Thoughts please

maxmycardagain

maxmycardagain wrote: »

BTW, per bath we put about 9" of just hot in, not fill it

measured it last night

6" pure hot

it was 5" allowed in WW2!

Susan1942

A discussion about the use of electric blankets left me thinking or being told that it cost £6 per week to heat the bed for around 4-5 hours per night. Double bed sized blanket. Anyone have any idea if thisis accurate or not.
I too have economy 7 storage heaters as I live in a retirement property for the over 55's. I am always afraid of being cold as I don't have any fire to back this up. No fireplace! I do have a fan of one of the 2 heaters in my living room but I use this rarely only in very cold weather.

Any views

Sue

maxmycardagain

Susan, first of all, what tariff are you on? standard or a websaver?

my 3 unit charges are:-

Day
first 125 kw - 29.257 plus vat at 5% = 30.73
then 8.374 plus vat = 8.79

Nite
4.074 plus vat = 4.28p

with no NSR heaters on and just the immersion and 1 wash cycle we use 3 units
with 1 NSR on we average 8 units meaning the 1 NSR (on medium) costs 5 unitsx4.2p = 21p per night

a 1kw heater costs 9p/day hour:4p/nite hour WHEN ON, as you should always get one with a heat setting as opposed to one without

a double electric blanket (im told) are upto about 150w = 1.5kw in TEN hours use = 8p ish

maxmycardagain

NSRs cost more the 1st/2nd time they are on then a bit less per night once residual heat is available to reduce the charge needed

Susan1942

Thanks so much for the prompt response. The electric blanket rate is important as Atlantic told me it would cost me about £6 per week with the blanket on for 1 1/2 hours a night. Seemed so high!
Night storage heaters I need to be warm but I do seem to have a rise in my units since I had a new meter fitted about 2 years ago.
Seems to use 10-11 units a night I think!

I am going to change Provider. I got a cold call from Scottish Power on Monday evening offering me a capped rate. This is slightly cheaper than my current rate with Southern Electric Go Direct 5 plan.
However I have done a comparison on several sites and they all bring up Scottish Power on line 11 plan as the best option.
Units are much cheaper by 7p on day rate and 2p cheaper than night rate. Savings in excess of £220 they say 20%.
I will have to pay a penalty of £50 to leave Go direct as I only changed from Atlantic to them about 3 months ago. My monthly payments were reduced by £21 in doing this just based on the price of the same amount of electicity.

Not sure whether to cap or not?

Sue

Poosmate

Have you both got timers on your night storage heaters so they come on at midnight or 1.00am when the cheap electric starts and off at 7.00am or 8.00 when it goes off? I don't know if you even need them to be on for that long as I don't have them but maybe you could set the timer to come on at say 3.00am and go off at 7.00am?

Also, with the electric blanket, why would you need it on for 4 or 5 hours? Surely you only need it on for half an hour or so before you go to bed (or is it one of these new fangled ones that you can sleep with them on - they scare me)?

Regarding the fridge, mine is facing due south and opposite a window so in the summer I put clothes on the clothes horse and put it in front of the fridge to block the heat coming through the window heating up the door of the fridge. I haven't tested this but it seems logical that if it's in direct heat it's going to get hotter than if it's shaded yes?

The temperature in my kitchen in the winter drops to around 9.5degrees (brr it's cold!) so I was thinking this winter of switching the fridge off when I go out to work and back on when I get in about 9 hours later. The only problem I have with this is that the 9.5 degree temperature is at around 7.00-7.30pm when I get home so I don't know what the temperature is during the day (especially if it's one of those beautiful, crisp, sunny winter's days). Anyone got any thoughts on this idea? There's no heating on in the house during the day as I don't have central heating, just a gas fire (and two 1kWh and 1.5kWh oil filled rads) which are put on as soon as I get in.

Thanks

Poo

Susan1942

This seems all too complicated for me. I don't have a timer on my heating and yes I will cut down the time on the electric blanket. I tend to keep it on whilst I am in bed and this may not be the best idea. Yes I can sleep with it on and would only do this if the weather was exceptionally cold.

Thanks for your response!

maxmycardagain

anybody got a Kwattage for a double bed leccy blanket?

all i can find is 250kw, thats 1p per hour WHEN ON (which it isnt even when switched on due the heat control) (1p/hr E7 websaver night rate, 2.25p on day rate)

id suggest a meter read last thing and first thing

maxmycardagain

Poosmate wrote: »

Have you both got timers on your night storage heaters so they come on at midnight or 1.00am when the cheap electric starts and off at 7.00am or 8.00 when it goes off? I don't know if you even need them to be on for that long as I don't have them but maybe you could set the timer to come on at say 3.00am and go off at 7.00am?
Thanks

Poo

NSRs have thier own ring main (circuit) and RCD switchboard which SHOULD only be fed/live when the 2 rate meter clicks onto the cheap rate, for us thats 01.30am to 08.30am summer 00.30 to 07.30am winter

they have a variable charge and variable room setting, in effect IN and OUT

after the first night the bricks should have retained heat which should reduce the charge required

7 units a night at 4p = 28p per heater max, your immersion could also be timed for E7

we use 10 units to get a tank of hot water, 1 wash cycle and run 1 NSR = 40p