heating help please

grahamc2003

tiddly_widdly wrote: »

We have storage heaters and they are on econoomy 7. They have never been particularly cheap to run. Our bills are at the minute between £70 and £140 per month with British Gas, which is working out cheaper than other suppliers we were on

However, in this cold patch we've just had, we've been trying to keep the house warm and last months bill was £400 and this months is £800. My husband had a fit, (understandably)

.

How did you calculate they've cost you £800 this month?

I'd say such a bill from storage heaters is almost impossible. The theoretical maximum charge per day of a high powered storage heater is 25kwh. That would be a maximum possible cost of around £1.25p (at 5p/kwh night rate). Even if you have 8 of the biggest storage heaters (unlikely, as they'd blow your main 100 amp fuse!), the theoretical max cost per day is £10, or £300 per month for the night storage heating.

That leaves £500 per month for all other electricity which, i suppose, is possible, but only if you have several other heaters during the day at high daytime rates.

macman

Agreed, we need to know the actual month on month consumption figs in kWh, not the estimated spend.

tiddly_widdly

Hi thanks for replies so far, Panic slightly over, British Gas have recalculated and now its gone to around £400 again not £800, which is still way too much but at least more reasonable than before.

It is the cost per month not average DD. We were expecting higher bills due to living in Lincolnshire and having average temps of -14 for the last 4 weeks.

We have had the convectors on during the day as we have been home more, (schools and work closed due to snow initially). and though the house is warm its not overheated due to outside temps. Loft is very well insulated.

Yes it is economy 7 and immersion/water heaters on timers. Nothing is left on standby.

Just at a loss as to how to reduce bills normally, not taking into account the last 2 months extreme ones which have been exceptional circumstances. Everything I read on here - particularly if the read the DFW board people are saying that £60/70 per month is too high for bills and should get it down but Ive switched suppliers quite a few times over the years and not managed to get bills down to that price, apart from when the price was much lower.

Family and friends Ive spoken to seem to have similar bills to us on central heating so would it be false economy to go to the trouble of installing a system for it not to lower bills significantly or should we look at swapping the storage heaters for the panel heaters that have been recommended to me?

I'll look out the usage and kw cost.

grahamc2003

tiddly_widdly wrote: »

Hi thanks for replies so far, Panic slightly over, British Gas have recalculated and now its gone to around £400 again not £800, which is still way too much but at least more reasonable than before.

In your first post, you said 'this month's bill is £800'. Did you mean you actually had a bill in your hand with a request for £800, or something different? How have they recalculated and come up with a figure of just half - what information are they using to generate these bills? Are these actually bills or something else?

Could you expand a bit on exactly where you get these £800 and £400 figures from? Are they on a statement from British gas saying something like 'your usage for this month works out at a cost of £800' with a replacement (generated for what reason?) saying something like 'your usage for this month works out at a cost of £400'? Did you submit meter readings for these bills to be generated, or were they based on estimated readings? Are you on a tariff which is based on monthly meter reads and billing? (i,e, not a fixed monthly direct debit based tariff).

Sorry to ask so many questions, but it certainly looks from what you say that your supplier has unbelievable problems with it's billing system.

Just read through my questions - I hope they don't come across too direct and blunt, I didn't intend them too, just trying to reconcile in my head how these very high bills came about (unless you live in a mansion, even £400pm is very high even in severe weather)

HappyMJ

tiddly_widdly wrote: »

Family and friends Ive spoken to seem to have similar bills to us on central heating so would it be false economy to go to the trouble of installing a system for it not to lower bills significantly or should we look at swapping the storage heaters for the panel heaters that have been recommended to me?

I'll look out the usage and kw cost.

Panel heaters will make little difference to the bill. What will get your bill down is gas central heating or some other alternative to electric convectors. £400 per month is far too much. How big is your house? Why do you use convectors on a E7 rate? What is your last months night usage and what is last months day usage? Do you actually pay over £400 every month or is some amount carried over from last month?

SwanJon

tiddly_widdly wrote: »

having average temps of -14 for the last 4 weeks.

We have had the convectors on during the day

This will be the killer for the past few months then - daytime electricity is 3-4 times more expensive than night on e7. I've never managed well with storage heaters myself, but if it is that cold, make sure the input is as high as you can get it. Only put the output up in the rooms you are using, and if possible turn them down again when the rooms aren't being used.

tiddly_widdly wrote: »

Just at a loss as to how to reduce bills normally, not taking into account the last 2 months extreme ones which have been exceptional circumstances. Everything I read on here - particularly if the read the DFW board people are saying that £60/70 per month is too high for bills and should get it down but Ive switched suppliers quite a few times over the years and not managed to get bills down to that price, apart from when the price was much lower.

Are those people also on E7? If not they may have a gas bill on top of that, so you need to compare both to your one.[/QUOTE]

Sounds like you are on the energysmart if you are getting monthly bills - there maybe cheaper tariffs for you out there - have a look at the comparison sites to check. Make sure you keep putting the readings in, look at insulation etc.

If you do go want to change, remember there will be an upfront cost of any changes and so a long time before you actually save money.

neilmcl

tiddly_widdly wrote: »

We were expecting higher bills due to living in Lincolnshire and having average temps of -14 for the last 4 weeks.

Bit of an exaggeration don't you think. Yes there have been a few nights where temps have dropped this low and below but the average temp over the last 4 weeks has nowhere been -14, and yes before you ask I've been in Lincs during this time too.