Got my first leccy bill..

pineapple

Recently moved to an old cottage. No gas in area and for the moment just have 2 storage heaters, an instant hot water heater, a shower, a halogen oven and an induction hob.
Am on Economy 7. It took me a while to get my head round it but now I try to do my main washing up, showering etc in the cheap rate period.
Anyhow was dreading my first proper bill but it was £84. That's a whole lot cheaper than I was expecting as I'm at home all day and like a warm house! Anyone else think that's reasonable?

edwink

Did you give the electric company a meter reading, did they read the meter or is the bill estimated?

You have said that you recently moved in so what time period is the bill for?

Don't forget to run your washing machine during the Economy 7 period too!

[Deleted User]

Its good that you ve got your head around the eco 7 set up but have a look at whatever timerswitch is used to switch the night from day on the meter.Also make sure that the supplier is receiving the correct day and night readings because give them half a chance and they will bill you with transposed readings which will make the bill artificially cheap until they rebill with the correct one. Being a true night storage user thats unlikely as when they get it wrong the bill is very high.
The timerswitch is..either an old 24 analogue circular clock with on and off for the cheap 7 hrs..Radioteleswitch, very accurate and digital meters with their built in clocks.These can drift an hour or two. If you are lucky and have the old analogue clock the cheap 7 hrs could be anywhere in the 24 hrs, not just in the dead of night.

pineapple

I was just going by what time the storage heaters go on and off - the 'on' period is 12.15 - 7.15 am. I'm assuming that's my cheap period??
The bill is for my first full quarter and they read the meter (digital).

victor2

£84 for a quarter in an all electric house is fantastic! But, over that time you will not have needed to heat the house much, if at all - even if you do like a warm house.
Now the weather is turning colder, read your meter yourself and see what you're using on each rate. Your bill will indicate the rates you are being charged, so can calculate the cost yourself once you see how many kWh you've used in a day, week or other interval you want to look at.

[Deleted User]

The cheap 7 hrs is usually wired direct to the meter so it can only come on in the cheap rate period. find out yourself when that 7 hrs is by watching the meter and listening for the click from digital meters It varies and is affected by BST and GMT .In my area in S.Yorks the official published time is 12.30 to 7.30.. That can be ignored with old analogue meters as the 7 hrs can be anywhere

System

My last bill in September was round about that price.

I turned a heating trial down for infrared panels as many people in fact all told me it will work out more expensive using day peak rate.

Im using about 50 ish units a night for my storage heaters Luckily i had a warm home discount to help me. But i would love better storage heaters that keep the heat better.

My storage heaters are about 8yrs old and leak so much heat my sitting room is boiling on a morning but about 8pm its cool :-( if anyone knows how i could go about getting better ones please let me know thanks

macman

Assuming that billing is for the last 3 months, the weather has been exceptionally mild. Your winter quarter will be much higher now the heating is on: you can expect to use up to 80% of your total units during the coldest 3 months. You can't pro-rata annual consumption from an autumn quarter.
We can't say if its 'reasonable' because we don't know your kWh usage on each register, or what tariff you are on.
If you are on quarterly billing then you may be screening out most of the cheapest tariffs, which usually require monthly DD.

macman

mackemps3 wrote: »

My last bill in September was round about that price.

I turned a heating trial down for infrared panels as many people in fact all told me it will work out more expensive using day peak rate.

Im using about 50 ish units a night for my storage heaters Luckily i had a warm home discount to help me. But i would love better storage heaters that keep the heat better.

My storage heaters are about 8yrs old and leak so much heat my sitting room is boiling on a morning but about 8pm its cool :-( if anyone knows how i could go about getting better ones please let me know thanks

Have you turned down the output (damper) control to reduce the heat released and make it last longer?