Please need help about what to do with economy 7

andyc58

Ok thanks. The cylinder is plugged into a socket like my storage heaters. No plug just wires going into the wall. So when I get home tonight I will make sure everything else is off and I will run the hot water and watch my meter. If it's using electric then I'm not on the e7. Thanks for advice

[Deleted User]

Hi,

Re your first post,

don't think many people use a storage heater in a bedroom nowadays, no point churning out heat in a room that's empty during the day.

If you need heat in bedroom then a panel heater on half an hour before bedtime or getting up, though be cheaper with a hot water bottle, maybe one each.

If you can't read your meter and work out the unit usage at night, then take a note of credit at bedtime and on getting up, will give you a rough idea.

It's not only your water heater that uses electric at night, fridge, freezer, anything on standby, mobile phone on charge.

Is your water heater on a timer, something like this,



and how well is the tank insulted?

andyc58

No it's not on a timer. It only has a polystyrene around it

lstar337

andyc58 wrote: »

If you was me would you swap to standard or not

I wouldn't, I would go back to storage heating, the most cost effective way to heat an all electric home.

If your storage heater was 'rubbish' then you were not using it correctly.

Put the storage heater back and increase your insulation. Or carry on as you are a face sky high electric bills.

andyc58

lstar337 wrote: »

I wouldn't, I would go back to storage heating, the most cost effective way to heat an all electric home.

If your storage heater was 'rubbish' then you were not using it correctly.

Put the storage heater back and increase your insulation. Or carry on as you are a face sky high electric bills.

The storage heaters are old and the elements have broke

lstar337

andyc58 wrote: »

The storage heaters are old and the elements have broke

Storage heater elements are very cheap from a number of suppliers.

Usually about a tenner.

Check your model here: http://www.storageheater.co.uk or another site of your choice.

Richie-from-the-Boro

andyc58 wrote: »

If you was me would you swap to standard or not

- neither, your starting point was / is wrong, so every downstream decision will also be wrong
- you are choosing an option that is 60% more expensive, so whichever 60% more expensive tariff is a non-starter
- your MSE starting point is to use the 60% cheaper space & water heating

A storage heater with the top damper closed is radiative, an oil filled is radiative, one [day core rate] costs much more than the [night cheap rate] other. Following your train of thought will lose you much more money, however :

- ditching the key-meter and going on to an E7 credit account with SP will save you a lot more money
- ditching the key-meter and going on to any non-E7 competitive credit account with any provider will save you money
- staying with a key meter on E7 will save you more than a non-E7 standard tariff

Either way unless you are prepared to have no 'on tap' hot water and to use an electric shower for hygiene and boil kettles for washing up its going to cost you a quid a time to switch on your day rate water heating, additionally you will need your water cylinder rewired through a CU to power your day rate water heating[/URL].

andyc58

thanks for this info. I will put the storage heater back and get the landlord to get the elements changed so it actually gives heat. Will also change my key meter for an direct debit on e7. Not sure how much this would save but it's worth a try

[Deleted User]

Hi,

easy enough to fit the elements, but be careful, some of the old storage heaters had asbestos insulation in them.

andyc58

What a credit account with sp about. Can someone shed some light on this