High energy consumption on E7...

Kilty_2

I live in a small 2.5 bedroom detached house with night storage heaters and economy 7 and seem to be using a large amount of electricity yet I only use 1 of the 3 storage heaters (which is probably as old as the house, around 20 years) and the immersion heater (which is only about 4 years old and the timer for it about 2 weeks old) overnight.

Day use is fairly stable and normal (I've used an energy monitor to measure it) but when I connect the monitor to the circuit for the storage heaters it measures about 4kW for the entire 7 hours, which would suggest the storage heater and immersion heater are operating at their maximum 2kW each all night when they're turned on which equates to 28 kWh for just one storage heater and the hot water heating plus any use on the other circuit (washing machine, dishwasher) :eek:. 28kWH per night (10220 per year) is more than the average "high" user uses aparrently....

Is this normal? Do I just need to live with it or is the storage heater faulty (should it be turning the heating element off once it reaches a certain temperature?) and can I limit the number of hours the immersion heater is on without impacting upon the availability of hot water too much?

Kilty_2

Oh, and the controls on the heater are turned down low, so it's not letting out all the heat as soon as it goes in! (or shouldn't be)

HappyMJ

Kilty wrote: »

I live in a small 2.5 bedroom detached house with night storage heaters and economy 7 and seem to be using a large amount of electricity yet I only use 1 of the 3 storage heaters (which is probably as old as the house, around 20 years) and the immersion heater (which is only about 4 years old and the timer for it about 2 weeks old) overnight.

Day use is fairly stable and normal (I've used an energy monitor to measure it) but when I connect the monitor to the circuit for the storage heaters it measures about 4kW for the entire 7 hours, which would suggest the storage heater and immersion heater are operating at their maximum 2kW each all night when they're turned on which equates to 28 kWh for just one storage heater and the hot water heating plus any use on the other circuit (washing machine, dishwasher) :eek:. 28kWH per night (10220 per year) is more than the average "high" user uses aparrently....

Is this normal? Do I just need to live with it or is the storage heater faulty (should it be turning the heating element off once it reaches a certain temperature?) and can I limit the number of hours the immersion heater is on without impacting upon the availability of hot water too much?

Ignore averages if you use electricity for heating and hot water.

Gas users use an "average" of 16,500kWh on heating, cooking and hot water. In an electric only property this needs to be added to the "average" electric consumption of 3,300kWh. So...in reality your usage could be anything.

The immersion heater will turn off once the water has reached it's preset temperature. So the difference by having it on for 2 hours or 7 hours is minimal. In fact probably nothing as the thermostat won't kick in again until the next night assuming you have a well lagged cylinder.

If you want to reduce consumption you could turn the temperature on the main immersion element down a little...but you risk running out of hot water and needing to use the boost button which will cost much more.

Sugarhunny1

Hi Kilty,

Didn't want to read and run but I also have electric heating. It's expensive to run, inadequate (for my family at least) and I hate it.

I phoned my electric supplier and gave them a reading for the last 36 days and I have used almost £160 worth. This is only 3 storage heaters and the house is freezing. I am doing everything I can to limit my electric usage but there's only so much that u can do. I have 3 kids and have to have a degree of heat but upstairs is freezing as I am loathe to use the panel heaters (god knows what my bill would be if I had used them!)

Sugar xxx

HappyMJ

Sugarhunny1 wrote: »

Hi Kilty,

Didn't want to read and run but I also have electric heating. It's expensive to run, inadequate (for my family at least) and I hate it.

I phoned my electric supplier and gave them a reading for the last 36 days and I have used almost £160 worth. This is only 3 storage heaters and the house is freezing. I am doing everything I can to limit my electric usage but there's only so much that u can do. I have 3 kids and have to have a degree of heat but upstairs is freezing as I am loathe to use the panel heaters (god knows what my bill would be if I had used them!)

Sugar xxx

I'd time the panel heaters to come on for the last hour of your E7 charging period. It means you'll wake up to a warm room for not very much cost.

Kilty_2

According to this http://www.which.co.uk/switch/energy-advice/estimating-how-much-energy-you-use

(which is just one source of such averages)

Average Economy 7 use per year for a high energy consumer is 9,900 kwH per year. How can I be using more than this with 1 storage heater on in a fairly compact house that I live in alone ?

lstar337

I have 1 x 3.4kW, 2 x 2.5kW, 1 x 1.7kW storage heaters, and 1 3kW immersion heater. Heaters are mostly on full input, and outputs all at zero. Have never found an adjustable thermostat, so I don't know what that is set to. (In a 2 bed flat (65 Sqm))

Usage for the last few days has been 50kWh - 60kWh over the seven hour period, or about 8.5kWh average at any one time.

