New flat only has electric heating... worried!

marcouk76

I am just about to move to a new-built flat which only has electric heating. A friend of mine who lives in a one-bedroom flat said her average bill would be about £200/month. As my current elec. bill (in a gas heated flat) is £30 per month this got me worried!

Would you say that my friend's estimate is realistic?

I have noticed that in the building other flats are using oil-filled radiators and my friend said she bought one of those as well to cut her electricity costs. Are they really cheaper to run?

I am getting myself into so much debt to buy this flat and really cannot afford to spend £200 month to heat the place up... I hope you can advise.

djhworld

Is it a storage heater or actual electric central heating?

Either way, I think your friend probably has his/her heating on 24/7. If you want to save money I suggest not ramping your thermostat up high and don't put your heating on at night.

I presume you're working full time? If you have a timer system installed, just set your heating to come on 20 or so minutes before you get home and turn off around 10-11pm

EDIT: and be practical with your clothing. I've lived with people walking around in shorts and tshirts with the heating ramped up to 32. If they just reduce the temperature and wear a jumper you can live quite comfortably tbh

Premier_2

Don't worry about what your friend uses.

When you move into your flat, take a meter reading and inform your supplier of this. Keep a regular check on your meter and calculate your usage and then if necessary adjust the consumption to suit your budget.

Once you get a good idea of your expected annual usage, you may wish to see if you can get a better deal using the comparison sites in the resource bar above.

Edit: you may find the following website useful to keep an eye on your consumption costs.
http://www.imeasure.org.uk/

Edit 2: Don't confuse average monthly costs (annual cost divided by 12) with the cost of consumption in the most expensive month of the year, especially when we are in one of the coldest and most prolonged cold spells in recent years.

marcouk76

I am not sure on the storage tank. I did see a very big tank in the airing cupboard but I assumed that was to heat up the water? But now that you ask me this, it might well have been for the radiators.

What difference would that make to running costs if there was a storage tank?

djhworld

A storage heater is different from a storage tank, a storage heater is basically like a bulky radiator that sits in small flats. You usually turn it on at night and it generates and "stores" heat in its reservoir (usually filled with bricks or other insulators) which is then slowly released during the day.

Hannah2

I moved into a rented new build flat in October, I thought when I first saw it that it had gas central heating as it had radiators.... I was wrong it is electric central heating which I didnt know you could have. Doh! This has a water tank/airing cupboard that is used for hot water and for the radiators

Anyway, I was worried about costs so I ran it in October as I would like it to be and took meter readings. I had the heating on every morning for 2 hours and every evening from 4pm until 11pm at a reasonable temp on the thermostat.

It worked out at only £30 for the month so I was relieved it wasnt as bad as I had thought it would be.

As Premier said, make sure to monitor it for a time and then adjust your usage from that.

It has taken me a while to work out the best settings for water temperature of the tank vs thermostat on the wall in the hall in order to achieve the best temp of radiators but we had noone to instruct us on how to use the system so see if there is anyone you can ask before you start.

Good luck in your new flat

Premier_2

marcouk76 wrote: »

I am not sure on the storage tank. I did see a very big tank in the airing cupboard but I assumed that was to heat up the water? But now that you ask me this, it might well have been for the radiators.

What difference would that make to running costs if there was a storage tank?

The question was not over the hat water tank, but over storage heaters. i.e. heaters that heat up overnight using cheap rate electricity.

As it is a new build property, you should be provided with all the instructions on how to use the heating system.

marcouk76

djhworld wrote: »

A storage heater is different from a storage tank, a storage heater is basically like a bulky radiator that sits in small flats. You usually turn it on at night and it generates and "stores" heat in its reservoir (usually filled with bricks or other insulators) which is then slowly released during the day.

Thank you. I will have to check this when I take possession of the flat next Tuesday.

djhworld

marcouk

As it's a new build I'd imagine it's electric central heating as the others have suggested (storage heaters are usually found in older flats like the one I live in!) but if you take the advice of what everyone has mentioned in this thread I doubt you'll hit the £200 a month mark.

marcouk76

Thank you everyone for your replies. I will take a meter reading on Tuesday when I move in and then another reading at the end of the month and see how much I am being charged.

Will also need to see what the "default" provider is. In my current flat I have switched to EbiCo and are quite happy with it, so I might well switch to them in the new property too.

djhworld

If you go with British Gas on their "energy smart" plan, they give you a free electricity monitor that gives you a real-time reading of electricity being used, with totals for yesterday/the past 7 days and 30 days.

+ They prompt you to give meter readings every month so you can avoid estimated bills.