Empty house over winter and building work - what tariff?

pat1976

Hi, I have a house which will be unoccupied over winter whilst extensive building work is going on. It currently has heating via electric storage heaters and is on economy 7.

I intend to replace this with central heating once the house is finished, but what should I do in the meantime? If I leave the tariff as E7 will the electricity used by the builders cost a fortune? Should I turn the storage heaters on, or leave them off and get a couple of fan heaters to put on when temperatures drop too low?

No one will be living there but I can't turn the water off and drain the pipes because the builders will be using it.

Can anyone advise what is best re. stopping pipes bursting whilst minimising bills.

Thanks.

HappyMJ

Leave it on E7. Builders don't use a lot of electricity. A bit for the radio and the kettle and the battery charger for the power tools. Set the input to low and the output to low on the storage heaters. It won't be warm by any degree but it will keep the temperature above freezing and prevent any problems.

pat1976

Hi, thanks for your reply. Do you really think builders won't use much? My last extension (different house!) coincided with me being at home full-time and prices rising and the bill tripled so I couldn't decide what caused it.

The builder did use a lot of electrical stuff - drill thingy to break up concrete, concrete mixer which seemed to run for weeks (do they use them for mixing motor as well?), various circular saws and things.

Also, can anyone tell me how I should use storage heaters in this situation to minimise bills? I don't need the house to be nice and toasty warm during the day but kept at a minimal temperature (10deg?).

Thanks.

Ewatai

best advice is to get a no standing charge tariff. the first block of units will cost you abit more but you'll end up saving money if less than 2-3 units are used a day and generally if you use more than that it would still work out the same price as standing charge tariff.