Am I being ripped off by my electric company? / +Water control and storage heating

eatee

Hope someone here can help with my situation.

I am on a prepayment meter in a rented accomodation. My electric supplier is e-on. With the frequency of our electric payments seemingly rocketing I've undertaken an investigation of what is costing how much, and when. Switching supplier is also on the cards.

I have papers from the beginning of the year (bills are in my mum's name, but I'm taking this matter into my own hands), which state that we were on an economy 7 tariff around that time. However since then we've been moved to a different account with e-on, whether or not with my mum's consent I haven't had a chance to find out yet, but I don't think she knows anything about it. Anyway, on the more recent papers nothing is said about economy 7.

Looking at the graphs in my online account with e-on, it shows that my electric consumption has more than DOUBLED since the turn of the year. On the 5th of january meter reading, the day rate was 2354 and night rate was 2856 (it doesn't say what the unit is...). On the second reading on 18th August, the day rate was 5149 and the night rate was 6567!

I'm spend nearly £7 / 24 hours on electricity, which is not sustainable. I've been trying to gauge what is using the most electricity; it seems to be the water heating, followed by the storage heaters.

I've managed to look up the pdf manuals for my storage heaters online and I think from hereon I'll be using the heaters more efficiently (I hope). The "output" function seems to either be misleading or vary between models of storage heater. In the manual it says it specifies the TIME for which the boost comes on. 2-6 being from late to early in the day, and 1 being no boost. However the general meaning of output on storage heaters that most people describe says that it switches the boost on right away at the desired intensity, from 2-6. Which is more likely, or are they both somehow accurate? Right now I have the INPUT of two in the living room and 1 in the bedroom set to 3, which supplies decent heat up until about 7pm, and the OUTPUT set to 1 (off--I hope). I once caught them belching out tons of heat during the early hours (like 3am) and I think it was due to the output setting, although I've only just started experimenting with them.

In the cupboard with the eletric meter there are two boxes filled with trip switches. One box contains labels only for the storage heaters; the other box bears labels for everything else in the house. I am _guessing_ that one box is for the economy 7 tariff/off peak and the other for regular. If this is the case, then might I be paying normal rates for the water heating (which appears in the box that _doesn't_ contain storage heater switches) during the night?

Finally, on a separate note, I've been trying to look up the manual for my Horstmann Electronic 7 water control. However, the manual I found shows a product bearing the same name but completely different display and buttons. I can't find my version anywhere (and theirs looks fancier). I've noticed the water come on as soon as off-peak hours start, but that doesn't seem the most efficient time to switch the water on, as it has all the later hours of the morning to lose temperature. But the only manual setting I can find is for "boost" which seems to come on _as well_ as the off peak, automatic setting. I'm not sure if I can do anything about this, and I can't find the manual to find out.

Thanks for reading

eatee

Seems I should have posted this in the electricity forum, sorry--should I repost or will someone move it?

Furthermore it's come to fruition that I'm still on economy 7, and the switching of account was fine. The rest of what I wrote still stands, however.

Thanks for reading

eatee

Okay, this is very alarming.

From 6:15am tuesday to 9:45pm tuesday, I lost a total of £1.51 off of the meter.
From then, to 3:00am wednesday, I lost another £1.52!!

I checked the storage heaters; there's no heat from the body and there is heat coming out of the grill at top, making the room hotter than it ever was during the day!

That can only mean that boost is on, right? I am wondering if I've been setting the dials wrong all of this time, and that the point denoting the setting of the dial is 3 'o' clock and 9 'o' clock, respectively, instead of 12 'o' clock...? There are no markers denoting it, anyway. And even if it were that difference, that would mean the boost is set to 6, which means early afternoon, not early morning.

So I'm kind of at a loss. Could it be that they don't know what time it is?

grahamc2003

I'm sure someone would like to help but, like me, are having trouble understanding what is happening from your description.

Anyhow, I hope some general stuff helps. You need your output (or boost) set to zero last thing at night, and left at zero throughout the day until the room starts feeling cold, then set it higher (to release more heat). You should be able to tell when the output is zeor, since (if it's working ciorrectly), you shouldn't get much heat out of the top of the heater. When you set the output to high, you should feel the heat (stick your hand at the top) coming out. All the 'output' or 'boost' does is open a flap at the top of the heater which allows air to flow through the central core, from the bottom upwards, picking up the heat stored in the core of the storgae heater.

The body of the heater should be warm when you get up in the morning, so you need the input set high to ensure this.

The cost, assuming a big storage heater of 3.6kw, should be about 80 or 90p per night for a full charge, per heater, if the input is set to max.

space_rider

Storage heaters charge overnight and then let the heat our slowly after the E7 hours. You need to make sure the boost is at no1 or at the lowest setting before you go to bed or before the E7 hours. If you use the boost during the E7 hours then you are charging and letting the charge out at the same time which increases the cost. With the weather being as it is at the moment you`ll probably need to have the input almost at the highest setting but the higher it is the more it`s going to cost.

The water controller has an inbuilt charger and if I remember rightly it usually automatically turns the immersion heater on between 4 and 7 am. The only thing you need to do is to change the time when the clocks change.

eatee

Thanks for replies, but I'm still wondering if the boost is behaving correctly. The setting is 1-6. If I have it set to 1 the entire time and input set to 3, it heats up the room comfortably during the day, until late evening when it gets a bit cooler. However, during off peak hours, the heaters release TONS of heat from the grill at the top. And it isn't just one storage heater, all the ones in the house are behaving this way...

Owain_Moneysaver

What make and model are the heaters, as some storage heaters incorportate peak-rate convector heaters or fan assisted boost, and vary in their operating procedure for economy.

eatee

Thanks for helping.

Bedroom one is WMS 712N

Living room is WMS 718N and 724N.

They're all very similar and seem to share the same pdf manual. Kitchen and hall are WMX 705N, they have no adjustable settings.