storage heater-- electricity used

Likestowrite

I'd love some help on this...

I've read on these forums that storage heaters typically use 3.5 kw per hour

I'm suddenly on my own due to bereavement and would I'd like to know what my single storage heater uses (so I can work out how much an hour it's costing me.--I'm paying 4.250 per kilowatt hour)

When I switched the storage heater on tonight the meter was at 06604 and when I checked it after one hour of the storage heater being on, it was at 06605.

How many kw was my heater using in that hour? What is it costing me per hour?

Thanks

Richie-from-the-Boro

Likestowrite wrote: »

I'd love some help on this...

I've read on these forums that storage heaters typically use 3.5 kw per hour

I'm suddenly on my own due to bereavement and would I'd like to know what my single storage heater uses (so I can work out how much an hour it's costing me.--I'm paying 4.250 per kilowatt hour)

When I switched the storage heater on tonight the meter was at 06604 and when I checked it after one hour of the storage heater being on, it was at 06605.

How many kw was my heater using in that hour? What is it costing me per hour?

Thanks

- your on an E7 tariff @ 4.2pph, and your night rate starts as early as 2130 does it ?
- the above question is 3.5 x 4.250 = 14.875p
- but what is the actual size of your storage heater ? big - 3.4 middle 2.55 small 0.85
- but Likestowrite your figures show you used only 1 unit which would be 4.250p

macman

Your meter showed a consumption of one unit (1kWh) in that hour. However, as pointed out above, unless your time switch is faulty, then E7 would not yet have kicked in that early, so that 1kWh was probably other electrical devices (fridge, freezer, lights etc).
Your storage heater will use 4.25p per hour x the kW rating of the heater (so if 3.5kW, 14.875p per hour).

Likestowrite

Your storage heater will use 4.25p per hour x the kW rating of the heater (so if 3.5kW, 14.875p per hour).
Thank you. That's very helpful. (The storage heater is an old bulky Heatstore one and doesn't have the rating on it anywhere.)

I realise now that the white meter timer wasn't due to come on until halfway through the hour I timed. I timed 7pm-8pm and I now realise it comes on at 7.30pm --8am
I'll try again today and do it properly this time.

macman

E7 is available for 7 hours between midnight and 8am, depending on your region. It will only come on before midnight if your timeswitch is faulty.

ic

Isn't there normally two controls on a storage heater, input and output? The input controls a thermostat that controls how hot the bricks get (i.e. how much power is used), whereas the output controls a vent allowing the heat out of the bricks - turn down the output and the vent is closed, causing the heat to be stored for longer. Its likely that even if there isn't an input control, a thermostat will control the amount of power used to ensure it doesn't overheat - so it won't necessarily run at full power for the E7 hours.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Likestowrite wrote: »

Your storage heater will use 4.25p per hour x the kW rating of the heater (so if 3.5kW, 14.875p per hour).
Thank you. That's very helpful. (The storage heater is an old bulky Heatstore one and doesn't have the rating on it anywhere.)

I realise now that the white meter timer wasn't due to come on until halfway through the hour I timed. I timed 7pm-8pm and I now realise it comes on at 7.30pm --8am
I'll try again today and do it properly this time.

Check your bill & tariff .. .. you're not on E7 but must be on E10. E10 is the luxury expensive end of E7 and gives you 10 hours of slightly more expensive electricity split throughout the day & night. Are you on E10 ?

Richie-from-the-Boro

Likestowrite wrote: »

Your storage heater will use 4.25p per hour x the kW rating of the heater (so if 3.5kW, 14.875p per hour).
Thank you. That's very helpful. (The storage heater is an old bulky Heatstore one and doesn't have the rating on it anywhere.)

I realise now that the white meter timer wasn't due to come on until halfway through the hour I timed. I timed 7pm-8pm and I now realise it comes on at 7.30pm --8am
I'll try again today and do it properly this time.

Go for an educated guess :

Big 3.4 give or take 100cm wide
Middle 2.5 give or take 75cm wide
Small 1.7 give or take 55cm wide

Be_Happy

I've copied an old post I entered in 2009 (sorry haven't yet learnt how to 'refer' back to posts, so just did copy/paste.


We have a 3 bed house with 6 storage heaters –

3 large – 3.4 kw, 1 medium – 2.55 kw, 1 small 1.7 kw and a bathroom – 0.9 kwh. All of them are the Dimplex automatic XLSN series. I keep them on as low an input setting as is comfortable so that the house is warm. I don't think they have ever been on maximum. The boost is on automatic, so retains heat better than our previous manual ones. In the evening we have a ‘fire effect’ fan heater in the sitting room.

I keep a careful check on our electricity consumption and figures show a summer overnight consumption (immersion heater, washing machine, dishwasher, etc but obviously no storage heater use) of 10 units. Looking back at my records the highest winter overnight consumption has been 67 units, so storage heater use has been around 57 units in the coldest weather.

This would mean that storage heaters totalling 15.35 kw use 57 units ie around 4 units per kw of heater per night.

To get your own figures you would just have to take a reading each day


I don't keep such a careful check now as readings were fairly consistant over the years. Now do reading at end of each month and can work out daily average from that - October average was total overnight use of 34 units. .

Annual bill last year was around £1080 but it was milder than usual last year and I'm expecting to pay more this year. We're on a fixed rate, so increased cost will be due to higher consumption and not higher unit cost.

Anyway perhaps this info can help you, although do remember these Storage Heaters are the modern automatic ones. We noticed a big improvement when we replaced old models a few years ago. House is 30 year old end terrace, well insulated BUT the way that each house joins its neighbour half way across the wall, means that 2 of our rooms have 3 outside walls each. We also do not have a loft. The roof is 'wedge shaped' so that the upstairs rooms including the sitting room have ceilings sloping from around 11 ft down to 7 ft, so there is more potential for heat loss.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

Likestowrite wrote: »

I realise now that the white meter timer wasn't due to come on until halfway through the hour I timed. I timed 7pm-8pm and I now realise it comes on at 7.30pm --8am
I'll try again today and do it properly this time.

macman wrote: »

E7 is available for 7 hours between midnight and 8am, depending on your region. It will only come on before midnight if your timeswitch is faulty.

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

Check your bill & tariff .. .. you're not on E7 but must be on E10. E10 is the luxury expensive end of E7 and gives you 10 hours of slightly more expensive electricity split throughout the day & night. Are you on E10 ?

OP, if you with Scottish Power you could still be on the old Off Peak C tariff:

The Off-Peak C supply is made available for 24 hours per day on Saturday and Sunday and for periods at ScottishPower’s discretion totalling 12 hours per day on Monday to Friday