen

that's not too bad- I've been posting on another thread with similar complaint and my bills are around the £100-£130 per month mark for pretty much the same as you (and one of our heaters doesn't work).

however, our landlord said he will service the storage heaters- why don't you ask for this?

we watch all electricity and don't heat rooms we don't have to - i.e. the kitchen and bathrooms, we've also got the usual round of thick curtains and wear slippers- storage heaters couldn't heat a bean can in my opinion, though they are VERY expensive.