Gas central heating or oil filled heater?

BuddyBonthenet

Despite living in the same house for 22 years, I am a complete newbie when it comes to gas and electricity bills. We have never really worried about how much our fuel bills were until these massive price rises started happening and I had to give up going out to work. In fact, we would usually get a refund from both the gas and the electric companies each year.

Last year we got a smart meter fitted for our electricity as part of a pilot scheme and we got a freebie gadget - a little plug in device that shows how much electricity were are using at any time and the cost (works on a traffic light system). Now we get a monthly bill for how much we use and that, plus much higher bills has made us much more aware of the cost!

Our first two bills were £87 and £88, but the latest bill for the month is £109 which I think is really high - but I don't know how to check how the bill is made up to see what equipment is thirsty and what isn't. We live in a small bungalow and there is just me and my husband. We are on Economy 7 and try to use this for the washing machine and dishwasher. Other 'large' equipment we have -

17 inch portable TV
Cable box
DVD dvd player/recorder
Fridge freezer (undercounter size)
Microwave

We have the usual 'small' equipment such as phones (2) and answer machine, clock radio & table lamps. I run a small online business and we have two laptops and a desktop computer on all day (also have a printer & scanner).

Can anyone with similar equipment tell me if £109 a month sounds reasonable?

Also, we have gas central heating in every room except the room I work in during the day. The central heating keeps the house warm without the need for a gas fire. When my workroom gets too cold I use an oil filled heater with a thermostat to keep the room warm. The central heating is on a timer and comes on in the morning and in the evening and provides hot water (this can be topped up with an electric immersion heater if necessary). How can I compare the cost of leaving the doors to my work room open and keeping the central heating on when it is cold, instead of keeping the central heating off, closing the doors and using the oil filled heater?

Sorry for such a long post...:o

bristol_pilot

£109 a month is a lot and it is most likely down to your electric heater.

Fire_Fox

You need to tell us what you have used in KWH for night and day, not cost. No tumble dryer or electric shower? How many hours per day is the heater used for? How well insulated is the bungalow? Do you really need the desktop computer on all day as well as two laptops (desktop usually more energy hungry)? What lighting do you have?

BuddyBonthenet

Fire_Fox wrote: »

You need to tell us what you have used in KWH for night and day, not cost. No tumble dryer or electric shower? How many hours per day is the heater used for? How well insulated is the bungalow? Do you really need the desktop computer on all day as well as two laptops (desktop usually more energy hungry)? What lighting do you have?

Thanks bristolpilot and Fire Fox for your replies.

KWH figures - 662 day rate (76 primary, 586 secondary) and 163 on night rate.

No tumble dryer or electric shower. On a cold day like some have been in the last month it could be on 8/9 hours a day, but going on and off with the thermostat. The bungalow is well insulated. The desktop acts as a server, but I could change this if it makes a big difference.

I'm not saying the £109 is wrong btw, just looking for ways to reduce it!

Magentasue

Why do you have Economy 7 when you use less than 20% off peak?

dannymccann

As Magentasue says, your usage pattern doesnt correspond with the benefits of Economy 7, as you use the majority of your energy during the day, not 12am - 7am.

So, first of all is to get on a comparison site and find the cheapest supplier in your area and get switched, making sure you incur no charges for going from Eco7 to a standard / dual fuel tariff (you may wish to wait a month until all the suppliers are on a level playing field, depends how quickly you want to get it sorted). That should cut the £'s down a bit (maybe 1/5th?).

Then you can start measuring individual item's consumption, but at a guess your server will be between 200 - 300w per hour (with the screen on), going that my boggo spec computer uses 175w under load

BuddyBonthenet

Thanks for your replies. We are on Economy 7 because we used to be out all day and now we are not and it never occurred to us we shouldn't be...:o

I will start looking at comparisons sites.

What do you think about the central heating v the oil heater?

dannymccann

Well the oil heater is powered by electricity and therefore is more expensive in general for heating purposes, however it is 100% (I think?) efficient, so it might be good for heating just one room, but I doubt this is your aim really considering youve never really given an eye to choosing between energy consumption

BuddyBonthenet

dannymccann wrote: »

Well the oil heater is powered by electricity and therefore is more expensive in general for heating purposes, however it is 100% (I think?) efficient, so it might be good for heating just one room, but I doubt this is your aim really considering youve never really given an eye to choosing between energy consumption

LOL! We bought the oil filled heater as it is better for my health than other types of electric heaters (can't remember why now).

Magentasue

BuddyBonthenet wrote: »

Thanks for your replies. We are on Economy 7 because we used to be out all day and now we are not and it never occurred to us we shouldn't be...:o

I will start looking at comparisons sites.

What do you think about the central heating v the oil heater?

You should only be on E7 if you use a lot of electricity overnight (classic case is storage heaters) because you pay a premium rate for every kwh used during the day.

I would definitely use one of the laptops as a server and not use the desktop if you can do that. I wouldn't use an electric heater if I had central heating. I'd put the heating on for half an hour a couple of times a day to warm the room rather than running an electric heater but I'm not sure which would cost more.

BuddyBonthenet

Magentasue wrote: »

You should only be on E7 if you use a lot of electricity overnight (classic case is storage heaters) because you pay a premium rate for every kwh used during the day.

I would definitely use one of the laptops as a server and not use the desktop if you can do that. I wouldn't use an electric heater if I had central heating. I'd put the heating on for half an hour a couple of times a day to warm the room rather than running an electric heater but I'm not sure which would cost more.

Thank you, I'm going to check all this out.