Huge electricity bill/consumption

Peter1988

Hi,


I have a bit of a problem in that my electricity bill seems to be ridiculously high and is growing further!


I live in a 3 bed semi detached property which only has electric fuel. As such we have 2 storage heaters and 2 'on demand' electric radiators downstairs which at the moment are on for a large portion of the day set at 21/22 degrees celsius. The house is not warm at all. It was actually warmer when we just had a plug in oil radiator going all day long in the lounge. People who visit frequently comment on how cold it feels.



There are also smaller on demand electric radiators in the bedrooms which are programmed to come on for 2 hours each night and 1 hour in the morning during these colder months. The hot water is provided by a mains pressure cylinder and that is on all of the time.



The house is still freezing cold - the storage heaters are rubbish but they are Dimplex and were expensive so we thought they would be the best choice.



Consumption in January alone was nearly 2000KwH daytime and 624 KwH night time. This results in a bill for January of £445.95 and we're on Economy 7!


I do work from home predominantly, but this is just me in a small, single room with a laptop, monitor, heater and small lamp.



I just dont understand how we can be consuming so much when the house is not warm, we're reasonably conscious of electricity usage in terms of not leaving things on unecessarily etc.


I dont want to pay more money to either get EDF out and them charge me for a meter check, have an electrician check the electrics over or just the heaters etc. but im at a bit of a crossroads with what to do. We've spent alot of money on the house in the last year or so, so i dont want to be wasting more on tradesmen unless necessary.



What is strange though is alot of this was changed as a result of our extension. The old water cyclinder had 2 connections, both switches have a red light indicating being on or not. The water just used to heat up during the Economy 7 hours. After this, that light would not be on and therefore dont believe there was any power going to it. This was even though the switch was permenantly in the on position. The 2nd switch was for the 2nd immersion if we ran out of hot water and it would then heat up and 20 mins later we have hot water. I dont know how the Economy 7 actually works in when it knows when to come on etc. but that in itself just doesnt sound right whereas how it used to be, does sound right if that makes sense.


Since the extension, the house has increased in size b yabout 48%, but the Electric bill is way over twice what it used to be. Appreciate this isnt the clearest of posts, but any guidance would be appreciated!


Could it be possible that we also have power constantly feeding into the storage heaters during the day too? Should i be turning off the water cylinder power supply during daytime hours? I understood with the modern cylinders it was more efficient to keep water to temperature all of the time, rather than do an entire reboil so to speak.


These are our consumption figures -

https://imgur.com/a/cso9ySs


Thanks

PeterGr

On Economy 7 your storage heaters and water heater should be on for the 7 hours at night. The supplies are switched by the energy supplier so they should not be using peak rate electricity. Your January figures show only 25% being used off-peak which is too low. You need to work out how your storage heaters and water heaters are operating, and get that peak rate consumption down.

PeterGr

I hope that you have also confirmed that the Day and Night rates on your meter are the correct way around. It would be not be unreasonable for your Night readings to be your Day comsumption.

mmmmikey

Hi


With economy 7 you pay less for night rate electricity and more for day rate electricty. Your basic problem is that most of your use is during the day, making this a bad tarriff for your system. However, there is no benefit in having storage heaters unless you are using cheap night rate electricity.


If you want to stick with electricity you need to do one of two things:


1. Swap the various panel heaters for night storage heaters and stick with economy 7. I know you've had bad experience with your existing storage heaters but that's probably either because they're not set correctly or because they're not properly sized. This might cost somewhere in the region of £2,000 or £3,000 to do but may well knock 30% to 40% off your bills and pay for themselves in a few years.



2. Ditch the storage heaters and replace them with panel heaters and change to a non economy 7 tarriff. This would only cost £100 or £200 or so to do (you don't need expensive panel heaters) but would save less - maybe 10% to 15%


I would emphasise that these figures are very rough ranging shots only to give you some kind of indication - there are many things that could make these higher or lower.


One thing you can do straight away is to make sure you heat your water overnight as you'll see an instant saving doing that.


Having said all the above, the size of your house is such that gas central heating may be a better option, but that might cost £4000 or £5000 to halve your bills, and that only works if gas is available.


Hope this helps