Help - dont have a clue!

loiseve

Hi

We live in a large rented georgian flat, high celings sash windows. No insulation we know of, no gas central heating. All we have is electric panel heaters.

Its costing us £250 a month in the winter to have them on and its still cold.

Landlord wont install gas central heating and has also delined storage heating system.

So out of all the really poor choices we have what is the best solution:

Bottled Gas Heaters
Electric Oil filled radiators
Carrying on with electric heaters

Please note we are taking some steps to try and insulate ourselves, ie,.e draft excluders, not using heat when we are not in a room, taping up windows!!!

any advice? any helplines we can call.

p.s. we dont have £1000's of pounds available and in any case the landlord could give us a months notice so we dont really want to invest too heavily.

Thanks everyone.

jalexa

loiseve wrote: »

Hi

For starters not bottled gas which creates water vapour, therefore needs more ventilation, is very heavy and I don't think is cheaper anyway.

A few timers for the heaters. A radiant heater if you need radiant heat. And layers of clothes.

ihateyes

loiseve wrote: »

Hi

We live in a large rented georgian flat, high celings sash windows. No insulation we know of, no gas central heating. All we have is electric panel heaters.

Its costing us £250 a month in the winter to have them on and its still cold.

Landlord wont install gas central heating and has also delined storage heating system.

So out of all the really poor choices we have what is the best solution:

Bottled Gas Heaters
Electric Oil filled radiators
Carrying on with electric heaters

Please note we are taking some steps to try and insulate ourselves, ie,.e draft excluders, not using heat when we are not in a room, taping up windows!!!

any advice? any helplines we can call.

p.s. we dont have £1000's of pounds available and in any case the landlord could give us a months notice so we dont really want to invest too heavily.

Thanks everyone.

i was in a simila flat once, oil fill rads i had, only room that was wam as the one with the rads.....

personally, id look to find another rental

loiseve

jalexa wrote: »

For starters not bottled gas which creates water vapour, therefore needs more ventilation, is very heavy and I don't think is cheaper anyway.

A few timers for the heaters. A radiant heater if you need radiant heat. And layers of clothes.

Thanks - funnily I grew up in a house without central heating. I guess it was quite common only a few decades ago but I had terrible problems with circulation as a child and had chilblanes on my feet which were very painful.

My mum told me to get a hot water bottle! Anyway she did also say she thought gas was even more expensive than electric so your comment has confirmed my fears.

We have been offered a free storage heater from a friend. Any good?

p.s. how do I thank you in a post (and the other person that kidly replied...we are considering a move but we are really happy here...just not happy with the electric bill!!)

HappyMJ

£250 a month for peak rate electricity in the winter months is reasonable. Are you on a good tariff. Is it an E7 tariff? The E7 tariffs charge you 10-20% more for daytime units than standard tariffs. So if you can switch to a better standard tariff. Not sure what your usage is in January but playing about with the calculator gives me 1300 day units and 700 night units for a bill of £250 for the month of January on Npower prepayment. It's equivalent to having three 2kw radiators on for about 9 hours a day plus a bit of normal usage as well for hot water/cooking and other electrical. Not very high usage for a freezing cold January in a big georgian flat with high ceilings.

A free storage heater would help. It would reduce the cost of heating from 15p per unit down to 5p per unit.

jalexa

loiseve wrote: »

We have been offered a free storage heater from a friend. Any good?

No. A storage heater needs its own dedicated circuit and must not be plugged into a normal socket. Also storage heaters need an E7 meter, which costs. Note that daytime electricity costs more with E7.

Not a good idea. (ask yourself why the storage heater is free).

macman

Will the landlord agree to improve the insulation? If the loft space is above you (1st floor flat?) then that should be the first priority-you can do this yourself cheaply if he won't pay ,or ask your utility company, in which case it will be heavily subsidised.