I need urgent help Re: new house and electric heaters.

pretzelnut

We move into a new house tommorrow, we saw it when it was a wreck and took the house on the plans of what it would be like. We were told it wold be fully double glazed and central heating throughout.

Imagine my horror when we turn up to pick up the keys to find that:
1) There is NO gas, so NO combi boiler.
2)only 3 of the 11 windows have been double glazed (they told us they would all be done the none upvc windows are puddled with condensation)
3) as there is no gas there are only electric heater radiators in each room.
4) there is an electric fire
When we got the keys the landlord did a meter reading to my horrow it was a prepayment meter.
5) it has a shower but obvioulsy NO combi boiler so is working on a tank with an immersion heater.

There was £11 credit on the meter last night at 10pm, we went round this lunch time and it was down to £3.

The landlord had left the radiators running to warm the house through as its just been completely refurbed.

Me and DF has sat down and worked out that running each radiator in each room for 8 hours a day would cost £4 per radiator. Times that by 6 and that is £24 a day just for radiators. Or £125 per week.

Surely this cant be correct.

We havent even added the other housegold appliances to that figure.

If we did it would make our electric bill almost £600 per month. :eek::eek::eek:


I have tried doing comparisons onine but i cant find any site that doesnt assume i already live there and i already have bills and im just looking to switch.

I need a site or someone in the know to help me out here.

No way can we afford heating bills that high.

I need a warm house as DF gets pneumonia quite regularly for unknown reasons and we have 3 kids, 1 who is only 3 months old.

Are my figures correct????


ETA: ive never had a prepayment meter before, im assuming i can have this taken out for a normal meter and i have never used anything apart from full central heating with a gas fire, so these electric radiators are a completely new thing for me.

KimYeovil

A prepayment electric unit costs between 12.7p and 13.7p at Ebico prices. Cheaper prices may be available with other companies when using more than average.

£4 for 8 hours? 50p for 1 hour? That would be only be possible with a 4 kWh running full blast with no thermostat kicking in. I do not know how much less it would be in practice but it should be at least half that.

Plus, of course, you do not keep all six radiators on. You only need one or two rooms heated. And you only need them on when you are at home.

I'm not saying it will not be expensive but at least they are flexible and 100% efficient. You should be able to get away with £200 per winter month. Don't forget that you can turn heating off during the day when everyone is wide awake - a 'brisk' winter day like today is not the same as a cold, damp evening. Concentrate on concentrating and keeping cosy only when necessary. How long is your lease for ?

markharding557

If the radiators don't have very good thermostats you could get oil rads which do have very good stats

Garz

Time to kick off with the developers about the apparent window situation, however as we don't know officially we can only take your word for the central heating setup which is again up to you to pursue if its incorrect.

A newly built abode however should be well insulated so as stated above your heating should not have to be on all the time. Good luck!

Oldernotwiser

Were you told that there would be full gas central heating or did you just assume this? Electric radiators are often described as electric central heating.

pretzelnut

KimYeovil wrote: »

A prepayment electric unit costs between 12.7p and 13.7p at Ebico prices. Cheaper prices may be available with other companies when using more than average.

£4 for 8 hours? 50p for 1 hour? That would be only be possible with a 4 kWh running full blast with no thermostat kicking in. I do not know how much less it would be in practice but it should be at least half that.

Plus, of course, you do not keep all six radiators on. You only need one or two rooms heated. And you only need them on when you are at home.

I'm not saying it will not be expensive but at least they are flexible and 100% efficient. You should be able to get away with £200 per winter month. Don't forget that you can turn heating off during the day when everyone is wide awake - a 'brisk' winter day like today is not the same as a cold, damp evening. Concentrate on concentrating and keeping cosy only when necessary. How long is your lease for ?

I will investigate them more tommorow, i dont know anything about how these heaters work. I have no idea if they have individual timers on them etc. I have taken your advice on baord, may need to invest in some thick woolie jumpers, winters in scotland are hard enough as it is.

markharding557 wrote: »

If the radiators don't have very good thermostats you could get oil rads which do have very good stats

Thank you but thats extra inital outlay that we cant afford bit of a catch 22 going on.

Garz wrote: »

Time to kick off with the developers about the apparent window situation, however as we don't know officially we can only take your word for the central heating setup which is again up to you to pursue if its incorrect.

A newly built abode however should be well insulated so as stated above your heating should not have to be on all the time. Good luck!

Why would i lie? Its not a ''new build'' its a complete rerurb of a very old house. I have 1 heater in each of the rooms, living room, kitchen, 3 bedrooms and bathroom. No gas so have an electric oven and hob. No fire either. Wouldnt have been so bad if there was a log burner or coal fire of some sort.

Who in their right mind would completly redevelop a house, by stripping it all back to bare brick and then scrimp on a few extra windows.

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Were you told that there would be full gas central heating or did you just assume this? Electric radiators are often described as electric central heating.

Yes i have everythig confirmed in dozens of emails that went back and forth, as we knew the original state of the house, we wanted to make sure in advance it would be up to standard, the landlords own our new house and the one we are in now. They wanted to redevelop all their properties and we were asked if we wanted the other one as we would be given notice here regardless of whether we took the other one or not. Even though this house is fine and nothing needs doing to it, it gas central heating with a combi boiler and fully double glazed.

Oldernotwiser

princesswoo wrote: »

Yes i have everythig confirmed in dozens of emails that went back and forth, as we knew the original state of the house, we wanted to make sure in advance it would be up to standard, the landlords own our new house and the one we are in now. They wanted to redevelop all their properties and we were asked if we wanted the other one as we would be given notice here regardless of whether we took the other one or not. Even though this house is fine and nothing needs doing to it, it gas central heating with a combi boiler and fully double glazed.

If you have it in writing that there will specifically be gas central heating with a combi boiler then I think that you would be with in your rights to ask for a reduction in the rent.

Are there any plans in place for the rest of the windows to be replaced?