Please help an idiot!

elfen

I can't reach it (the meter) to check. It's about 2ft off the ground higher than I am.....there's no button, which makes me suspect it is only one reading. And there's not much of a chance of it being night in the middle of the day is it? Since I'd assume a different reading would show, and it has been the same (except for the odd move up) since I looked this afternoon.

The boiler has it's own switch so I control when it goes on and off - half an hour every 2-3 days. There is NO other way of turning it on and the heaters are NEVER on (I'd notice, since the clock sat on top of it would have melted by now) I don't have boiling hot massively long showers, I have one or two decent showers a week (long and hot just after I've turned the boiler on, and it literally is the only switch for it, as you can hear the boiler heating up after turning on the switch) and the rest are shorter, but long enough for me to wash, with possibly not as hot water. There is NO other way for the boiler to come on, no thermostat, no dial or timer, just the switch which has a cable into the wall that goes into the boiler, so that's heating up my water, NOT something else.
ETA: when I cooked earlier, it was BEFORE 7

The wireless signal is either through my dongle, or through the free wireless provided by my LL (the modem is downstairs in the shared house so it's paid for through their meter.

The usage I describe doesn't take into account that I am not in the majority of the day, that usually I am out in the morning and part of the afternoon and using the charge on my laptop with NO lights, and nothing extraneous on except my fridge freezer and my alarm clock. But I guess I'll find out when the bill comes in, won't I?

Cardew

With Economy 7 it is normal practice for the immersion heater to be wired to come on automatically every night when cheap rate electricity starts - for a 7 hour period, normally in the 9 hour period between the hours of 11:30pm to 8:30am. Any switch is then an overide. Incidentally the thermostat on an immersion is integral to the heater itself - under the cap where the wiring enters. If there wasn't a thermostat the water would boil.

The first thing you want to establish with your landlord is if you are on Economy 7 or not. To use a storage heater in winter on a non E7 tariff would be very expensive. You also would want to heat your water with an immersion on the E7 cheap rate.

elfen

OK Cardew, I'll ask him when I next see him, and ask which company I'm with (I didn't get told for some reason....) then I can phone them up and confirm the tariff too. It's more likely to be double what my meter says if it has 2 different times on it