Energy Consumption?

Amnesia180

Hi There,

I'm looking at my energy consumption and normally we would average around 14 - 16 units per day.

However, since we have started using our electric heaters (that came installed in the flat) it has shot up to 30 units a day. We only have them on for 45 mins in the morning (2 of them) and 45 mins at night (2 of them) then there are two in the living room that we have on for an hour and a half in the evening.

Surely this is not correct? I am just worried we will get a huge £100+ bill through when we are only on Direct Debit for around £40!

Any advice would be great.

Thanks,
Amnesia

macman

Units of what? Are you all-electric?
I make that 12kWH per day (6 hours at 2kWh), assuming that they are 2kWH rating (you don't say) and are not switching off and on the 'stat. So at 10p per kWh that would be approx £1.20 per day or £37.20 per month. An extra 15 units a day is not impossible.
Your DD of £40 is not enough to heat power and hot water a property on Standard rate tariff. You should have a sizeable credit on your account at this time of year to take you through the peak winter months.
This assumes that you do not have E7 and are using panel heaters on peak rate as a supplementary heat source.

Amnesia180

Hi there,

Sorry, I didn't expand on what I was saying :-)

By units, I mean kWh. So we're using around 30 a day now instead of the 16 we used to a month or so back.

We have no gas at the property, so everything is electric.

We have broken even with nPower as we have only been in the property since May so our £40 a month was getting us through and we were using roughly £36 a month.

I was thinking of getting a 2.4kW heater that we could plug in as the two heaters in the living are 1500 watts and they're at the back so don't heat the full place. So maybe it would be cheaper to buy a heater that we can plug in at the front of the room?

Thanks again,
Amnesia

macman

But since May you will have had the heating off, so now it's on, and an extra 14 units (£1.40 per day) is perfectly feasible-you'd expect your usage to at least double during the cold winter months. Each 1.5kW heater will be costing you about 15p per hours.
You need to increase your DD or you will be building debt through the winter.

Amnesia180

Thank you explaining that :-)

I will increase my direct debit by £10 a month for now and see how that goes. We are due to move out in April anyway so won't have much of a fee to pay if we do build up a small debt with nPower.

I wish there was a tool we could use to calculate how much energy is going to cost. We have a daily rate, and the first x amount of units are charged at a slightly higher rate than the others so it is difficult to estimate.

We've got a small 2.4kW heater to plug in at the front of the room that seems to be doing the job. :-)

chanz4

The problem is this type of heating is expensive, pretty much like storage heaters.

Amnesia180

Ah is it? I thought it be less because its only 2.4kW but the two big ones are 1500? The problem we have is it is a listed building and we can only have single glazing. Our heaters are sat at the back of the room and they have to be on the maximum setting to pump out enough hit but it never reaches the front of the room :-(

zagfles

Amnesia180 wrote: »

Thank you explaining that :-)

I will increase my direct debit by £10 a month for now and see how that goes. We are due to move out in April anyway so won't have much of a fee to pay if we do build up a small debt with nPower.

I wish there was a tool we could use to calculate how much energy is going to cost. We have a daily rate, and the first x amount of units are charged at a slightly higher rate than the others so it is difficult to estimate.

Use the lower rate. You use up all the higher rated units anyway by the sounds of it, so your extra use will be charged at the lower rate. Remember to add VAT (5%), as the rates on the bill are usually before VAT.

zagfles

Amnesia180 wrote: »

Ah is it? I thought it be less because its only 2.4kW but the two big ones are 1500? The problem we have is it is a listed building and we can only have single glazing. Our heaters are sat at the back of the room and they have to be on the maximum setting to pump out enough hit but it never reaches the front of the room :-(

It will be less but it'll give you less heat. 2.4kW uses 2.4 units per hour, 2 1.5kW will use 3 units per hour.