Electric wet central heating confusion

molerat

EachPenny wrote: »

I have just noticed that the OP doesn't mention anything about the method of heating their hot water. Hopefully they have immersion heater(s) operating in the cheap period, but I'd want to check to make sure the electric boiler is not being used to heat hot water - that wouldn't be cheap, or efficient.

It is a 2 in 1 system, separate DHW system within the boiler.

EachPenny

molerat wrote: »

It is a 2 in 1 system, separate DHW system within the boiler.

:embarasse

As penance I've just had a read of the installation manual and technical data sheet. So the primary circuit heating is 9kW with no apparent heat storage capacity beyond the circulating water, plus an additional 3+3 kW for DHW? I'd be very keen to ensure that was all off outside cheap rate times.

Assuming a generous consumption of 10 kWh for other uses, it would mean the 9 kW heater would have to run continuously for between 7 and 8 hours a day to reach the reported daily consumption. If both are out all day at work and the boiler is not having to run continuously to maintain temperature during the heating times then it does look like something is iffy with the figures.

matelodave

The elctromax is a central heating flow boiler, which menas it uses the 9kw element every time the thermostat calls for heat. You'll be paying peak rate prices whenever you are using the heating outside the off-peak times

The benefit that you get from being on an E10 tariff means that you can heat your hot water overnight during the off peak times and get cheaper heating in the afternoon and late evening but it'll cost you lots more in the mornings and other times during the day so you don't want it on when you aren't there.

Unfortunately neither E7 nor E10 doesn't really suit your lifestyle or type of heating. I'd be inclined to do some careful sums to see if a single rate supply would work out cheaper although now you are moving into summer your bills should plummet.

I'd also be doing a lot more to read and record meter readings, weekly or at least monthly so you can keep an eye on your consumption and see how any energy saving measure like adjusting stats and timings are affecting your consumption.
Just waiting until the bill comes in and getting a nasty shock is a bit late to be able to do anything about it.

mockendo

There's various info over on economy10.com that might help.

Jimmymcmahon

I would like to thank you all for the responses and information provided as it has been very useful. I apologise for not making it clear, but yes I am currently renting the property. I know I will not be rushing to install an electric heating system when we eventually buy our own property.

As you can see from my original post I had a clear misunderstanding of how the heating worked as I was confusing it with storage heaters and assumed that the hot water / heating aspects were coming from the same overnight "charge". I was under the impression that the boiler unit was using the off peak period in the early hours to heat the water that feeds the radiators. From speaking directly with the boiler vendor I now understand that the timing unit next to the boiler actually heats up the water over night so we have hot water for showers and general use throughout the day. The water to the radiators is heated on demand when we turn the heating on, so we are always using electricity when the heating on and not pulling from a "reserve" as I originally thought.

On further analysis of the meter it came to light that it was an hour and a half behind current time along with a rEd (reverse energy detection) message being displayed on-screen inbetween the current rate being displayed. This message is quite common in solar panel setups (which we do not have)

As such, an engineer came out to replace the meter on an emergency appointment. Unfortunately the replacement meter is also showing a time discrepancy (47 minutes slow to be precise) and the rates on the nee meter look to have been configured the wrong way around. A complaint is currently in place with my current provider as a result.

With regards to the £631.37 bill from the previous supplier, a similar complaint has been issued detailing the issues with the meter and highlighting that set us up and billed us on an Economy 7 tariff for what was clearly an Economy 10 meter.

Thanks again for all of your inputs.

Cheers

EachPenny

Glad to hear you've got things sorted.

If it is not already set up that way you will obviously save some money if you ensure the space heating (radiators) only operate during the off-peak times. If the house is well insulated then the heat put into it during off-peak times will mean a reasonable temperature can be maintained for much of the day.

Sometimes it may be necessary to top-up the heat during peak times, but keeping it to a minimum will really help.