Help with my bill

MARKMAKAVELI

I think that's what I've been doing when I do 'overnight storage'.
Whatever the default is (presumably 7 hours night time charge) is what i've been getting.

Is there a way of working out how much this would be?

EssexHebridean

If it helps we have a similar set up to you in terms of water and heating, but we cook on gas. I currently have two storage heaters running, a more modern controllable (but smaller one) in the centre hallway of the flat set to 23 degrees, and a larger but older one in the front room - that is set to about half way round the input dial at the moment. we heat water overnight, pretty much  never use the boost setting on the immersion. Also use washing machine & dishwasher overnight pretty much always, and try to make sure showers are always first thing in the morning before the meter clicks over (our currently goes across to the day rate at approaching 0715.) I'm hitting costs of between £2.50 - £3.25 a day at the moment - the highest of those being yesterday when we ran additional heating for several hours last evening, and the lowest end being on a day when we were both out throughout the day, and neither the WM nor the DW ran. Our overall annual usage is around 5800kwa split roughly 30% day/70% night - that's above the average for night use. 

Best bit of advice I can give you is really read into exactly how the storage heaters work and how best to set them up for your needs - that makes SUCH a difference. Also get into the habit of checking the weather for the following day each evening - this helps to know what tweaks you might need to do to the heater settings. They CAN be very good, and not as pricey to run as people tend to tell you, but they're quite "attention hungry". They are the cheapest heating you're going to get for your situation though - anything else is going to cost more. 

[Deleted User]

MARKMAKAVELI said:

Is there a way of working out how much this would be?

Hi,

yes, read meter at night, read again in morning, deduct night reading from morning reading, multiply by your unit rate, allow a few pence for fridge/ freezer, anything on standby, charge.

Here's a wee VIDEO give you an idea of the heater workings.

MARKMAKAVELI

So I got my answer. A whopping £140 for 25 days, using only the overnight heating everynight. I somehow thought this might work out cheaper but I was very wrong. I only have 2 heaters, a larger one in the living room and a small one in the bedroom. Max input on both, minimum output throughout the day. I'm in a small 1.5 bed flat!

I'm seriously considering just buying a small plug in heater and using it accordingly. :'( I really don't understand all this.

Robin9

@MARKMAKAVELI     Is there a year  date on your meter or on  card next  to it?
It is looking like the night has gone around the clock.

Could you photo the meter please - once with the day display, secondly with the night

MWT

Robin9 said:

@MARKMAKAVELI     Is there a year  date on your meter or on  card next  to it?
It is looking like the night has gone around the clock.

Could you photo the meter please - once with the day display, secondly with the night

If you look back at the earlier posts you'll see that happened back in July, all was handled properly at the time.

Fairzo

It does seem high for the night reading. Does it need to be on max input or could you reduce that?

We have two Dimplex Duoheat (should be three but one awaiting repair) and a Dimplex Quantum. Duoheats are set at the midpoint for input. Night use for November was 1032 units, probably expect December to be 1300.

MWT

MARKMAKAVELI said:

So I got my answer. A whopping £140 for 25 days, using only the overnight heating everynight. I somehow thought this might work out cheaper but I was very wrong. I only have 2 heaters, a larger one in the living room and a small one in the bedroom. Max input on both, minimum output throughout the day. I'm in a small 1.5 bed flat!

I'm seriously considering just buying a small plug in heater and using it accordingly. :'( I really don't understand all this.

If we deduct the roughly 3kWh a night you were using in summer for water heating etc. then you are now using around 33kWh a night on the storage heaters.

If you change to using an electric heater on the day rates and turned off the storage heaters you'd have to use less than 20kWh at the day rate before it would be cheaper than what you are doing now due to the price difference between day and night.

Robin9

MWT said:

Robin9 said:

@MARKMAKAVELI     Is there a year  date on your meter or on  card next  to it?
It is looking like the night has gone around the clock.

Could you photo the meter please - once with the day display, secondly with the night

If you look back at the earlier posts you'll see that happened back in July, all was handled properly at the time.

I appreciate the copies of the bills -  1) I am trying to find out how old the meter is and hence an average annual consumption 2) indication of the night day L N 1 or 2  - perhaps they are interchanged.

74,000 day and over 100,000 suggests a very old meter

Gerry1

Have you done the meter sanity test?  If it's not inside your flat but in a communal cupboard or meter room then what you think is your meter might in reality be supplying someone else's flat or even all the heating and lighting for the communal areas of the block.

Gain access to the meter, preferably after dark and as late as possible, turn absolutely everything on especially the immersion heater, washing machine, tumble dryer, oven etc.  Find the meter with the serial number shown on your bill and look at the red LED marked '1000 Imp/kWh' or similar.  It should be flashing like crazy.  Then unplug all sensitive electronic equipment and switch everything off at the consumer unit.  Go back to the meter, watch the red LED like a hawk for at least five minutes and make sure it never flashes once.  Rinse and repeat if in any doubt.

Finally, do a rough and ready accuracy test by plugging in just one item of known high usage, a full 3kW kettle is ideal provided that you're quick enough to complete the test before it boils.  Count the number of flashes per minute and calculate the power being drawn.  For example, if the LED is marked '1000 Imp/kWh' then you'd expect to see about 50 flashes per minute.