Cost of storage heaters

GolfFoxtrot

Hi,

I wanted to give people an idea of the cost of storage heating as I tried to find some good information when we moved into a place with them but couldn't.

I live in a 2 bed flat which is approx 10 years old with 5 storage heaters and an immersion heater for the hot water. There is two of us living here and we use a Scottish power economy 7 tariff.

We only use two of the storage heaters, one in the bedroom and one in the sitting room and the water heater. We rarely use the tumble dryer and are out at work most days and the dishwasher and washing machine go on during the night as that's when electric is cheaper.

On average during the winter period we've been using 3 units of day time electricity and 30 units of night time electricity per day. Resulting in an average bill of around £25 per week

Before we were using the heaters our bills were roughly £10 per week.

Hope this can be of help to someone.

sheffield_lad

There is information check your EPC that will give you a good idea of costs.

Storage heaters are the cheapest form of heating if you don't have the luxury of gas.

GolfFoxtrot

We were renting and didn't get an EPC. It's only a 2 storey block with 6 flats in total and all the houses in our street have gas, I assume the developer just skimped on the cost of the flats.

We weren't too bothered about the cost as for us this flat was only temporary until we bought a place of our own.

luvchocolate

am just the same as you use 2 heaters, hot water and washing machine through the night...over the year including increases this month with sse mine is £66 per month which I feel is good

lstar337

GolfFoxtrot wrote: »

On average during the winter period we've been using 3 units of day time electricity and 30 units of night time electricity per day. Resulting in an average bill of around £25 per week

Before we were using the heaters our bills were roughly £10 per week.

Not really that bad though is it?

£100 x 6 Months + £40 x 6 Months = £840/year

That's really not bad, and you could bring it down a bit with a bit of economising.

5 heaters in a 2 bed flat? Where are they all? There is no real need for storage heaters in kitchens/hallways/bedrooms, so you could drop your usage by turning some off. I ditched our bedroom SH in favour of an electric blanket and would never look back. I got a fancy electric blanket with extra foot warming, twin controllers with heat settings and timers, but it probably paid for itself within a week! It only uses 60W per side on full power, so much less than any SH. Long thick curtains and thermal roller blinds trap heat in, which means the SH take less of a charge, keep us warmer, and cost us less.

On the whole though, you should be pretty happy. Some of the stories on here would almost make you cry! People with really poor insulation and heaters that cost them over 100units a night and still don't even keep them warm, now that's a bad situation!:D

GolfFoxtrot

As I said before we only use 2 heaters, one in the bedroom set to a low input and one in the sitting room which has no input control.

The other 3 that we don't use are in the spare bedroom, hallway and another in the dining room (open plan with living area). We can't use an electric blanket and yes I agree about the curtains but as it was a rented furnished lat we decided not to spend any of our own cash on it.

Oh and thanks as I didn't realise an EPC must be given for rented properties, we certainly weren't given one.

Fieldsofgold

GolfFoxtrot wrote: »

As I said before we only use 2 heaters, one in the bedroom set to a low input and one in the sitting room which has no input control.

The other 3 that we don't use are in the spare bedroom, hallway and another in the dining room (open plan with living area). We can't use an electric blanket and yes I agree about the curtains but as it was a rented furnished lat we decided not to spend any of our own cash on it.

Oh and thanks as I didn't realise an EPC must be given for rented properties, we certainly weren't given one.

Why can't you use an electric blanket? Wouldn't' it be worthwhile to pick up some cheap,thick curtains from a charity shop if you saved money on electricity?

Nada666

If you are warm all evening and when you get up in the morning then £15 per week is hardly expensive - don't understand the unhappy face. That would average to £16 per month over the year if you have it on for three months or even if you keep them on for five months it would be only £27 per month.

Lack of an on-demand option is annoying especially during a winter like this one - that is the primary bugbear many have with storage heating.

Remember to check comparison sites for cheapest E7 tariffs - if you are counting the weekly cost are you paying quarterly? Direct debit E7 tariffs are far cheaper. (Even Scottish Power's own is 17% cheaper* than their standard E7 prices (at your likely usage).)

* depending on region and actual usage.

GolfFoxtrot

Nada666 wrote: »

If you are warm all evening and when you get up in the morning then £15 per week is hardly expensive - don't understand the unhappy face. That would average to £16 per month over the year if you have it on for three months or even if you keep them on for five months it would be only £27 per month.

Lack of an on-demand option is annoying especially during a winter like this one - that is the primary bugbear many have with storage heating.

Remember to check comparison sites for cheapest E7 tariffs - if you are counting the weekly cost are you paying quarterly? Direct debit E7 tariffs are far cheaper. (Even Scottish Power's own is 17% cheaper* than their standard E7 prices (at your likely usage).)

* depending on region and actual usage.

As above I worked out our average spend for total usage over a year would be around £57 a month. We pay monthly on direct debit but I had a large issue with transposed readings when we moved in and hence have my own sheet where I take the meter readings weekly and calculate our spend.

I found a cheaper tariff but as it takes a long time to switch and we'll hopefully be in our own bought property in the next 4 weeks it's just not worth switching.

lstar337

GolfFoxtrot wrote: »

As I said before we only use 2 heaters, one in the bedroom set to a low input and one in the sitting room which has no input control.

Lol, sorry GolfFoxtrot, I managed to completely skip over that paragraph when I read you post. Must have my Monday morning brain in today!

No input control at all? That's a new one for me! It's usually only the very small single element units that are intended for bathrooms that have no input control. As you have an open plan space, can you not use the dining room heater and shut off the unit with no input control?

GolfFoxtrot wrote: »

The other 3 that we don't use are in the spare bedroom, hallway and another in the dining room (open plan with living area). We can't use an electric blanket and yes I agree about the curtains but as it was a rented furnished lat we decided not to spend any of our own cash on it.

But you can take curtains with you when you leave. We intend to take all of our curtains and blinds when we leave, in fact we plan to take pretty much anything we have bought for the flat.:D