£20+ electric in 4 days.....really?!

BargainGalore

If you living in a rented home/flat perhaps your landlord should be a little more proactive in insulation etc

Landlords can get grants too and I believe they now have to give information regarding energy performance

http://www.freeinsulation.co.uk/landlords.html

we all pay on our energy bills green policies this goes to provide grants, cheaper insulation and energy saving light bulbs

victor2

Dontknowanymore wrote: »

I just looked and both switches have a cable running to the water tank thing?

You could switch one off, for at least the same period of time as you are recording the meter readings, and see if your hot water cools down after you use some.

Dontknowanymore

victor2 wrote: »

Not sure what your pre-payment meter shows. Presumably it indicates how much credit you have, but is there another figure that slowly increases by something like 1 an hour as you use electricity? If there is, fractions of the units would be useful over the time periods you are looking at it.

Yes thats what I have been recording, the only ones that move lol

victor2 wrote: »

You could switch one off, for at least the same period of time as you are recording the meter readings, and see if your hot water cools down after you use some.

Ok thanks, I'll do that too.

Dontknowanymore

BargainGalore wrote: »

If you living in a rented home/flat perhaps your landlord should be a little more proactive in insulation etc

Landlords can get grants too and I believe they now have to give information regarding energy performance

http://www.freeinsulation.co.uk/landlords.html

we all pay on our energy bills green policies this goes to provide grants, cheaper insulation and energy saving light bulbs

Aye right, the council are officially my landlord, it's a private sector lease let, so I have no idea who owns the flat, any repairs etc I have get reported to the council.
I have already been told that the damp is my fault, and that even though the heating takes over 12 hours to heat up this is sufficient, so I doubt I will have much luck with anything else.

BargainGalore

Damp wont be your fault damp isnt normally caused by a tenant unless they deliberately caused it blocking of drainpipes, waste pipes etc

I suspect its condensation again this can be caused by ineffective insulation due to many years of poor building stock and lack of ventilation and also by tenant cooking, drying clothes on rads etc most people get condensation though.Most people have to live, cook and bath though. Lack of heating doesn't help but its more to do with the warmer a room the more it can retain water in the air. Thats why you get water around windows and outside walls as it condenses on cold surfaces

GEEGEE8

I used to have a hot water tank, but I would only turn it on when I needed hot water, e.g washing up, bath etc.. sometimes I'd not have it on for days. I used to pay about £50 a month on average throughout the year.

A friend once told me when I first moved in that the immersion heater uses about £25 a week if it's on all the time. (not sure if that is accurate), and with the cold weather it might be charging you more to keep the water hot.

littleboo

Dontknowanymore wrote: »

I just looked and both switches have a cable running to the water tank thing?

You may have two immersion heaters - the one at the top will heat a smaller amount of water, the lower one will heat the whole tank. Worth experimenting to see if you can manage just using the upper one except when you need a full tank for a bath etc.

Dontknowanymore

JUst to update the thread, it is DEFINATELY the blow heaters :eek:
I have limited them to 1/2 hour in the morning then 1/2 hour in the evening before the children go to bed then another 1/2 hour about an hour before I go to bed, and what a difference! I put £20 leccy in on thursday which gave be £21.99 credit, just checked this morning and I still have £13.86 in there.

I am happy to spend £20 a week as I only use about £7 gas a month! infact I think in the 6 months I have lived here I have only put £30 on in total and still have some left in credit.

I also noticed that there are 3 switches in the airing cupboard, I'm just going to leave them as they have been on since I moved in.

HappyMJ

Dontknowanymore wrote: »

JUst to update the thread, it is DEFINATELY the blow heaters :eek:
I have limited them to 1/2 hour in the morning then 1/2 hour in the evening before the children go to bed then another 1/2 hour about an hour before I go to bed, and what a difference! I put £20 leccy in on thursday which gave be £21.99 credit, just checked this morning and I still have £13.86 in there.

I am happy to spend £20 a week as I only use about £7 gas a month! infact I think in the 6 months I have lived here I have only put £30 on in total and still have some left in credit.

I also noticed that there are 3 switches in the airing cupboard, I'm just going to leave them as they have been on since I moved in.

As long as you and your family are warm enough. Don't risk your health by living in a freezing house. I have a heater with a thermostat and it's on whenever I'm in (which is about 8-12 hours per day) and uses about 1kw per hour to keep the room warm. It's a 2kw heater and my definition of warm is around 18 degrees. I also have an electric blanket so my bed is nice and warm. That's very cheap to run.

Dontknowanymore

HappyMJ wrote: »

As long as you and your family are warm enough. Don't risk your health by living in a freezing house. I have a heater with a thermostat and it's on whenever I'm in (which is about 8-12 hours per day) and uses about 1kw per hour to keep the room warm. It's a 2kw heater and my definition of warm is around 18 degrees. I also have an electric blanket so my bed is nice and warm. That's very cheap to run.

I can't really afford any other way, but we coped fine yesterday which was the only day we stayed in all day, we sat on the sofa under the duvet watching films.
We have 15 tog duvets so never feel cold after about 10 mins being in bed.