I'm renting & Boiler broken = high bill... my rights?

stevenhp1987

To clarify the heating:

When I turn the heaters (two storage heaters in the flat), they turn on immediately, and do not turn on at night like they are supposed to. So I have left them off! therefore there should be no impact to my bill as I am maintaining the same lifestyle as in summer (except wearing lots of jumpers)

Fire_Fox

Sorry lots of questions, but you keep moving the goalposts! Nobody uses the same energy in the summer as winter, lighting is used a lot more and the temperature of water coming into the property is much colder. Often people use tumble dryers more as they have heavier clothes to dry, generally they eat more 'hot and hearty' meals.

So what is this boiler you talk about, do you mean an immersion heater? How hot is your water and has that changed? Which do you have radiators or storage heaters?Why did you say in your OP "same as the heating" if the heating is not in fact coming on in the day? Do you have an Economy 7 meter and tariff? If so part of the reason for your large bill will be that you are probably using most of your electricity at expensive dayrates.

Is your £160 bill based on actual start AND closing readings or are either of the readings estimated? Have you checked the readings for yourself? What exactly are the comparing the current bill to, a bill for the previous two months for the same property based on actual start AND closing readings?

clutton_2

""When I turn the heaters (two storage heaters in the flat), they turn on immediately, and do not turn on at night like they are supposed to.""

these sound like wall-mounted panel heaters which are little more than wall-mounted electric convector heaters, using the electric tarrif of the time of the day they are switched on...

what is written on these heaters ?

shegar

stevenhp1987 wrote: »

I never turned the radiators on... Its around 20 degrees Celcius in here anyways, no need for heating.

The boiler has been turned on 24/7 at the plug but only recently has it been working during the day. There is no thermostat, its not central heating. I have no gas.

The boiler is boarded up with some sort of wooden box... So I have no idea if there are any dials or knobs on the boiler at all! I cannot access them!!!

I was not left with any instruction manuals, the landlord at the time of moving in told me to keep the plug turned on.
One point I dont understand from your post is, how do your place remain 20 degrees with no heating on,? my place is very well insulated yet if there was no heat on it would drop to 15 degrees ,?

stevenhp1987

Just my room is 20 degrees... the living room is below 13... you can see your breath in there!

I do not have a tumble drier. The heaters I have are Dimplex heaters -> never use them.

I do not know what boiler I have. I have no instructions for it and its boarded up! The landlord told me upon moving in that it should be using night rate electricity (Yes I have economy 7)...

I give accurate meter readings once every month. I have used over 1000 units in a month!!! Despite not being in the property for a week (went home for xmas). I'm not sure about how it heats the water. It shouldn't use 1000 units a month though! Without heating that's just silly!!!

There is no timer anywhere for this boiler which is worrying for me.

Checked reading again today (sent reading yesterday) and I used 40 units in a 24 hour period (day rate - not many night units) -> Despite fact I was sleeping in until 1pm -> Equates to £10ish @ 28p for first 100 units.

Jowo_2

Ask your landlord for confirmation of the type of water heating system (boiler, cylinder, immersion heater) and the model that's in place at the property, whether it is set to heat the water on a 24/7 basis and whether it has a timer, or capacity to fit a timer and the reason why it must be left switched on at the mains on a full-time basis. Ask for a copy of the manual.

I still remain baffled by your reference to a boiler in a property that has electric heating and wonder whether you are referring to some kind of cylinder (hot water tank).

Fire_Fox

stevenhp1987 wrote: »

Just my room is 20 degrees... the living room is below 13... you can see your breath in there! I do not have a tumble drier. The heaters I have are Dimplex heaters -> never use them.

I do not know what boiler I have. I have no instructions for it and its boarded up! The landlord told me upon moving in that it should be using night rate electricity (Yes I have economy 7)...

Dimplex heaters are not radiators and they are probably not storage heaters, they are most likely (radiant) panel heaters: look at some pictures on the web and get back to us please. These are supposed to come on during the daytime so you probably shouldn't be on an E7 tariff, especially not if you are not heating water or using a washing machine/ tumble dryer overnight.

Apologies for appearing picky but your terminology is all wrong and it's clouding the issue - it's more likely you have an immersion heater than a boiler, a boiler usually denotes gas. Please find out from your landlord whether what you have is an immersion heater and get back to us.

stevenhp1987 wrote: »

I give accurate meter readings once every month. I have used over 1000 units in a month!!! Despite not being in the property for a week (went home for xmas). I'm not sure about how it heats the water. It shouldn't use 1000 units a month though! Without heating that's just silly!!!

There is no timer anywhere for this boiler which is worrying for me.

Checked reading again today (sent reading yesterday) and I used 40 units in a 24 hour period (day rate - not many night units) -> Despite fact I was sleeping in until 1pm -> Equates to £10ish @ 28p for first 100 units.

I agree 40 KWH per day without heating is nuts, there is something wrong but I am not yet convinced it's the immersion heater. Is your water burning hot all the time? There may be a fault with your meter, if the fault was with the immersion heater you'd be using electricity 24/7 not daytime only.

Are you 100% certain you are reading the correct meter? Does the MPAN (serial number) on the meter match the one on your bill? Have you tried turning off the electricity at the circuit breaker for an hour or two at peak time and seeing if the meter still goes round? It is far from unheard of for the wrong meter to be assigned to a flat, there may even be someone tapping your supply but this is far less likely.

Please note that energy can only change from one form to another, it doesn't just disappear into the ether. So if your immersion heater was wasting energy it would be kicking out a lot of heat (or light) that you would be benefiting from. Is the immersion in your bedroom, is that why it is 20C? Is the downstairs flat growing illicit substances? You also haven't asked my question about what you are comparing your usage to, to a previous property or to actual readings in this flat?

stevenhp1987

It's the correct meter reading. I just read the meter reading now and in 24 hours I used 4 day units and 1 night unit... after switiching the boiler off (I unscrewed the vent to have a peak inside and can see it's called a megaflo -> immersion heater) -> but 40 units for it per day is just silly, its cost me a fortune in the last 2 weeks. I check my meter regulary, so its always accurate.

Yes the immersion is in my bedroom. I am the downstairs flat.

Comparing to previous readings in this flat.

Sorry for this trouble, but I'm not very knowlegable about boilers/immersion heaters. There is no gas in this property.

According to a google search -> My heaters are storage heater, but they dont have a timer, just an input and output switch to control heat input to the bricks and heat output during the day. I never turn them on as they don't work as they should (overnight only)

poppysarah

stevenhp1987 wrote: »

To clarify the heating:

When I turn the heaters (two storage heaters in the flat), they turn on immediately, and do not turn on at night like they are supposed to. So I have left them off! therefore there should be no impact to my bill as I am maintaining the same lifestyle as in summer (except wearing lots of jumpers)

They should only heat up on cheap rate eleccy.

Horrible form of heating and unsuitable for most people who go out to work during the day.

Never rent with them again.