Economy 7 electricity bill question!!! Please help!!!

grahamka

Hi I would really appreciate it if someone could help me. I've recently moved into a 2 bedroom flat which uses the economy 7 tariff and has a storage heater. We've just recieved our first quarterly bill which came to £281. We know this can't be right-I used to pay this quarterly when I lived in a house with 6 people with the tv, washing machine and heating always on!!!! I've phoned up N Power and they checked that the day/night time readings hadn't swapped (by me taking two seperate meter readings an hour apart).

My flatmate and I are hardly in. We rarely use the electrical appliances, never have the heating on and the storage heater only comes on from 4am-7am. N Power have told me that there is a lot of energy that is being used during the day but we have everything switched off. Can anyone help me to shed some light on this?! The storage heater does make noises during the day-from the pump being on but this wouldn't account for the amount of energy being used!

Sorry for the long rant-I'm very confused and don't know what to do!

Kate

albyota

welcome to the forum.

what do you use to cook with? how is the water heated? everyday items such as hair dryer?, electric shower (how long in there) washing Machine, kettle, lights, fridge, freezer, it all mounts up and £23 per week seems about right. what is your daytime units per kWh?

edit: "The storage heater does make noises during the day-from the pump being on but this wouldn't account for the amount of energy being used!"

Pump....on a storage heater..? Do you mean hot water cylnder?

dunloadin

You havn't mentioned your hot water tank, the immersion heater for the boost could be the culprit for using lots of electricity through the day; if it's faulty it could be using even more.

You say you have only one storage heater and can hear the 'pump' running....storage heaters don't have pumps! Is it by any chance a huge storage heater with a fan and ducting to rooms throughout the flat?

The heater coming on for just 3 hours sounds odd, you should get 7 hours of power to the elements to heat the bricks up. The trick to getting the best out of storage heaters is to turn the 'output' dial to the minimum setting before going to bed at night, that way most of the energy used by the element will go into heating the bricks up and not be wasted by heating the flat while your asleep.

What type of meter do you have, key or credit?

Valli

When you say the storage heater is on I assume you mean it's building up heat which it then 'gives out' later in the day.

I use E7 - have for years (although I have gas).

One day, when you're in, check that your day meter is clocking up units (not your low rate) THEN
start turning things off. Fridge, freezer etc. then check it's stopped.

As has been said though your storage heater should be on overnight storing heat. And they don't have pumps.

Bet it's an immersion heater then.
If so make sure you haven't got it set too hot and that it's properly lagged.
Is it on constantly or on a timer?

Cardew

grahamka wrote: »

The storage heater does make noises during the day-from the pump being on but this wouldn't account for the amount of energy being used!


Kate

Storage heaters don't have pumps!

How many kWH have you used - on day rate and on night rate?

Was the bill based on actual meter readings, or estimated readings. at the beginning and end of the quarter?

grahamka

Hi guys,

Thanks for the responses-i really appreciate it. It must be an immersion heater then. I can't do anything to it to change the settings. It has thress swicthes on the wall one which says off peak which is on, one which says boost which is never used and one which says pump which is also selected. There is also a manual timer-the ones which look like a dial and move around. This timer is labelled as off peak water heating hours and the only hours which have been selected are from 4am to 7am.

When I cook I use a fridge (which includes a small freezer apartment) and I use either the hob/oven.

I was given an estimated reading for £249 which I thought was high so I rang up with my meter readings and then was charged more. N Power agreed that its a very high day rate as well . These are my last meter readings:

Day: 41457

Night: 14765

These are the only numbers I've been able to get hold of so I don't know my daily usage etc.

Kate

Valli

well, surely you can reset the timer to suit your preferred usage.

What about the TEMPERATURE the water heats to?

(I also leave my microwave switched off at the mains - for the amount of time I actually USE it I figured it was an expensive way to run a clock in the kitchen;))

macman

My guess is that regardless of what the timer says your immersion heater is on all day.
Your meter readings on their own are no help-you need to look at your bill and note the units used on each tariff during the billing period, you can then pro-rata to get your daily/weekly consumption.
How do you heat the flat, since you clearly don't have storage heaters? The biggest consumption is from electric heating, hot water, electric shower and tumble driers.
Immersion heaters don't have pumps-is this possibly a pump for the shower maybe? Whatever it is, it shouldn't be making noises in the day if the shower/immersion is off.

espresso

grahamka wrote: »

Hi guys,

Thanks for the responses-i really appreciate it. It must be an immersion heater then. I can't do anything to it to change the settings. It has thress swicthes on the wall one which says off peak which is on, one which says boost which is never used and one which says pump which is also selected. There is also a manual timer-the ones which look like a dial and move around. This timer is labelled as off peak water heating hours and the only hours which have been selected are from 4am to 7am.

When I cook I use a fridge (which includes a small freezer apartment) and I use either the hob/oven.

I was given an estimated reading for £249 which I thought was high so I rang up with my meter readings and then was charged more. N Power agreed that its a very high day rate as well . These are my last meter readings:

Day: 41457

Night: 14765

These are the only numbers I've been able to get hold of so I don't know my daily usage etc.

Kate

Is the timer set to the correct time? Not the ON - OFF times, the actual time.

Read your meter at the same time each day and post your readings.

Premier_2

grahamka wrote: »

... These are my last meter readings:

Day: 41457

Night: 14765

These are the only numbers I've been able to get hold of so I don't know my daily usage etc.

Kate

What were the meter readings when you moved in/at the start of the bill.

These should be on the bill. Do they tie in with the meter readings you gave the supplier when you took over the account?

grahamka

Is the timer set to the correct time? Not the ON - OFF times, the actual time.

I'm starting to think this could be the problem. Theres a manual timer attached to the wall so I can input offpeak times etc. Its making a ticking noise but I've noticed that the timer dial never moves round and where the mark is (which I presume indicates the current time) it says that its always 14:30. But if this is the case I surely wouldn't ever get hot water as 4am would never come round on the dial. Sorry if that doesn't make much sense-its quite hard to explain!

My guess is that regardless of what the timer says your immersion heater is on all day.

Do you know how I could turn it off? I have a Pulsacoil 3 and I've seached everywhere on the internet and asked the landlord but can't find information on turning it off. There is no off switch just a switch for boost, off peak and pump.

Your meter readings on their own are no help-you need to look at your bill and note the units used on each tariff during the billing period, you can then pro-rata to get your daily/weekly consumption.


Useage from my bill: Night: 329 kWh
Day: 1588 kWh

How do you heat the flat, since you clearly don't have storage heaters? The biggest consumption is from electric heating, hot water, electric shower and tumble driers.


We have electric heating which we have never even used-all the heaters are turned off at the wall. We put washing on twice weekly-I don't know if thats a lot or not?!

What about the TEMPERATURE the water heats to?

I don't know how to find this out-I've tried searching for the user manual and it wasn't helpful. The Pulsacoil 3 doesn't have any outputs/gages on it for me to tell the temperature.

Thanks again,

Kate