How much should my electric be in a 1 bed studio?

Rich33

Moving into a studio apartment soon and need some advice to help with my budget. Estimate the monthly cost please?

There is only Electric, no gas!

Under counter fridge 24/7
Washing machine once a week
Shower every day
Oven and hob once a day
Microwave once a day
Laptop on for around 4 hours a day.
Hot water to wash hands a few times and wash up :P

Don't plan to use the electric heating much, so that's about all that I should be using.

charlotte289

I'm in a 1-bed all-electric flat, and the bills tend to work out at about £50 per month in summer, and about £110 per month in winter. If it's electric storage heating you've got, it might be a little less, but not much. Most of that £50 in summer is from hot water, by the way - it's quite expensive!

Rich33

Ouch! Hoping mine is allot lower than that!

macman

It won't be. You fail to tell us the most important factor. Forget microwaves and laptops-how is the property heated and hot watered? Because that will account for the majority of your electricity consumption.
Are you on E7 with storage heaters and an immersion heater, or do you have convectors?
Single rate (non-E7) heating is by far the most expensive form of heating there is- you cannot realistically expect to heat any property for less than £600pa. E7 will be cheaper, but it may be of little use if it doesn't fit with your lifestyle-for example if you are out in the day and early evenings, in which case you will have to supplement it with peak rate E7 power.
How were you thinking of surviving the winter without using the heating much?

Rich33

Well had my first bill... £9.50 so I did allot better than what you were expecting

TIMMY85

Rich33 wrote: »

Well had my first bill... £9.50 so I did allot better than what you were expecting

I wish more people would come back and follow up their posts! :j

Well done on the £9.50...I just know someone is going to ask how long that is for....a day? a month? (is it an accurate bill??)

Richie-from-the-Boro

Rich33 wrote: »

Moving into a studio apartment soon and need some advice to help with my budget. Estimate the monthly cost please?

There is only Electric, no gas!

Under counter fridge 24/7
Washing machine once a week
Shower every day
Oven and hob once a day
Microwave once a day
Laptop on for around 4 hours a day.
Hot water to wash hands a few times and wash up :P

Don't plan to use the electric heating much, so that's about all that I should be using.

I'm assuming you are on E7 storage not panel heating with E7 water heating, never use the bath, wash up by boiling a kettle, and spend only the evenings in your dwelling.

- if you don't plan to use the electric storage space heating that much, you will have to use alternative heating in the 5 cold months
- that alternative heating will cost 3 times the price of E7 and the hot water will cost 3 times the price of E7
- a tenner per [last] quarter is spectacularly frugal, if you were indeed there for that whole spring / summer period
- if you are out or in bed 80% of the year and pay £10pw every week even in the summer and come in at about £500pa you will be that frugal exception

Best of luck to you Rich33

Rich33

The £9.50 was for one month. I'm going to turn on my storage heater now and see how it works as It is getting a bit chilly it is an E7 heater... don't know how to set it though.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Rich33 wrote: »

The £9.50 was for one month. I'm going to turn on my storage heater now and see how it works as It is getting a bit chilly it is an E7 heater... don't know how to set it though.

See the 'search this forum' button on the TRHS put in these two letters > E7 < and hit return you'll find hundreds of useful and detailed comments on storage radiators, read some of them for tips then get back and ask your questions my friend, there are many knowledgeable people here who will help.

Essentially :

- lifestyle has a lot to do with it, as in out all day - or unemployed / retired an in all day
- there are two knobs on the storage heater, one is the thermostat [input] that determines how much you store
- the other is nothing more than a mechanical damper [ a metal flap ] that allows stored heat to escape [output] quicker
- the most economical is to keep the damper closed by storing sufficient heat via the thermostat the night before

However all users of E7 need a supplementary heater for just this time of the year when switching on the storage heaters is likely to be more expensive than just using a supplementary heater for an hour or so in the evening.

You are however right to 'test' both your water storage and heat storage before winter actually sets in. Night store heat for both the radiators and water charge at about 1/3 of the price of day unit price. You will note my constant use of bold when the word storage is used, that brings me to my last point. Storage of the cheap stuff is the trick, when winter sets in you can have heat at day rate price of £xxx or night rate price of £x. Deciding how much to store is a bit of a knack but put simply if you need to open the damper at all you are not storing enough.

They range from half a kWh to three and a half kWh just take a stab in the dark for tonight and set it at about 3 on the stat.

Rich33

Got it on Input 6 and Output 4 for tonight.

If I am right in thinking they stay on for 7 hours overnight and its a 2.5kw heater it will cost me about 90p for one nights charge? (5.196p per kWh at night)

Does this reduce if I change the Input?

Torry_Quine

You really don't need to have the controls so high in my opinion as it isn't cold yet. The higher the input the more heat it stores and even in the coldest weather I rarely have it full on. The output or boost control gives you extra heat but uses up the stored heat very quickly and should never be open overnight as the heat just goes straight out.

I presume you are just putting it on to make sure it works tonight.