Economy 7 help

hulahoop09

Hiya

We live in a 2 bed semi detached which is apparantly approx 20 yrs old and has berry magicoal storage heaters. Our livingroom stairs and landing are all one room so its a nightmare to heat up. We have 1 big and 1 small heater in the livingroom, 1 small on the landing and 1 small in the bigger bedroom. The smaller bedroom has a wall mounted kind of convector heater, you switch on and off as needed, gets warm fast and was once on for about 12 hours and onky used approx £1 electric if that! We work full time but I am pregnant with number 2 and so am on maternity and will be home all winter. For years we just dealt with not using the heaters (specially living room) as we struggle to get the house warm. We sometimes use the 2kw electric heater buikt into our fireplace but obviously can be costly and as soon as switched off the heat is no more. Lol.

We tried last winter trying to get our house warm using the storage heaters and very quickly found it costly. With them all on (not even high setting) it was costing approx £5 per day (well night) thats before our normal day to day electric costs and I put the hot water heater on every 2 nights (last night it used approx £1.40 for a few hours.

We are on a prepayment as a few years ago we had a massive electric bill which I disputed and now I dont trust electric companies and yes paying by dd tends to be cheaper but at least on pp I can track our spend/budget etc. Are with eon as they worked out cheapest when I switched approx a year ago. We currently pay 1.92 per day service charge, i think 16.78 day units and 6.38 night units. I check the meter regular to keep track of whats been used etc.

Anyway I budget £100 pm electric which we have easily managed on (winters cost a bit more - not so much previously as me and hubby were out working all day). We cant afford the extra potentially £120ish pm cost that the storage heaters could cost us. Me and hubby arent fussed about our room being warm as we layer up and have 2 quilts and 3 hot water bottles lol. Last winter our 1 year old was still in our bed but now is in her own room and ved and kicks blankets off etc so we want to make sure her room is warm at night. I have been told to get a small cheapish oil radiator from somewhere like argos which are apparantly great for smaller rooms etc. I am not sure how I woukd keep out of her way in her bedroom but was wondering is on me of tgese more cost friendly than the storage heaters?

Im just looking at avoiding the £120 extra electric cost if I want to keep the house flipping warm!

TIA

HappyMJ

There is something wrong if it cost £1.40 to heat your water at 6.38p/kWh...that would imply your water needed 22kWh. Your water heater doesn't need that much to heat water. A 3kw water heater would be on for 7 hours...not just a few hours. The water heater should heat the whole cylinder within a few hours.

It will cost more to use oil filled heaters left on 24 hours a day than using a storage heater. In the bedroom you could just use them at night to prevent the room getting too cold overnight and it won't cost much.

hulahoop09

I did leave the hot water heater on longer than it needed, I have just worked out and it was on from 1.40-7am. We have been told its a big cylinder but we cant afford to replace it with a smaller one. Our fridge freezer was also on and a chest freezer all as per usual.

We had tried using just the 1 in the bedroom and it uses up to a few pound per night, I did contact energy supplier and they explained how many units etc it used and it just seemed a lot! If anything I will HAVE to use the one in my little girls room as dont want her cold at night and continue to use the electric heater in the living room in the day.

Will have to experiment again with the different settings on the storage heater. I just wish our rooms had heaters like the one in the small bedroom instead!

Xx

hulahoop09

Oh and I assume the 1.92 service charge needs to come off the 1.40 which brings it down some.

Cardew

We currently pay 1.92 per day service charge,

Is that £1.92 or 19.2p

hulahoop09

Hinestly I have serious baby brain. Lol. £1.92 per week service charge