Immersion heater help

loobysharp

Hi
I've just moved into a house with no gas supply so it has an immersion watet heater and panel heaters in each room.  Can anyone give me advice on how best to run/use these as I've never had one before. I live alone on an NHS wage so saving money is a huge deal to me.
Thank you in advance.

[Deleted User]

Best to post on one of the household boards, rather than credit files. 

MallyGirl

I will move the thread

Robin9

@loobysharp  You have potentially very high bills heading your way - on peak electricity for heating and water heating is not a good combination. 

Have you got any meter readings since you moved in and what is your tariff ?

Gerry1

Make sure you have registered with the existing supplier and sent an opening meter reading, otherwise you will be on a mega-expensive 'deemed contract'.

Unfortunately you have the worst possible set up, all electric and no storage heaters, so it will always be cripplingly expensive.  All you can do is to find a competitive tariff.  Start comparing with Citizens Advice and 'Which? Switch'.

The best solution would probably be to have an Economy 7 meter but on a tariff without exit fees, switching between single rate in the winter (to avoid paying expensive E7 daytime rates with the panel heaters) and E7 in the summer (to get the cheap E7 rates for the immersion heater).

In the summer you would need to make sure that the immersion heater only comes on during the cheap rate periods.  If there's only one immersion heater you'd need a 24h supply with a local timer so that you could use an expensive daytime boost if you run out during the day, e.g. because you have been away.  If there are two immersion heaters, the lower one should be on the E7 overnight circuit switched by the meter and the upper one should have a timer so that it can't be left permanently on.

Sadly the best solution is to move.  Sorry that's not the answer you wanted, but unfortunately that's the way it is.

JJ_Egan

( immersion watet heater )

Pointless putting that on just to wash a few dishes .

tacpot12

JJ_Egan said:

( immersion water heater )

Pointless putting that on just to wash a few dishes .

You haven't said whether this is a house you are renting, in which case you should give notice as soon as you can to move out, or if you own it. If you own it, you could look at installing an instantaneous water heater under the kitchen sink. This would heat water for washing only when required. Realistically though, you would be better paying any money you have towards a better heating system. Insulation and thermal mass should be your first priority - you need to insulate the walls so that any heat you put into the property stays in, but you also need some thermal mass inside the house to absorb the heat an release if over long period (>24 hours). You might find some government assistance for installing insulation.

jbuchanangb

Perhaps if you tell us the make and model of the panel heaters we can give some specific advice. In general, turn them off except when you need heat in the room. I once helped a friend who had a large house with eight panel heaters. Each one of them had a built in timer, so that it could be programmed to operate at suitable times. The first thing I had to do was turn them on at the wall, and set the clocks right - yes all eight of them one by one, then set suitable programmes for each one and inculcate my friend NOT to turn them off at the wall switch, because that would screw the timers! Without a gas supply you could consider an Economy 7 tariff and storage heaters (thermal mass). It's possible that the house has been wired for storage heaters in the past, and someone took them out and put in panel heaters. Check that out.