Storage heaters will take more or less charge depending on the ambient temperature, so if the single storage heater is trying to heat a huge cold space, chances are it will use a lot of energy overnight.

HappyMJ

Kilty wrote: »

According to this http://www.which.co.uk/switch/energy-advice/estimating-how-much-energy-you-use

(which is just one source of such averages)

Average Economy 7 use per year for a high energy consumer is 9,900 kwH per year. How can I be using more than this with 1 storage heater on in a fairly compact house that I live in alone ?

That's in a house with another method of heating...such as solid fuel, oil or LPG. If everyone used 9,900kWh in an "average" electric only house then what's the point of gas as electric will always be cheaper.

Hot water alone will use about 2-3kWh per night if no water at all is used. In a year that's 1,000kWh. Then for every litre of hot water you actually do use add another 0.05kWh. If you had a bath using 50 litres of hot water (and some cold water to reduce the temperature) there's another 2.5kWh every day along with any water used for hand washing and dish washing. In a year that's another 1,000kWh per person.

Fire_Fox

Sugarhunny1 wrote: »

Hi Kilty,

Didn't want to read and run but I also have electric heating. It's expensive to run, inadequate (for my family at least) and I hate it.

I phoned my electric supplier and gave them a reading for the last 36 days and I have used almost £160 worth. This is only 3 storage heaters and the house is freezing. I am doing everything I can to limit my electric usage but there's only so much that u can do. I have 3 kids and have to have a degree of heat but upstairs is freezing as I am loathe to use the panel heaters (god knows what my bill would be if I had used them!)

Sugar xxx

If your house is freezing I'd suggest you may need to look at the insulation rather than blaming the heating. Heat rises so the upstairs should be warmer than downstairs if you are properly insulated. Do you have double glazing, thick loft insulation, cavity wall insulation, use blackout linings on curtains and blinds?

Are you also ventilating regularly, opening windows daily or using an electric dehumidifier? A damp house can feel much colder than it is, and each person produces litres of water every day through breathing, showering and cooking. Never air dry laundry indoors.

Adults and some older children can have electric underblankets on their bed with an overnight setting, these cost literally pennies to run. With a good duvet you can then sit up in bed reading or using gadgets and be toasty.

Sugarhunny1

Fire_Fox wrote: »

If your house is freezing I'd suggest you may need to look at the insulation rather than blaming the heating. Heat rises so the upstairs should be warmer than downstairs if you are properly insulated. Do you have double glazing, thick loft insulation, cavity wall insulation, use blackout linings on curtains and blinds?

Are you also ventilating regularly, opening windows daily or using an electric dehumidifier? A damp house can feel much colder than it is, and each person produces litres of water every day through breathing, showering and cooking. Never air dry laundry indoors.

Adults and some older children can have electric underblankets on their bed with an overnight setting, these cost literally pennies to run. With a good duvet you can then sit up in bed reading or using gadgets and be toasty.

The house I'm in has full double glazing, also has cavity wall insulation and plenty of squidgy stuff in the loft. The kids generally sit in bed and use gadgets and study etc but I think that for £160 a month ( or just over a month) we should be warmer than what we are :-(
I do appreciate the hint with the electric blankets though! We have large double full length windows in the living areas but have lined curtains to try and retain heat. It's just so hard.

I am looking into getting gas central heating installed as I can't do another winter with electric heating. It's so inefficient for our needs :-(

Sugar xxx

Fire_Fox

Sugarhunny1 wrote: »

The house I'm in has full double glazing, also has cavity wall insulation and plenty of squidgy stuff in the loft. The kids generally sit in bed and use gadgets and study etc but I think that for £160 a month ( or just over a month) we should be warmer than what we are :-(
I do appreciate the hint with the electric blankets though! We have large double full length windows in the living areas but have lined curtains to try and retain heat. It's just so hard.

I am looking into getting gas central heating installed as I can't do another winter with electric heating. It's so inefficient for our needs :-(

Sugar xxx

Do you have drafts or is there any damp in the air? What temperature is it that you feel is cold? Electric heating and hot water are not inefficient but are expensive per KWH, it's the nature of the beast unfortunately. £100 a month is not unusual in a modern flat in winter and they are smaller than a house with neighbours on most sides for insulation. Gas is cheaper per KWH if you can have that for heating.

Large full length windows, even double glazed, will lose a huge amount of heat. Regular lined curtains really won't make much difference, you want blackout lining and even then I can't honestly promise miracles. You might check out IKEA, they have had some good deals in the past. Also ensure the curtians fit close to the window perhaps with a track and are floor length, if you have poles and gaps round the edges you will get air flow. Long shot but could you have secondary glazing so you end up with triple glazing?

HTH.