Studio Flat - Billed £80 electricity for first 45 days

Jmoo

Hi

I've only been in my new flat about 45 days and provided a meter reading when I arrived and today. I only have electricity in this block, no gas. I have a storage heater with fan. I've been foolishly switching it on and off at the wall for 30 minutes a day, but it still seems very pricey for a small place.

My dad thinks I need to be turning the input up at night and down in the morning. Is this right? He says it should have some sort of timer but mine does not.

SSE tell me I should go on an Economy 7 meter. Does this all make sense to you? Do you think any other form of heating eg Halogen would be better?

I fear I won't see any savings as I would be putting the input up on the heater at say 10pm when I go to sleep for numerous hours, when I'm already paying a lot for half an hour full input at 5pm?

I think I'm waffling

System

Hi. Have you got a meter which shows two readings? If you have, then you will be on what is known as an Economy 7 tariff. Notionally, from Midnight to 7am, you will be on cheap energy (about 7p/kWh). The storage heater will normally heat up during this period and release the heat during the day. Trust your Dad. Turning on the boost during the day and early evening will give you heat but you will be paying about 15p/kWh. This is why your bill is so high.

The problem with storage heaters is that they give out heat when you are at work, and tend to be slightly cooler in the evening. Only you can do the sums to calculate whether it would be cheaper to leave the storage heater Off and replace it with an electric heater during the evening. I am sure that Dad would help with the calculations: that's what Dads are for or so I am told.

Jmoo

I don't have an Economy 7 meter, no. Only the one reading. It seems a little odd considering these flats have been renovated for about 3 years and so the storage heater was always here. In fact all of them seem to have very old school meters.

Is it an automatic thing then? My concern was I have to turn the input at 12am when offpeak kicks in?

Marktheshark

Is it an electronic smart meter or old school meter.
Also shut off al electrical appliances and sockets when everyone is home and see if the meter stops.
You would not be the first supplying someone else with electric in flats.

System

Can you check with a neighbour about the meter? It is unusual to have a storage heater and no Economy 7.

Jmoo

So I understand a bit more about them now - they have two switches and I just need to keep the offpeak switch on. I was switching them both on willy nilly. It doesn't help though as SSE have put me on a 'standard' plan which is presumably expensive all day around. In this situation I don't know which switch should be on.

There's only one set of digits on the meter, and I've looked at others which oddly seem to all have similar meters. It's difficult to say whether everyone else has storage heaters though. I have emailed the letting agent to ask the landlord about this.

I'm a little bemused about what happens while I'm not on Economy 7. Is it because Economy 7 are longer term and few stick around long here?

Jmoo

Actually I've just looked, only one or two have "E7" digital meters. Most are pretty old school like mine.