Storage Heater Question

WobagUK

My folks house has big electricity bills, really big, but they are heavy users of electricity so its hard to see the forest for the trees if theres a problem.

They have a two meter setup, one for the night rate, which only has the RCD for storage heaters going to it, and then the day meter.

Anyway, all the heaters were low or down to zero going into summer, I thought I would do the trick of switching off all the storage heaters at the RCD, thinking it might save a 'few' pounds...

And it has slashed the usage, the night rate meter the showed no usage over the summer, and the regular meter dropped considerably.


Now Im prepared for some of the heaters to be inefficient (some are new, others old). However, I was of the understanding that storage heaters were supposed to take in pawer at night and release during the day, which begs the question, why did the day meter also drop a lot too?

Is the timing for overnight charging 'in' the storage heater, or are they 'always switched on' but only supposed to get power when the night meter kicks in?

I have a feeling all the storage heaters (when they arent off at the wall, or turned down to zero), are drawing power 24/7 and thats why the bills have been especially large.

Any help would be appreciated.

Swipe

How much did the day usage drop by? Could be just down to lower summer seasonailty usage. Did they top up their heating during the daytime during winter? Also, how is the water heated? Surely that should have still been using power when it comes on during the cheaper night rate?

dbks

WobagUK said:

My folks house has big electricity bills, really big, but they are heavy users of electricity so its hard to see the forest for the trees if theres a problem.

They have a two meter setup, one for the night rate, which only has the RCD for storage heaters going to it, and then the day meter.

Anyway, all the heaters were low or down to zero going into summer, I thought I would do the trick of switching off all the storage heaters at the RCD, thinking it might save a 'few' pounds...

And it has slashed the usage, the night rate meter the showed no usage over the summer, and the regular meter dropped considerably.


Now Im prepared for some of the heaters to be inefficient (some are new, others old). However, I was of the understanding that storage heaters were supposed to take in pawer at night and release during the day, which begs the question, why did the day meter also drop a lot too?

Is the timing for overnight charging 'in' the storage heater, or are they 'always switched on' but only supposed to get power when the night meter kicks in?

I have a feeling all the storage heaters (when they arent off at the wall, or turned down to zero), are drawing power 24/7 and thats why the bills have been especially large.

Any help would be appreciated.

2 meters, the night meter did not move., etc

This suggests your parents are not on a modern day. 2 rate tariff such as E7

It sounds more like an old metering system, with a 'heat' meter. (although they usually came with 3 registries from what I read). They offer cheaper rate electricity not only at night for specific purposes.

Having said that, I'm surprised anyone has their heating on in recent days.

WobagUK

Swipe said:

How much did the day usage drop by? Could be just down to lower summer seasonailty usage. Did they top up their heating during the daytime during winter? Also, how is the water heated? Surely that should have still been using power when it comes on during the cheaper night rate?

The water is heated by an immersion heater that is manually turned on and off in the morning.  Other devices like TVs are definitely on overnight, but the night reading was exactly the same over the 29 days I monitored from mid August. So only the Heater RCD must feed into it.

And when I put the RCD back on, but kept all the storage heaters off at the wall, there was also zero power usage, so nothing is feeling in that RCD other than the heaters.

Of course there would be some top up heating in the winter, and its hard to get exact readings historically between estimates on the bill and rare meter readers during lockdown.

Also for what its worth, the supplier Eon discontinued the cheap overnight tarrif, so we are are the same night rate as day, but still with two meters. However I dont think that caused a change in utilization, just the end bill.

WobagUK

This suggests your parents are not on a modern day. 2 rate tariff such as E7

It sounds more like an old metering system, with a 'heat' meter. (although they usually came with 3 registries from what I read). They offer cheaper rate electricity not only at night for specific purposes.

Having said that, I'm surprised anyone has their heating on in recent days.

Yes thats sounds like the setup.  I have just put one of the heaters on low to see if it moves the 'heat' meter 24/7 or whether it just kicks in at night.

If as you say it was intended as an all-the-time cheap rate heat-only meter, that brings me back to my original question.  If storage heaters are supposed to be on over night and 'store' the heat in ceramics to release during the day, how does the heater know how to do that, it doesnt have a timer.  So Im getting the feeling they have been run as always on devices since they were fitted (when they werent turned down during the summer)

Robin9

Could we have a photo of the metering and consumer units please. From the bill the name of the tariff.

dbks

WobagUK said:

This suggests your parents are not on a modern day. 2 rate tariff such as E7

It sounds more like an old metering system, with a 'heat' meter. (although they usually came with 3 registries from what I read). They offer cheaper rate electricity not only at night for specific purposes.

Having said that, I'm surprised anyone has their heating on in recent days.

Yes thats sounds like the setup.  I have just put one of the heaters on low to see if it moves the 'heat' meter 24/7 or whether it just kicks in at night.

If as you say it was intended as an all-the-time cheap rate heat-only meter, that brings me back to my original question.  If storage heaters are supposed to be on over night and 'store' the heat in ceramics to release during the day, how does the heater know how to do that, it doesnt have a timer.  So Im getting the feeling they have been run as always on devices since they were fitted (when they werent turned down during the summer)

I didn't say it was necessarily an "an all-the-time cheap rate" heat meter.
Some suppliers could control when the heat meter came on and off during the day.
Storage heaters don't care what time of day they receive power to them.

hydratoad

WobagUK said:

why did the day meter also drop a lot too?

It is likely just seasonal usage, as others have noted. Over the summer the ambient temperature is higher, so any electric water heating will be doing less work and for less time. Also, as the days are longer electric lights are typically used less.

[Deleted User]

WobagUK said:  If storage heaters are supposed to be on over night and 'store' the heat in ceramics to release during the day, how does the heater know how to do that, it doesnt have a timer.

Hi,

are you sure they are storage heaters?

Storage heaters normally have bricks inside them.

Can you stick up a photie please

WobagUK

frugalmacdugal said:

Can you stick up a photie please

Three of the heaters are as above, one as below

Robin9

There's the time switch in photo 1


and yes they are storage rads