Night storage heater expensive to run?

Nada666

Miami wrote: »

Oooh -- just noticed on my bill that EDF are estimating my annual usage at:

Day: 545 kWh
Night: 1,106 kWh

I can't understand where those numbers have come from? Based on this month's bill, the day estimate is too high and the night estimate is too low. Is it possible they've used previous tenants' / the landlord's bills to calculate my usage?

They seem reasonable enough.

28 kWh for 16 days is 52 kWh a month

You said you left your heating on. Three winter months a year is 1158 kWh.

Nada666

(Also, as you are using the night units for day/evening activities, you would fully expect their projection to be out - they are not going to adjust their algorithms to accommodate nocturnal occupiers.

Note that if you are up at night then you may well be better using portable heaters rather than storage. You probably still want the storage on low to provide some cheap maintenance over the day.)

Frozen_up_north

The costs for storage heaters largely depend on two factors:

1. How well insulated your property is, as it's hard to warm the whole place during the evening if the temperature drops due to a gale through a door left open or a badly fitting door or window. You sometimes have to adjust the settings in advance if warm or cold weather is forecast, rather than leaving it to a thermostat -as used in gas central heating.

2. Being careful to pick an energy supplier with a low night time tariff and to use off peak electricity as much as practical, ie use your washing machine/tumble drier during the off peak time if possible, although in some flats having the washer running at 5am might not go down too well with neighbours.

I've had a house with storage heaters for over 30 years and the cost of heating is quite low. Over those 30 years the cost of maintenance has been almost zero, two new immersion heater elements and one over temperature fuse in a storage heater.

My use is approximately 90% off peak. E.ON currently offer a one year fix with a day unit price of 13.514p, night unit of 5.06p but a daily standing charge of 16.42p per day (all plus 5% vat, prices valid in East Yorkshire).

System

I don't think that's too bad to be honest. i have just read mine and i have used 221 day units and 1665 night units, that was 38 days usage. i have 4 storage heaters too in lounge, 1 in bed and 1 in hall.

The 2 in lounge are both 2.5kw, and bed and hall are both 1.5kw

I have the lounge 5out of 6 charge on both and bed and hall about 3 out of 6 charge.

I never open the discharge on the hall or bedroom, and open the lounge discharge about 5ish teatime.

Also have a convector heater for when i gets really cold on the night.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Frozen_up_north, 90% off peak

- is almost second [unused] home in maintenance mode only figures
- a spectacularly parsimonious frugalmacdugal can inch in with 20+%
- 30% is a good SP 'mix' starting point
- anything around 50% is a winner

Frozen_up_north

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

- is almost second [unused] home in maintenance mode only figures
- a spectacularly parsimonious frugalmacdugal can inch in with 20+%
- 30% is a good SP 'mix' starting point
- anything around 50% is a winner

Rubbish, it's called fitting LED lamps, using LED backlit TVs and computer monitors, setting desktop and laptop computers to hibernate after a few minutes unused, plus checking the consumption of appliances. The house has cavity wall insulation, 12" of loft insulation and of course double glazing. We also use a timer on the washing machine so it runs on off peak electric too.

The house is occupied during both day and night, with storage heaters providing almost all the heating, with very occasional use of a wall heater for an hour or two. The outside temperature this evening is 1 deg C and the front room temp at close to midnight has only just dropped to 19 deg C. That was only using storage heating, no additional (peak rate) heating used today at all.

It's not hard to keep electricity costs down, and the figures for use are a genuine balance of 90% off peak use for the whole of 2014.

prosaver

Remember NO........
1
gas boiler insurance 15x 12.......£180
2
gas standing charge 20p a day x 365
3
new boiler every 10 years £ 1500?.... £150 a year
Boiler service £70 a year

Richie-from-the-Boro

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

Rubbish, it's called fitting LED lamps, using LED backlit TVs and computer monitors, setting desktop and laptop computers to hibernate after a few minutes unused, plus checking the consumption of appliances. The house has cavity wall insulation, 12" of loft insulation and of course double glazing. We also use a timer on the washing machine so it runs on off peak electric too.

The house is occupied during both day and night, with storage heaters providing almost all the heating, with very occasional use of a wall heater for an hour or two. The outside temperature this evening is 1 deg C and the front room temp at close to midnight has only just dropped to 19 deg C. That was only using storage heating, no additional (peak rate) heating used today at all.

It's not hard to keep electricity costs down, and the figures for use are a genuine balance of 90% off peak use for the whole of 2014.

Rubbish to you hoo too hoo ! .............

My comment on """is almost second [unused] home in maintenance mode only figures""" was a congratulation on a super achievement at the core / night split for everyone to aim for ...... not the insult to took it to be.... hence the 4 differing levels of of % split indicator. which were :

- is almost second [unused] home in maintenance mode only figures
- a spectacularly parsimonious frugalmacdugal can inch in with 20+%
- 30% is a good SP 'mix' starting point
- anything around 50% is a winner

Miami

No idea how well insulated the building is as I rent so don't know what's under the flooring / behind the walls etc but when I walk out of my flat and into the communal hallway (which has no heating) it's freezing. My Economy 7 hours are midnight to 7am so think I might be able to get away with putting my washing machine on at 6am, haven't tried it yet though.

Was going to turn off the night storage heater last night and switch the portable on when I got home in the early morning but the temperature dropped to -2, so I'll wait until tomorrow to do it when I'm not working and can read the meter before and after putting the portable heater on to estimate how much it uses.

Thanks for the advice everyone