HELP!! £400 pcm Electricity!

ChuggerChugger

Reed_Richards said:

If I have done the calculation correctly you were using about 39 kWh of electricity per night (i.e at the Night Rate Tariff) between 15th January and 29th March.  In a normal situation you could not possibly use more than 10 kWh on the immersion heater, that's probably an over-estimate.  So that leaves a minimum of  29 kWh.  The storage heater might charge at 2 kW so 14 kWh for a 7 hour economy period.  Perhaps your fridges and freezers are woefully inefficient and use 1 kW , so 7 kWh in total.  That leaves 8 kW hours for the underfloor heating, which would burn your feet in the morning.  The only explanation I can think of is that you have a really major hot water leak, equivalent to a hot tap left on, and so your immersion heater is on all the time overnight and used 21 kWh.     

I had a new timer installed on the immersion heater in February and the timer is set to come on for a total of two hours overnight (I have little need for hot water beyond hand washing as I have an electric shower and all washing up is done by the dishwasher once per week).
One fridge freezer is about 10 years old - the other is less than 2 years. I keep the underfloor heating turned off to save energy. I am more and more leaning towards the idea that the 40+ year old storage heaters are the issue and that even turned off at the wall there is some sort of error. Now that they have been turned off at the fuse board by the electrician, I am hoping I may see some improvement. In any event the electricity monitor has arrived today so I am hoping that will help me keep a closer eye on things.

ChuggerChugger

Gerry1 said:

Sounds like oil would be a better bet for you.  You may also need to consider that a property heated by daytime electricity will be a turn off for many potential buyers.

There is no plan to sell the property anytime soon but I understand what you are saying re marketability. I am guessing looking into having Gas central heating would be the ideal way to go but that the installation cost would be incredibly high.

molerat

If storage heaters are faulty and using too much energy you will know about it - you can smell the burning paint !  They can do that, the input stat welds itself shut so just keeps on heating up until the overheat stat cuts out but that only lasts one night as the overheat needs a manual reset.  If they are just "on" you would also know it as they get hot, they won't be using electricity with no noticeable heat output.

You really need to investigate what all the fuses and breakers do and what those 2 little fuse boxes link to.

Gerry1

If you can get mains gas then it's a simply a no brainer unless getting it laid on costs tens of £thousands..  It will soon pay for itself, especially with fossil fuel boilers being banned in new builds by 2025.

niktheguru

Gerry1 said:

If you can get mains gas then it's a simply a no brainer unless getting it laid on costs tens of £thousands..  It will soon pay for itself, especially with fossil fuel boilers being banned in new builds by 2025.

That and you are currently paying 5k a year in electric charges. It may actually be cheaper to plumb gas in!!!!!

Reed_Richards

ChuggerChugger said:

I am more and more leaning towards the idea that the 40+ year old storage heaters are the issue and that even turned off at the wall there is some sort of error. 

Electricity cannot vanish; it has to be converted into heat or light or motion, or it can move heat around as in a fridge or freezer.  Perhaps when your house was a police station it was given control over the street lights for your district and that is where your night time power goes?  But assuming your power really is used inside your house it pretty much has to be making something very hot.  If it was the storage heaters you ought to be able to tell quite easily, as @molerat states.  

ChuggerChugger

An exciting (what has my life become) update...
Following the visit of the electrician who turned off the storage heaters via the fuse board (as opposed to just at the wall) I installed the new Geo Energy Monitor.
I took a picture of the meter before bed and turned on the monitor. This morning I took a further picture of the meter and compared the reading with the data captured by the monitor. Both showed that 6 kwh had been used overnight on the Night Rate.

Firstly, I am pleased that the monitor and the meter seem to align. Secondly, given the analysis of the kind people in this forum, 6kwh seems to represent a vast reduction in overnight consumption.

Tallerdave

ChuggerChugger said:

An exciting (what has my life become) update...
Following the visit of the electrician who turned off the storage heaters via the fuse board (as opposed to just at the wall) I installed the new Geo Energy Monitor.
I took a picture of the meter before bed and turned on the monitor. This morning I took a further picture of the meter and compared the reading with the data captured by the monitor. Both showed that 6 kwh had been used overnight on the Night Rate.

Firstly, I am pleased that the monitor and the meter seem to align. Secondly, given the analysis of the kind people in this forum, 6kwh seems to represent a vast reduction in overnight consumption.

Welcome to geek-land!  Presumably the  6kWh overnight was the water heating?  You'll now be able to see instantaneously what your consumption is.  Apart from heating, what adds up is the consumption that's stubbornly there 24/7 - it's interesting to find the odd items like an old computer monitor that takes 15W in standby (I had two!).

[Deleted User]

ChuggerChugger said:

I am more and more leaning towards the idea that the 40+ year old storage heaters are the issue and that even turned off at the wall there is some sort of error. Now that they have been turned off at the fuse board by the electrician, I am hoping I may see some improvement.

Following the visit of the electrician who turned off the storage heaters via the fuse board (as opposed to just at the wall) I installed the new Geo Energy Monitor.

I took a picture of the meter before bed and turned on the monitor. This morning I took a further picture of the meter and compared the reading with the data captured by the monitor. Both showed that 6 kwh had been used overnight on the Night Rate.

Hi,

but if the heaters were still drawing power, when off at wall, did you not notice heat in them?

Reed_Richards

That's great news.  Typically immersion heaters use 3 kW so an immersion heater run for 2 hours would consume 6 kWh if the water in the tank did not reach temperature.  Actually your fridges and freezers will consume at least 1 kWh over 7 hours so it won't all be the immersion heater.
[Edited to correct units. More haste less speed in future]