advice to avoid another cold winter

good_advice

treeze wrote: »

yes that's the best way-I do tend to have hot water bottles and throws-I have one now! Makes me so angry that in this day and age people have to do this-basic human needs-it's the same with water-when I go on the forum people are saving water from baths to flush loos or daren't have a bath at all!:mad:Must look next year into some sort of insulation,either secondary glazing(expensive) or do it yourself and a door curtain. Pointless having heaters on anyway if its all going out the windows.

It makes me cross when you read a couple are having a £19,000 holiday for just 7 days! one of many I would think.

treeze

have just read on a radiator sales site that oil filled radiators cost about 15 p an hour-is this right?

macman

You appear to have been given very bad advice. Any form of electric heating costs exactly the same for the same rated output: whatever it's filled with, or what type, makes no difference. They are all the same efficiency: 100%. On peak rate E7, any electric heater of 1kW rating will cost around 14p (one unit) But a 1kW heater won't keep you very warm, most are 2kW or more, which will be around 28p an hour.
You are wasting your money because you are not using your NSH's, yet you have remained on an E7 tariff. This means that almost all your consumption (look at your bills) is being charged at the E7 peak rate (i.e. everything except between about midnight and 7am), and virtually nothing at the cheap night rate. If you are going to continue to use your current heaters, then you should switch to a single rate tariff. This may or may not require a meter change-ask your supplier.
The only minimal benefit you may be getting from E7 is if you are heating your hot water on night rate .

fannyadams

look on the rating plate at the bit where the electric flex goes into the appliance (opposite end tot he plug) and see what it says... there'll be a number like 2000 W or 2 kW these are the same values. it's telling you that the appliance uses 2 kW (units) of electricity per hour (this would be 2kWh or 2 Kilowatt Hours) depending on your electricity price this can be as low as (e.g. for mine 10.2p/hour night time and 48.6p/h daytime - Ok these are not the actual values but to give OP an idea of how cheap night time leccy is compared to daytime).
right so armed with this info you should now be able to calculate how cheaply you can run the washing machine/cooker/dishwasher/the night storage heaters/kettle/microwave etc. especially as you know how much juice (leccy) they suck, how much it costs per unit (tarriff off your leccy bill), and how long it is on for.
lest use my oil filled radiator that's plugged into the mains as an example
the rating plate says that the 'draw' is 2000W that's 2kW so I know that it'll use 2 units of electricty EVERY hour it is on. I have it on for an hour before the daytime rate kicks in so that's around 10p/unit (Kwh) so to run it that costs 20p/hour.
does that help?
FA
x

penrhyn

Not strictly true, what you state is maximum consumption, however most heaters have a thermostat which will switch the heater off and on to regulate the room temperature.

treeze

hmm expect you are right-have been told by someone that storage heaters cost about £3-£4 a day which seems a lot. I realize I'm wasting my E7 time-I do washing machine at night but not hot water. That costs me hardly anything anyway as I only have it water on for about half an hour about 3-4 days a week.

macman

So do something about it-phone your supplier today and switch to a single rate tariff. £3-4 a day is I'm afraid not a lot to heat a property in the depths of winter.
Doing your washing at night (after midnight?) on cheap rate will not make E7 remotely viable, you need to be using at least 20-30% on cheap rate to make it pay. I suspect that you are using nothing like that-what do your bills say?
Why are you not heating your hot water at night on E7 cheap rate? Heating it in the day costs nearly 3 times as much.
You are complaining about the cost of energy, apparently aware of being on the wrong tariff, but doing nothing to correct it?

treeze

I admit I did not know it was possible to change to a single rate tarriff-I'm new to living alone.I guess I don't put my water on late at night as I'm probably asleep:Dand surely it wouldn't be as hot when I want a bath the following evening? As I say I only have it on for about 3 hrs a week anyway its mainly weekends when I'm homemore that I need warmth-I can understand storage heaters are cheaper but surely as they're on for 7 hours a night regardless of whether I suddenly find next day I am out 10 hrs and dont need them if I have a radiator on daytime for 2 or 3 hours it works out cheaper at about 20p an hour? I haven't had my quarterly bill yet it's due soon but my Nov one was about £110.

treeze

just checked and up too beginning of Dec was £100 for the quarter

wizzards

If you are on very low income you might be able to get help with heating or replacing old heaters with more modern efficient ones. Its worth looking into it on the web if you qualify for any help for either insulation or new heaters. Do you know what other people in other flats in your block have. They all must have similar situation but not maybe the same financial limitations.