Storage heaters - best utility provider

Akp

Hi

I'm a newly single mum and I'm about to move into a house with my 9 month old son and am concerned about electricity costs. I work, but with child care and general living expenses money is tight and I obviously want to make sure my son is warm during the colder months.

Has anyone got any advice on who the best energy provider is for electricity and a recommended plan? I'm generally at home all day with my son 3 days a week so I'm conscious that on those days we'll be using a lot more energy.

I've never been in a home with storage heaters but have been told they can be costly and it can mean that electricity costs during the day in general are hiked up.

Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Cardew

I think you will find that Scottish Power have the most attractive Economy 7 rates.

To check go to a comparison website like www.energyhelpline.com and check prices for your area.

You don't say the size of property, or the standard of insulation, but if you enter 15,000kWh with, say, 55% on economy 7 off-peak as a starter, you will get an indication of costs. You can then try different figures.

The above is assuming you have an Economy 7 tariff. It is possible you could have an Economy 10 tariff - particularly if you live in Scotland.

The other saving measure is to use as many appliances as possible in the overnight period, or very early morning - particularly a dryer if you have one.

Frozen_up_north

I have a house on Economy 7 which uses storage heaters and a bungalow with gas central heating, both are 2 bedroom. The house is mostly south facing so catches the sun (when it shines here "up north").

The total energy costs for the house are less than that of the bungalow, and while your situation may be different, storage heaters aren't necessarily too bad... Especially when you factor in less maintenance costs.

My current supplier is Utility Warehouse who have just hiked the price of off peak electricity by around 18%, from 4.46p per unit to 5.25p per unit (prices include vat and are based on their standard user tariff ). The price increase is a huge percentage, but so far they are still less than many (most) others for off peak here in the Yorkshire region, unfortunately they are one of the most expensive for peak use on Economy 7 (17.8p per unit). The prices quoted are from 1st December.

Trying to estimate the percentage of off peak and peak use is at best a guess and it makes a big difference when trying to compare suppliers, as some charge much less than others for daytime electricity but then charge more for off peak... Add in the headache of "high, medium or low" user and there is no wonder that even the Commons Select Committee gave up trying to understand the different tariffs

The problem with storage heaters is the need to predict the weather and adjust the overnight storage accordingly, as you cannot "top up" the storage during the day and may need to use more expensive electricity with wall heaters, etc. Also ensure you have good seals on doors and windows as a draught can sap your heat very quickly.

rogerblack

As alluded to above - the construction of the house matters!
Houses can easily vary by a factor of five in how much energy they need to heat.
(comparing an insulated modern house with a similar sized georgian property with lots of windows and listed so can't be reinsulated, for example)

This makes the factor of at most twoish between gas and economy 7 look less important.

Economy seven can work terribly for people who need it at the 'wrong' time of day.
If you're out all day, and only need heat from 7PM on, then much of the heat stored at 7AM will have leaked out, keeping the house a little warm during the day, when you don't care about it.

Oddly, I can find no actual nice graphs of energy stored over time with the baffles closed.