economy 7 & electric storage heaters

samma_2

hello i am new to the boards and hope someone can advise me

i have economy 7 electric storage heaters and i am all electric in my home, a 2bed bungalow and we dont think we waste a lot of electricity, we have the normal household items, cooker, microwave, tv, sky box etc, we only use the storage heaters in the wetroom, living room & hallway...and turn these off as soon as it starts to get warmer.
we only moved here march 2006, so still not used to the way the storage heaters work, but they power up between 12.30 am and 7.30 am

my worry is this...the heaters let out lots of heat during the nighttime and dont warm the house properly during the day...i have read the instructions for them and i appear to be doing things correctly
my friend has storage heaters and his do not let out heat over night, but during the day his home is toasty warm....should my heaters be doing this??
i tried to get an answer from my power supplier, ATLANTIC, but he did not answer my question just said that my use over the last couple of months is not excessive, yeah, i know that after all my heaters are turned off!

even so, my bill for the last 11 months is over £960...i am on disability benefits and i cant afford this amount ...i pay by DD, so now the amount has gone up from £57 per month, to £83 to cover the £190 i am in arrears for...i was going to pay this off as a lump sum, but cant really afford to so i am going to let the new figure stand as my DD

i received this break down yesterday
usage from 3 may to 27 july 07
night energy= 452 @ 4.08p = £18.44
day " = 717 @ 9.51p = £ 68.18
standing charge @ 6.88p = £5.92
does this seem excessive?

this is the breakdown for the year:
day energy = 4201.27 units @ 9.94 = 417.61
night " = 6876.10 units @ 4.29 = 294.98
standing charge @ 6.88p for 366 days = 25.18

i may be totally wrong, (and i understand that electric storage heating can be 50% dearer than other heating..thanks to this website;) but due to there be no gas supply in my village i am stuck with it)but i cant see how my nighttime usage is so high compared to my day time usage
my heaters are turned down to the min. every night and i dont use anything but normal appliances being switched on..fridge freezers etc
shouldn't my usage be more during the day as i use a washing machine, kettle, shower etc?
anyone got any helpful advice for me
thanks in advance

Cardew

You don't say which area you live - prices vary greatly across the country, particularly with E7.

Your ratio of night/day usage(62%/38%) is good but your use during the day is high. The average for total consumption(24 hours) is 3,300kWh pa.(properties not using electrical heating/HW) and you are 4,200 in your 17 daytime hours.

This suggests that you are using daytime electricity to 'top up' heating and/or hot water.

E7 heating is much more expensive than gas for running costs(the 50% you quote would not be too far out) - but you don't have expensive servicing & safety checks to pay.

Older storage heaters were more difficult to control and 'leaked' heat more than modern systems.

You will find that your times for E7 will change when the clocks go forward/back.

Your main aim should be to ensure that you get your daytime electricity down as much as possible, ensure that all heating/HW is at E7 rates as this is the biggest load. Try to get washer/dryer? dishwasher on timers if possible.

However your 'breakdown for the year' consumption at the latest prices indicates an annual spend of approx £700 which is well below the average, so you are not spending an excessive amount of heating/electricity.

samma_2

hello cardew
thank you for taking the time to reply to my post
i live in North Herts
my hot water is heated..supposedly..only at night using the nighttime usage. There is an immersion system, for back up but it is unused by us.

i try to use my washing machine (3yrs old and an "A" grade) as little as possible, there are 3 of us in the home and without radiators to help with drying, i have been forced to use my tumble dryer due to unseasonal wet weather, i do try not to but sometimes there is no help for it. I must admit this does tend to mean i wash more than i wish to avoid a build up and to get it out on the line whenever possible.

the heating has needed boosting every day as it is cold in here, i try to regulate this but constant complaints of being cold mean i give in to demand. we all wear extra socks, jumpers and use a blanket in the winter daytime too, i have come to hate this heating system as previously i never felt cold when we had gas radiators!

i just dont know how to find out if there is something wrong with the set up of the heaters..i presume they all have an internal clock system but why then are they blasting out heat in the early hours of the morning, if you come into my living room at 3am its as cosy as toast, but at 3pm in the afternoon, its damn chilly.

Graham1

6876 night time units per year on 3 storage heaters is quite reasonable, especially if one or more of the heaters are the larger (3Kw+) versions.

My consumption is nearly twice that with 5 heaters.

Have you tried putting your annual usage figures into a comparison site ?
Powergen have quite a good E7 day-time and night-time rates on their energy online extra saver - if you are prepared to enter your own meter readings via their site 4 times a year.

samma_2

thank you for your reply Graham
i am coming to the conclusion that this is a heating system that i am just going to have to get used to:)
i will try the Powergen site that you suggest.

i wonder ...do your heaters also let out lots of heat at night?
my husband is convinced that we are losing all our daytime heat during the night and that there must be something wrong with the heaters if this is happening
thank you in advance

vivatifosi

Hi Samma,

Check you've got your system set up properly, your bills aren't too bad, but you;re getting your heat at the wrong time of day.

When I moved in I phoned my storage heater manufacturer - Creda - who were absolutely brilliant and told me how to use them. They also told me that there was no point in upgrading as although they were an older model they had only changed aesthetically not functionally. Your manufacturer may have a helpline and be able to tell you the same.

But it does sound like the bricks aren't retaining the heat and pushing it out later, in other words you're heating without 'storing'. This may be a simple thing like you haven't got the controls set right or something the matter with the system, but certainly worth getting further info on.

There's quite a good page explaining storage heating and how it works on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storage_heater

You may also want to check whether your immersion heater has two tanks, as it may be the other tank (apologies for not using the right term but I'm not a plumber) is switched on constantly rather than just being switched on when you need to heat water between the E7 hours.

I'm in Hertfordshire too, and my bills for a 3 bed semi using 3 storage heaters on E10 rather than E7 are £200 a year lower than yours. The only other thing I've done is change all my bulbs to energy saving.

My Mum and Aunt are disabled, and they have found the help and advice from Herts Action on Disability www.hadnet.co.uk absolutely invaluable. You may find that they can advise you as to whether there are any local incentives available to help you to improve your home heating system or have volunteers who can make sure your heating is set properly.

Good luck!

Graham1

Re: question about emitting heat at night - yes unfortunately that's just the way they work.

Also check out if you might qualify for free grants to improve insulation:

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/what_can_i_do_today/energy_saving_grants_and_offers

samma_2

thank you for all your replies and suggestions,
i have taken a look at the heating links and think i know understand how it all works
thanks again

FBThree

Hi,
My storage heaters have a little dial to turn to let the heat out or not. I always used to close it at night to keep in the heat that was stored on the overnight electric, and then open it up when I got up (or got back from work) to let the heat out. Do yours have such a dial?

samma_2

hello
i have two dials, one is input and the other output...i turn the output dial down to no. 1 (the lowest) each night..

KILL_BILL

whats your input setting on ?

if you have the output dial down then you should be having a steady stream of heat till the say early evening