Electricity only water and heating tips

Diodiva

hiya everyone

I've recently moved into a Cluster house, end of the row so no back door./back of the house but more like an end terrace just arranged differently.

we're currently on a prepay key from the previous tenants, we've changed suppliers (going through atm) and then we will change to a credit meter as soon as they let us (prob about a month after).

In the meantime though it's an electric only house and I just wondered what tips people have for heating and water etc when on electric only.

the storage heater in the lounge has died and is being replaced, we have little heaters in the two bedrooms and old fashioned electric fan type square heaters on the kitchen and bathroom walls.

We've bought three oil filled radiators to avoid using the storage heaters etc, and bought lined curtains for the windows as well.

Any tips for keeping heating costs and water heating costs down, how often do people heat a tank of water, does it stay warm for long?

So far this forum has been great for tips and info, we've used it to change suppliers for electric and also to research broadband options as well :cool:

ThemeOne

How long the tank stays warm for will depend on how well it's insulated, plus the ambient temperature in the house, and of course how frequently you're using hot water.

It's generally recommended that it's cheaper to put an immersion heater on a timer rather than leaving it on constantly - though that probably assumes you're only using fairly small amounts of hot water through the day.

With electric heaters, there are some monstrously expensive ones on the market, all claiming some spurious advantage on being more efficient. Don't be tempted to buy them, as all electric heaters are equally efficient - it just boils down to the kind of heat that suits you best.

Diodiva

Thanks for your help, I think we'll soon learn how long it stays hot etc, we're making sure to turn it on once a day to heat a tank and as there's only two of us that seems enough for a shower each and the washing up etc and we'll just leave it on longer if we want to run a bath for example.

matelodave

If you are on E7 make sure that you only heat the hot water tank during the off peak period - usually around midnight to 7 am. Make sure you check the timings.

We get away with heating out hot water tank once a day for an hour or so before we get up so there;s plenty of hot water for our morning ablutions. We use hot water during the day and there's still enough hot water left at the end of the day. Make sure you don't waste hot water by running the taps down the plughole when washing or washing up

Our tank is well insulated and we only spend a couple of minutes each in the shower - I've timed myself and it's around 100 seconds, my wife takes about 4 minutes. we've got a flow restrictor on the shower so it's limited to about 6 litres a minute. we've also got flow restictors on the kitchen and basin taps to reduce the amount that gets wasted.

Cant comment on storage heaters, but they'd certainly be cheaper to run on off-peak leccy than oil rads on full price stuff

[Deleted User]

Hi,

Diodiva wrote: »

We've bought three oil filled radiators to avoid using the storage heaters etc,

oil filled radiators do not 'hold' the heat, they quickly cool down when switched off, and you will not be able to use these on the 'cheap' rate, as it has a separate hard wired circuit.

luvchocolate

Storage heaters are the cheapest way to heat your property, I do not use the bedroom ones as I like a cool bedroom but the hall one and lounge ones are on now but input very low, as its still warm here.
My hot water is on a timer during off peak and monthly D.D is £51, I never need the bathroom or kitchen wall heaters at all in 8 years here they have never been used.
Read the threads on E,7 and storage heaters there are many, for help.

Diodiva

cheers everyone, there's only a storage heater in the lounge so it looks like we'll be able to use that better once it's been replaced, upstairs we'll use the oil filled radiators when we need to rather than the wall heaters

zaax

Can you move to Economy 10 - gives heat in the evening