How high or low is this cost?

eatee

I'm in a 3 bedroom rented house with prepayment meter with 3 people living in it including me. With dropping temperatures I have put the storage heaters on at low settings (1.5-2 on a 1-6 scale) in the living room, kitchen, dining room and one of the bedrooms.

The cost has gone up to about £6 or £7 a day (looking at the drop on the meter), which isn't really sustainable on my current income. I'm not sure what it was before; maybe about £2? I'm wondering comparitively how much this is against other peoples households and electricity bills.

HappyMJ

That's about right. Each storage heater on average costs £1 per night to charge up with heat.

Do you really need heating in the kitchen? Usually the heat from cooking is sufficient to keep it warm enough for the time you are in there.

eatee

HappyMJ wrote: »

That's about right. Each storage heater on average costs £1 per night to charge up with heat.

Do you really need heating in the kitchen? Usually the heat from cooking is sufficient to keep it warm enough for the time you are in there.

I remember the costs being bad last winter but not this bad. I assuem the rates have gone up.

My idea was to heat the house with diffusion between multiple heaters, and to prevent heat rushing out when doors are opened. Would it be better to have a single one on higher?

Do you know which would be more economical to heat a single room; an electric oil heater on during the day with a thermostat, or a storage heater?

macman

eatee wrote: »

I remember the costs being bad last winter but not this bad. I assuem the rates have gone up.

My idea was to heat the house with diffusion between multiple heaters, and to prevent heat rushing out when doors are opened. Would it be better to have a single one on higher?

Do you know which would be more economical to heat a single room; an electric oil heater on during the day with a thermostat, or a storage heater?

A storage heater runs on E7 cheap rate at about 5.5p per kWh. Any other sort of electric heater runs on E7 peak rate at about 13.5p per kWh.
Which is more effective is of course another question.
You ned to focus on your kWh usage and day/night pattern, not on £ cost.

grahamc2003

HappyMJ wrote: »

That's about right. Each storage heater on average costs £1 per night to charge up with heat.

Do you really need heating in the kitchen? Usually the heat from cooking is sufficient to keep it warm enough for the time you are in there.

The ball park £1pn is for a full charge for the biggest storage heaters. We don't know what size the op's are, but anyhow, his setting is about 1.5-2, which would be a max of 50p pn each. Having said that, we don't know how much his prepayment meter is charging per kwh at night rates, and neither whether a debt is being paid off. I'd expect for 4 heaters, the max charge on the settings at 6p/kwh is £2 per night.

So op, do you know the price per kwh you are paying, for night rates? Are your storage heaters old or newish?

If you are up early enough in the morning, it may be better to turn them on at say 6am for 1.5 hours, rather than having them on from 00:30, if you only want a low charge. That way, you're not heating the rooms while you're asleep.