on coin meter for electricity will be changing soon

set

Hi everyone

Wasn't sure how to word title but basically we live in rented fla, electric only no gas. It currently has a coin meter for electric (£1) landlord is having storage heaters fitted in a few weeks and electrician has said in the meantime can we have a think about which electricity supplier we want to go with and if we want card meter or monthly/quarterly bills. We would rather not have a card meter but don't mind monthly or quarterly bills. It's a one bedroom flat, we both work full time, im home around 2pm each day from work OH home around 4.30pm. We set aside money every month for electric. Almost 6 months of the year we roughly put in on average £30-£40 per month. The other 6 months is roughly £60-£70 per month.
Also gonna have to figure out how to use the bloody storage heaters, I'm cr*p like that . ANYWAY here's my question, who do we go with? Do we go for fixed rate or not. I'm getting myself into such a this :rotfl:

Thanks guys, any advise would help.

set

Just a little *bump*:o

Richie-from-the-Boro

@ £600pa for an all electric that's frugal. Direct debit, you supply regular meter reads, and an e-account will give you the cheapest E7 tariff. Put your total kW used per annum into a couple of comparison sites and see how you go from there.

Using them is easy, you fill enough for your needs @ about 30% the cost of day rate and leave the damper closed at all times, if you 'run out' of heat you did not store enough - fill more next time - find a balance.

Cardew

Virtually all the cheap tariffs are fixed rate and most are on-line only.

Obviously you want to avoid card meters and paying monthly by Direct Debit is cheapest; however all firms will run a credit check on you first.

The cheapest company/tariff varies according to where you live and how much electricity you use. You will need to use a comparison website and enter an estimate of annual kWh used.

Torry_Quine

If you're getting storage heaters make sure that it's am Economy 7 tariff.

set

Thanks for the replies. Electrician did say there will be 2 cables going to the box and one of them will be for cheaper electric at night? haha sorry you can tell im rubbish at this!. Dont know how much KW we use so will find out estimate for 1 bed flat.

Thanks guys

Richie-from-the-Boro

set wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. Electrician did say there will be 2 cables going to the box and one of them will be for cheaper electric at night? haha sorry you can tell im rubbish at this!. Dont know how much KW we use so will find out estimate for 1 bed flat.

Thanks guys

A simplistic answer for a 1st time user

Don't worry about the way it works, there's a ■ box outside your home called an electricity meter that leads to a box ■ inside your home called a consumer unit that divides the leccy into day and night. All day leccy costs the core rate whatever its used for and all night leccy costs about 60% less than the core rate whatever its used for.

The night store water & space heating is a set once and forget it for 60 [or whatever] years. The 150 litre hot water tank has a special type of highly efficient insulation that is deigned to reduce heat loss over the 17 daytime hours its switched off, in 35+ years I've never needed to switch on the expensive daytime immersion heater. Ditto the night store heating, used properly, providing the initial design provides for sufficient storage the heaters will hold enough cheap[er] 17 daytime released hours of heat - set and forget [2 knobs, one for input and the other for output, the output should be closed tight ... ... always] - and it just works.

My advice to a clueless 1st time starter is to heat the living area only 1st, then decide later if you want to or can afford to heat all areas later. This will give you the nearest approximation to what you had with your old heating system.@ £600 a year is an amazingly low cost, do you know that's about 30% of the average UK bill, parsimony or just luck I've no idea but you should give yourself a round of applause for achieving such a low cost.

NOTE : If you really want more info, you will need 3 large cups of coffee and plenty of man size tissues to wipe the blood from your eyes as you read through this now old but still relevant post. Best of luck.

misterbarlow

no suppliers currently use cash meters any more, if its £1 coin meter then its a private sub meter owned by the landlord...

set

Thanks so much for the reply. It is a landlord sub meter. We have planet heater in bedroom, livingroom only. It's only a small flat and when it's very cold we use a convector heater just to give it a boost. Never on for long as it gives me headache . There are only two of us in flat, we both work full time so really not much electric use.

I leave heater on on bedroom most of the time just to take the edge of the room. We really don't like the bedroom too warm. Don't have heater on in livingroom while we're at work then when we get home put panel heater on with convector heater on for 20 mins to heat room quick. now we just have to choose which company to go with, electrician wants to know end of this week as he has to ring them to put box in. Don't wNt card meter would prefer DD

Thanks again