Re: Please Hopefully some one can help????

newbie2009

Hi there,

I live on my own and have bought a house with E7 heating with Southern Electric. I have an open fire which I have used twice since moving here, but it's not that warm and i'm starting to panic about the winter as the bill was high.

I called SE & as I'm not using the electric in the evening its just not going to be any good. I've tried timers the lot!

I cannot afford to put central heating in so am happy to use the open fire and bring in gas fires if need be...but can I change to a normal meter? You see I have a small boiler and it's attached to an immersion heater.


I'm no plumber and I cannot afford to pay one to ask & SE can't help me?

Am I being stupid or is it just really a case of swapping the meter and not using the E7 heaters any more as I would love to?


Thanks

x

albyota

Newbie, how old is the house, how old are the storage heaters, are they set up correctly, is the boiler mains gas or LPG? and what size hot water cylinder is it?

newbie2009

Hi the house was built in 1930 and the heters are Creda, look like 60's brown and white. The boiler or immersion heater is covered in blue insulation, your askign an admin assistant! So all I have is some old p/work for some maintainence or something saying 36X18 DIR cylinder foamed (telford)????

newbie2009

Oh it then says T3618DF not sure if model number tried looking on net, not found anything x

Magentasue

When you say E7 heating, I assume you mean storage heaters? So you have storage heaters and an immersion heater, but you also say a small boiler - do you mean tank for your hot water?

Also, you are happy to buy gas fires - do you mean calor gas or do you have a gas supply?

Given that you cannot afford central heating, you have a couple of options:

1) Use your storage heaters and immersion heater on E7. Run washing machine etc at night using timers.

2) Switch to a single rate tariff and use plug in heaters, calor gas heaters or similar.

3) Just use your open fire and live in one room - again a single rate tariff would probably be best.

Each option has pros and cons. Storage heating is expensive to run. The older the heaters and the larger the property, the less economical they're likely to be. E7 is almost essential if you use them a lot. The benefit is that you may be able to do your washing and heat up a tank full of hot water for half the day rate or less.

Plug in heaters are expensive to run but if you're out a lot and don't need to heat the whole house, they may be a cheaper option. You need to switch to single rate for this.

Calor gas heaters are protentially dangerous and produce a lot of condensation so need to be used with care. They're essentially pay-as-you-go but not cheap to run.

Changing your meter may or may not be necessary - you need to ask SE or search this forum. I know from other posts that eon just add the two readings together and charge one rate. Some suppliers will change the meter for free, some charge. Check your normal usage - are you using much energy now without the heating?

Magentasue

Looking at your later post, you do seem to have storage heaters and an immersion heater, not a boiler.

albyota

one option, would be to replace the storage heaters, one by one, but they are not brilliant at heating unless you know what the weather is going to do tomorrow and whether the house is well insulated, draft proofed, double glazed etc... that goes for any heating system though, you might qualify for a grant if you were to look at replacing with a heat pump (ASHP) but that would require a full wet central heating system with radiators, but you would be investing into increasing the value of the house....

Bob_the_Saver

If you are going to use electricity at night (heating, water heating in particular) check that the time on the meter is correct. I had an old meter that was nearly 12 hours out so night-time was full rate and day-time cheap rate. Result was £600+ bill wiped out.
(IT was an OLD meter)

newbie2009

Thanks guys but i've tried timers, i'm in bed by 9:30 so i really am not using the E7 rate as it doesn't kick in til midnight. And no its one boiler thing, so i take it thats an immersion then is it? I guess the only thing is to try it and see how it goes??

newbie2009

And I cannot aford anything else to replace it

Magentasue

If you're in bed so darn early, you may well be up in time to use the cheaper electricity before it switches over!

You need to budget whatever you do - work out how many units you are using every week now and make sure you are paying double that at least by DD, or putting the same amount by to get you through the winter. Once the heating goes on, check your meter daily and only use what you can afford. Anything producing heat will cost money so insulate where you can - bubble wrap on windows if need be - and look at ways of drying laundry etc without using electricity.

Check out grants for insulation or even central heating.