Storage Heater Question

Curiousgirl1

I would be very concerned that your parents are paying standard prices for an off peak meter. The bill will be astronomical in the winter when the storage heaters are on. It may be worth getting an Economy 7 meter installed instead. Failing that, change supplier to one that will give an off peak tariff for an off peak meter 

hydratoad

The entire circuit the storage heaters are on should only power up when the timer switch next to the meter is on the (hopefully) off-peak rate.

If they had hot water over the summer and the off-peak meter did not measure anything with the RCD for the heaters turned off, this suggest that either the water heater is not on this circuit (which would be a negative) or they used the "boost" heat function all summer to maintain hot water (also a negative).

Regarding it being expensive, it is also possible that they have been placed on a single-rate tariff where the meter timer switch still turns on and off their heaters automatically but they pay a uniform rate for all power. This happened to me previously with E.ON when they refused to support my meter.

For people with storage heaters (especially as many as three) single rate tariffs can be detrimental. Ofgem estimate that most people with dual-rate circuits use 58% peak, 42% off peak.

As an example, in my region the standard variable dual-rate tariff from EDF from October is 24.94p/kWh peak and 11.47p/kWh off-peak this averages out to 19.28p/kWh for someone with the typical usage split. The standard varibale (capped) single-rate tariff will be 20.87p/kWh. For the "typical" user, of 4200 kWh, thats would be additional cost of £66.78/year more for being on the wrong type of tariff, despite both being at the October "cap". And the more energy you use, and the more of it that should be charged at off-peak, the bigger the excess charge.

Personally, I actually use about 45% peak and 55% off-peak which exacerbated the single-rate issue for me (and made me move to EDF who did support my meter) - though I only use about 2700 kWh/year (and only have one storage heater).

Ideally, you'd have some meter readings (or bills with accurate meter readings) from where you could get real world usage for them and then make your own estimates to identify where the power, and the money, is going.

Swipe

I have 8 storage heaters. My day time usage is approx 1300kWh (7%) and 19000kWh (93%) night time. EDF 2 year fix: 21p peak and 8.8p off peak.

Robin9

Swipe said:

 EDF 2 year fix: 21p peak and 8.8p off peak.

I don't see the point in quoting a tariff which you can't get now.  

I hope the OP can confirm what tariff the parents are on - I suspect one the old Comfort tariffs with separate heating meters and afternoon boosts which are not comparable with your E7

hydratoad

Swipe said:

I have 8 storage heaters. My day time usage is approx 1300kWh (7%) and 19000kWh (93%) night time. EDF 2 year fix: 21p peak and 8.8p off peak.

Since our day usage is the about the same, if we split the difference and assume a storage heater uses about 2000/kWh annually, for the 3 heaters that would give an estimated 18% peak and an effective surcharge of around £500 for being on a single rate tariff.

Back of the envelope calculations assuming 1300 kWh peak, 6000 kWh off-peak (3x 2000 kWh).