Outrageously high electricity bill.

ZIgo123

I see, well we have a radio Teleswitch. Even then, does the radio releswitch actually turn on/off the heating? I'd say not. Although the main heating on/off switch is connected to the teleswitch with a big cord. This wouldn't explain why our heating comes on in the afternoon.

Hmmm

House_Martin

ZIgo123 wrote: »

I see, well we have a radio Teleswitch. Even then, does the radio releswitch actually turn on/off the heating? I'd say not. Although the main heating on/off switch is connected to the teleswitch with a big cord. This wouldn't explain why our heating comes on in the afternoon.

Hmmm

Some suppliers offer a 3 hour boost in the afternoon.They are common in Scotland . So you would get 10 hrs on the cheap rate.
Poor competition with Eco 10 so they have you trapped on high day rates

Carrot007

House_Martin wrote: »

With these time switches the cheap 7 hrs could be anywhere in the 24 hrs.

Per the first post it does not seem the OP is on E7 with the mention of an off peak meter.

So it may not be 7 hours. And would only be cheap for the off peak circuit not everything. Can you clarify OP?

ZIgo123

Correct, we're not on E7. We have two meters (related meters). On is peak and the other is off peak.

CashStrapped

To clarify, on your bills are you charged at two rates?

ZIgo123

Yes, two rates.

CashStrapped

It sounds like to me the property has suffered the fate of a landlord not understanding how an E7 or E10 system is designed to operate.

Now you technically have the worst of both set-ups.

How have you coped during the day when your heat is mostly on at night?

---

An e7 or e10 set-up is designed to benifit from an off peak night rate. This must be combined with a type of electric heaters that store this off-peak energy. Only storage heaters fit this specification.

The storage heaters store the off-peak energy as heat inside dense bricks hidden inside. They then slowly release this heat the next day. With an E10 set-up you get a further window of cheap energy during the day where you can charge them more, or use an instant heat electric panel heater for that period.

----

The alternative method of heating an all electric property is to be on a competitive single rate tariff and use instant heat on demand heating such as panel heaters and underfloor electric heating. This will use the same rate of electricity whenever it is used, day or night.

The latter option is invariable more expensive overall. Although lifestyle, work hours can affect this.

---

In your situation, it seems like the landlord has kept the dual rate meters(E7 or E10) but ripped out the thing that benefits this set-up the most...the storage heaters!

It sounds like the underfloor heating only comes on when the E7/E10 circuit is activated.

So although you now have underfloor heating which uses a cheap rate, can only be used an an inappropriate time. Unless it has it's own timer unit, having this on for the full period of the cheap rate is probably very wasteful.

Storage heaters will not be on permanently during the cheap rate because they have internal thermostats that will turn it off depending on the input settings.

Your underfloor heating may just be on for the total cheap rate time.

---

Other than re-installing storage heaters, an option to consider is that you remove the E7/E10 dual meters and have a single rate installed.

This should mean the underfloor heating is now on a permanent live circuit. This will enable you to control exactly when it comes on and for how long (assuming you have separate controls for this).

Carrot007

ZIgo123 wrote: »

Correct, we're not on E7. We have two meters (related meters). On is peak and the other is off peak.

Then unfortunatly you have zero chance of getting info from your supplier who likely has no one that has heard of the setup.

If you knew your off peak SSC (notes the meter setup details), I do have a spreadsheet of liekly timings but they are not 100%. And I doubt you do as they never put these on bills anyway. And all that would tell you is the number of hours you get anyway. There are 12 hour ones (and 8 and 14.5, 15.5 and variable (in scotland I believe)) so you may be right there.

However off peak is really not suitable for underfloow heating as underfloor heating is a it's on when it's on heating and you want it on in the day when you are cold. It fact having it on all night seems wastefull and liekly why your bill is high. Do you have storage heaters also? What heating do you use during the day? Something else or the underfloor on a different curcuit.

Sounds like a bodge and the landlord probably knows it but will not want to pay to get it fixed.

Carrot007

CashStrapped wrote: »

It sounds like to me the property has suffered the fate of a landlord not understanding how an E7 or E10 system is designed to operate.

As above it is two meters so not E7, E10 etc.

So even worse than you suggest and more expensive to fix!

CashStrapped

It depends if the OP is describing what they mean by "two meters" correctly. It still sounds like some sort of E10/complex metering set-up, which the landlord has butchered.

Getting a single rate meter installed should not be any more of an issue.

As long as you make your landlord aware, this is something a tenant does have the right to request. If you explain that this could make your bills a lot cheaper, they may be willing to give the go-ahead.