Hot water tank Electric bills

Hawtin1584

hi,

Just bought a new house and the electricity bills seem very high, a lot higher than our old house and i can't think why! Everything is electric and we are on economy 7.
By the hot water tank there are 3 switches. All look the same, i persume one is for the night time to come on economy 7, one is for the day, but what is the other one. Do i turn 2 off and just leave the night one on, or is one of the switches just the mains power to it so i need that one and the night one on. Im unsure. At the moment we are using around 600kwh a month, where as before we were only using 280 and we aren't doing anything different!
Any help would be good

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

Hawtin1584 wrote: »

hi,

Just bought a new house and the electricity bills seem very high, a lot higher than our old house and i can't think why! Everything is electric and we are on economy 7.
By the hot water tank there are 3 switches. All look the same, i persume one is for the night time to come on economy 7, one is for the day, but what is the other one. Do i turn 2 off and just leave the night one on, or is one of the switches just the mains power to it so i need that one and the night one on. Im unsure. At the moment we are using around 600kwh a month, where as before we were only using 280 and we aren't doing anything different!
Any help would be good

Difficult to diagnose remotely. I think you need to get someone to look at the meter(s) while you flick the switches and check if the water warms up.

Hawtin1584

id put a picture up, but as I'm new they won't let me, Its not easy checking the meters etc as they are in a communal area and i don't have access

lstar337

Hawtin1584 wrote: »

id put a picture up, but as I'm new they won't let me, Its not easy checking the meters etc as they are in a communal area and i don't have access

If you put your picture on a hosting site you can post the link with some spaces and somebody here will fix it for you.

As for your switches, one should be for E7 and left on all the time, one will be a peak time boost and only used if you run out of water. I'm puzzled by the third, can't think what that is for! Oh, do you have an electric shower? Could be the isolator.

Pincher

The cylinder should have two heating elements, one low, one high. Just follow the lower cable, that is the night Economy 7 one: leave that one on. There is always the possibility that some idiot wired it the wrong way round, of course, but that should get you started.

sheffield_lad

Hi you say it's much more than your old house but was your old house also all electric?


60% of your bills are for heating and hot water.

Hawtin1584

Hi yes the old house was all electric. It turned out that the other switch was the main switch for the hot water tank. You have to have this on and the night one for it too work now

Now I know this I have monitored the meter and it isn't the hot water causing the high bills. I have decided to turn off everthimg in the house to see if the meter still goes up. As I can't see what else it can be.

My other house was all electric too. So can't see why there is such a difference in both