new flat how much electricity

linda22

I recently moved into a 2 bed flat built sometimes in the 1980's which has storage heaters on economy 7.

The hot water is an immersion heated during the night.

The flats are 3 stories high and I am in the middle.

I have not needed to put the heating on yet.

I am with Southern Electricity but I am going to switch if it is to my advantage.

I work during the day and I am at home at night. I don't do much cooking, I mostly eat in my works canteen and just have a snack at night or get in a takeaway.

I live on my own and have been checking my electricity since I moved in.

So far I have been using 2 kWh of day units for daytime stuff, I hardly use the cooker and 2 kWh of night units for my hot water.

The shower is just a mixer on the bath taps.

So how many night time units do you think I should enter for when I start using my heating?

There are 4 storage heaters in the flat.

Pincher

Make a note of the night meter reading.
Switch all the storage heaters on tonight.
Look at the night meter again tomorrow.

Premier_2

linda22 wrote: »

I recently moved into a 2 bed flat built sometimes in the 1980's which has storage heaters on economy 7.

The hot water is an immersion heated during the night.

The flats are 3 stories high and I am in the middle.

I have not needed to put the heating on yet.

I am with Southern Electricity but I am going to switch if it is to my advantage.

I work during the day and I am at home at night. I don't do much cooking, I mostly eat in my works canteen and just have a snack at night or get in a takeaway.

I live on my own and have been checking my electricity since I moved in.

So far I have been using 2 kWh of day units for daytime stuff, I hardly use the cooker and 2 kWh of night units for my hot water.

The shower is just a mixer on the bath taps.

So how many night time units do you think I should enter for when I start using my heating?

There are 4 storage heaters in the flat.

How much electricity the heaters use will depend on a number of factors, including size, amount of heat you want outputted and outside temperature.

Usually a NSH is 3kWh, but they do come in different sizes. You should be able to see the size on the plate.

Also, it's unlikley that in general use, they will use 3kW for all 7 hours they are on, as they will often just be topping up the stored heat. This is where the advice from Pincher above may give you misleading figures as you will be heating them up from cold. I know when I had NSH, it took about 2 nights to get them really up to temperature.

linda22

Well that was an interesting experiment.

I used 60 kWh of night units and have just come home to a sauna.

Assuming I need the heating on for 6 months that means I should enter a max of 10,000 kWh for night units and 730 kWh for day units.

Now to decide if a standing charge or not is best.

Pincher

linda22 wrote: »

Well that was an interesting experiment.

I used 60 kWh of night units and have just come home to a sauna.

Assuming I need the heating on for 6 months that means I should enter a max of 10,000 kWh for night units and 730 kWh for day units.

Now to decide if a standing charge or not is best.

Who knows, if you check the weather report, and only switch the storage heater on when you expect cold evenings.........


Psychic weather sensitive storage heaters
___________________________________


Level I : Basic manual with timer.

Level II:

Outdoor barometer, thermostat, built-in clock, solar powered, and microprocessor predicts tomorrow's temperature. You adjust the probability threshold for cold weather, and the computer switches on the storage heaters when the probability of a cold day tomorrow gets high enough.

Level III:

The BBC broadcasts a public service DAB data stream (or through Wi-Fi internet), which tells the storage heaters what the local weather will be like tomorrow. Depending on your settings, the storage heaters will come on or not.

linda22

Level I : Basic manual with timer.

Level I : Basic manual without timer.