Colossal winter bill

Superbiatch

Cardew wrote: »

I am sorry but that is just not correct. They have a thermostat which cuts off the power so it is nothing 'like boiling a kettle 24/7'

These cylinders are tested to a British Standard which measure heat loss with water at 65C over 24 hours.

These details are shown in the manual in your link. The losses in 24 hours range from 1.1kWh for the 75 litre to 2.25kWh for the 300 litre tank.



This means that even the biggest tank will lose 68kWh a month if it is full with water at 65C - so at the OP's rate that is £3 a month.

In practice the figure of heat loss for an average size tank in normal use will be about £1 a month.

Even then the heat is not 'lost' as it warms the fabric of the house.

Thank you for the valuable information, shame the company who sold me the apartment (or the plumbers) couldn't be so helpful! What I failed to mention is I also got my head around using the electric panel heaters at the same time and my bills dropped dramatically, so now its all making sense.

So what you are saying by having my tank on for just a few hours a day isn't really efficient at all as by switching it off it then has to reheat to suffient temeperature? Ouch, could have saved myself a few quid on a timer there :cool: Thanks anyway, I've never been able to get my head around it all and no one has been able to answer my questions from the developers.

Sorry for thread hijack, I shall move along now

Cardew

OP to use 13,000kWh in a large 2 bedroomed all electric flat over one of the coldest winters in years is high, but I am afraid not exceptionally high.

What does seem questionable is why you are using far more daytime units than nightime units - see Spiro's post #5 in particular check if the meter readings are not reversed - or the timing of your storage heating/immersion heater is during the Economy 7 period.

Cardew

Superbiatch wrote: »

Thank you for the valuable information, shame the company who sold me the apartment (or the plumbers) couldn't be so helpful! What I failed to mention is I also got my head around using the electric panel heaters at the same time and my bills dropped dramatically, so now its all making sense.

So what you are saying by having my tank on for just a few hours a day isn't really efficient at all as by switching it off it then has to reheat to suffient temeperature? Ouch, could have saved myself a few quid on a timer there :cool: Thanks anyway, I've never been able to get my head around it all and no one has been able to answer my questions from the developers.

Sorry for thread hijack, I shall move along now

No I am not saying that, having your immersion heater on a timer will always be a little cheaper. The trouble is that people are not aware that modern HW tanks are so well insulated that the heat loss from the tank is much less than many people think; and the savings from having it timed are relatively small.

JasX

Exact same level of bill hit my boss 2 winters back after he moved into an all elevtric place and had panel heaters turned on excessively and to an excessive temperature.

First up if this is typical useage Economy 7 is little use to you (esp if you're out during the day working), so you're paying a premium on your daytime useage for E7 and its doing you harm rather than benefit. SOME companies can bill you as a standard customer on E7 meters by adding up the 2 values, some will not.

Only other thing you can do is either see what you can do re insulation and cutting useage or factor the high energy useage costs into your rent / general living costs and decide if its worth the cost staying there vs moving.

eurmalian

For everyone saying that this is the effect of being in an all electric house or having E7, that shouldn't effect the day time consumption. Properly functioning E7 heaters should charge during the cheap night rate hours use very little electricity during the more expensive daytime period (unless you have a boost function that you keep using or something like that). The day usage of someone on E7 shouldn't be too much more than the electric usage of someone with gas heating.

From what I remember, average electric usage (a very rough base to compare against) is somewhere arround 3300 kWh over a year, so using arround 10,000 kWh in less time than that shows that either something is wrong with the heating system (wired up wrongly so that it's charging constantly, or possibly with a timeswitch issue so that it charges during a different 7 hours from the cheap ones) or something else in your house is using silly ammounts of electric and it's actually nothing to do with the heating.

The most likely other option, as others have said, is that the night and day reads have at some point been switched, as your current night usage seems much more sensible as an ammount used during the day and, if you have the heating on a lot, 10,000 kWh could be believable as the heating systems nightime usage.

KimYeovil

I may have missed this but... are the elephants in the rooms storage heaters or are they panel heaters? And if they are storage have you been using them only as storage?

debtistheft

Is there any way that you could attach one of those electricity monitoring devices to the line that feeds your meter? You could then see exactly how much electricity you are using (and when) without having to visit the meter all the time. I was amazed how much we were using when our electric shower was going!

You might also want to check the meter, turn every appliance off (even fridge - put a load of frozen bread in there or something to keep it cool) and then go back to the mater after 3 or 4 hours and see if it has moved. If it has, then it is possible that you are subsidizing someone else's electricity.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi Mel

Already lots of excellent advice on here; thought I'd just add a couple of things.

The first thing I'd do, as others have said, is make sure the night and day readings are the correct way round.

If they are, then, it looks as though you're not using enough units at night to make Economy 7 worthwhile.

Have we told you the Economy 7 can't be changed? Must admit, if we have, I don't understand this. We can charge two rate Economy 7 meters on a single rate tariff by adding the night and day readings together. Also, we don't need to change the meter to do this.

If it was us who told you this, did we give a reason?

The tariff you're currently on is our standard package. There are more competitive tariffs available, both with us and the other suppliers. I would pop your details on to the comparison sites to see all the options available.

I would also have a word with our Consumption Team. Give them a list of your appliances and they'll be happy to advise. They specialise in investigations of this sort and will either identify a problem or help you understand where the electricity is being used.

If it turns out you've used the electricity, we'll be happy to spread the cost over a more manageable period.

You can raise a complaint at any time. If, after 56 days, you're unhappy with our explanation/resolution you can refer the complaint to the Ombudsman for an independent ruling.

Hope this is useful Mel. Give me a shout if you need any more info as will be happy to help.

Malc