New house costing a fortune to run

Swest100

I moved into a new rented house last month and it is costing a fortune to run. It's a 4 bed home and it is a listed building with single glazing so I expected it to cost more to run than a new house but not this much. It has no gas so heating is electric night storage heaters. I have 4 of the night storage heaters on thats all the heaters I have in the house and the house is still freezing. I put £40 on my electric key on Friday afternoon it now Monday morning and I have had to put another £40 on my key. £40 over 2 and a half days is madness. I have changed to the cheapest Tarrif but the way it's going it's costing me some weeks 100 in electric and I'm walking around the house in my coat because it's too cold to take it off. Any ideas on ways I can lower my bill. Obviously I can't change anything in the house that's a fixture or fitting because it is rented but I can't pay 400 quid a month just in electric either.

ajbell

You need to state actual kWh used not money or no one can really help.

Swest100

Ok sorry husband's away at work and I have no idea how to find this out . Am I looking on the key meter for how much I pay per kw or am I looking at the meter reading and seeing how much it's turning. Sorry to sound dim

ajbell

If you are using storage heating then you should be on E7 tariff and only storing the heat during those cheap hours.

Cardew

I believe the largest storage heater is 3.4kW, if that was on full input it will take 23.8kWh in the 7 hours overnight cheap electricity; so with 4 heaters the maximum is 95.2kWh a day.

Now I don't know what you pay for off-peak E7 rate but at 7p/kWh that will be under £7 a day.

Are you sure that there isn't a debt on your meter that is being deducted?

In any case only 4 heaters for a 4 bed, single glazed, listed house(probably poorly insulated) is not adequate.

matelodave

I hope you've registerd with the electricity supplier and got your own account otherwise you could actually be paying off the previous tenant arrears. You should ensure that you are actually on an E7 tariff and that the heaters are only switching on during the overnight off-peak times (around midnight to 7am).

Are the heaters warm in the mornings and nearly cold laterin the day?. What are they set to most NNSH's have two setting dials, one is input or charge and the other is output. Ideally the input one should be set over halfway and the output should be closed, especially overnight otherwise you'll lose all the stored heat

Are you using supplementary heating during the day - we need a lot more info before anyone can give you any suggestions.

As Cardew says, four heaters in a four bedroomed house doesn't sound like enough - where are they located and what size are they (look for a label which should tell you their rating in kw)

teddysmum

Thermal lined curtains may help a little.

macman

Is this your own (new) key, or one that was left in the property? If the latter, then you are paying the previous occupier's debt. If not, then it has to be a faulty meter.
Both the input and the output on NSH's are adjustable.

House_Martin

OP have a look at screen " S " on the meter. The key needs to be inserted to see this screen. then press the blue button to scroll through the various screens This is where any debt on the meter can be seen with the weekly repayment amount on the next screen " T "

Swest100

I called the electric company as soon as I moved in and I had to have a new key sent as the one they gave me wouldn't work at the shop. My emergency ran out earlier so I went to the shop and put £30 on the key and put it in the meter I have a £5 emergency to pay off so was expecting about £25 to be left but all I have is £9. I called the company and they said there is no charges but that they can see my usage is extremely high. I just don't understand where £16 went. It showed It had 30 on the key when I put it in and then only gave me 9 quid electric and most annoying of all the house is freezing still.

stewie_griffin

Write down all the settings off your meter i.e. a, b, c etc and post them on here and someone will be able to understand what they mean.

You haven't specified how you heat water, is it an immersion heater that is set to come on during the E7 times only.

Also have you been using any other form of heating as 4 storage heaters doesn't sound enough for the size of your home. I live in some bed house that's reasonably insulated and I have two storage heaters therefore I'd expect your home to have 6 or 7.