Using 4x The average electric consumption with 0 heating for 4 years.

Gerry1

You're not comparing like with like.  Presumably you are referring to the Ofgem high usage figure of 4,300kWh but this is for Profile Class 1, people who have gas or some other fuel for heating.  They are likely to be using 17,000kWh of gas as well.

For a property without gas (Profile Class 2) the Ofgem 'High' usage figure is 7,100kWh.  But with four occupants and working from home your usage isn't crazy, it's probably about right.

What you are doing seriously wrong is not fixing the NSHs.  They are usually cheaply and easily repaired, just a new element, fusible link or even just pushing a reset button.  Call in your local friendly electrician.

If you're still on E7 but using plug-in heating at daytime rates then that makes matters even worse.  Get the NSHs working on E7, make sure the immersion heater is only using E7 and you'll soon see the bills go down.  Do come back and tell us how you got on !

QrizB

clerytheAnt said:

We live in a very very small 2 bed flat. 1 of the bedrooms is just barely large enough to legally be called a bedroom.
We originally had 3 storage heaters when we moved in but 2 of them stopped working and the 3rd the 'buttons' to turn it on locked up and it also stopped working (this was about 3-4 years ago).

We have 1 Aircon unit which we use again on very hot days but not often.
With all that said our yearly consumption is around 8000-8600kwH/year.

You've got a lot of great advice already.

Unless you need huge amounts of hot water and/or a tiny tank, set the immersion heater to only heat up on E7. It's roughly half the price of daytime electricity.

As Gerry1 says, 8000kWh/year isn't a massive amount for an all-electric property. It is however quite high for a 2-bed flat.

If you can get your storage heaters fixed they will let you heat your flat on E7 too.

Your aircon unit, is it portable unit or is a mini split (permanently fitted, with an indoor and an outdoor part, like this)? If the latter, does it offer heating too? This could be a cheaper way of getting additional heat in your flat. Either sort of aircon will normally offer dehumidifying too, which will help wirh the damp and mould.

theoretica

Gerry1 said:

What you are doing seriously wrong is not fixing the NSHs.  They are usually cheaply and easily repaired, just a new element, fusible link or even just pushing a reset button.  Call in your local friendly electrician.

Unless they are seriously old and contain asbestos in which case you really don't want them disassembled in your house.  But attention to the controls may be OK and not disturb the asbestos.  If you have the make and model there is a handy list linked to here https://www.armco.org.uk/asbestos-survey-news/storage-heaters-that-contain-asbestos/

Rivers_mum

We had an immersion heater and storage heaters for years, not sure of how much electricity we used but without a doubt if the immersion heater was left on all the time it ate electricity. We had it on at night to use cheap rate elec and for 15-20 mins in the evening before baths or showers. It was massively insulated so kept the heat in. 

I agree about seeing if you can get the storage heaters working which should help with the damp but you must make sure whether you’re on an E7 tariff or not. 

doodling

Hi,

Rivers_mum said:

We had an immersion heater and storage heaters for years, not sure of how much electricity we used but without a doubt if the immersion heater was left on all the time it ate electricity. We had it on at night to use cheap rate elec and for 15-20 mins in the evening before baths or showers. It was massively insulated so kept the heat in. 

I agree about seeing if you can get the storage heaters working which should help with the damp but you must make sure whether you’re on an E7 tariff or not. 

As I said before, with a properly insulated hot water cylinder (note that not all are!) there shouldn't be much difference in consumption between leaving the immersion heater on all the time and just turning it on when you need it as the heat loss should be minimal.

If you are on economy 7 then whilst there shouldn't be much difference in consumption if you leave it on all the time there will be a massive difference in cost as it will heat the water when it gets cold which will probably be at a different time to when the E7 cheap rate is. If you are on E7 then you need to avoid turning the immersion heater on at any time other than when you are on the E7 cheap rate. If you have E7 there should be a timed switching arrangement to help you do this, either controlled directly by the meter/timeswitch or by a separate timer (which you need to keep in sync with the meter/timeswitch).

wild666

clerytheAnt said:

I'm aware this post will be slightly 'guess-work' as I know 2 houses aren't the same and obviously nobody could really know the actual cause of whats going on here i'm hoping someone can maybe just throw some ideas to point me in the direction though in honesty I doubt anyone can help me or even wants to because why would you? We have never had help from anyone, even my own dad disowned me and hasn't even met my son. Never took handouts, never been offered any... Always worked... Never achieved much... But I digress anyway... To the issue at hand...

We bought our first home 4-5 years ago. The person before was an old fella who clearly done alot of DIY including the kitchen, bathroom and electrics (Spot lights etc).
In the living room we have 8 spot lights. These 'blow' and have to be changed id say a few times a year its fairly often.

We live ina very very small 2 bed flat. 1 of the bedrooms is just barely large enough to legally be called a bedroom.
We originally had 3 storage heaters when we moved in but 2 of them stopped working and the 3rd the 'buttons' to turn it on locked up and it also stopped working (this was about 3-4 years ago).

Since then we have had no heating although we do have a plug in electric radiator which we use on occasion but really only when the cold gets too much, we usually try to use blankets.

I work from home and my computer is on all day. Its fairly high powered (a gaming computer) so electric for this is likely higher than the average laptop.
Aside this we have 1 TV in the house. We use a henry hoover. We have an immersion heater which is left on 24/7 (We worked out this is cheaper than having it heat up 2-3 times a day). We have an electric oven with electric hobs. No gas in the flat.
We have 1 fridge (which is next to the oven...)

We have 1 Aircon unit which we use again on very hot days but not often.

With all that said our yearly consumption is around 8000-8600kwH/year.

I'm told that even a 3-4bedroom house with 4 grown adults who is considered a 'High energy user' will use roughly 4000/KwH/year.

So how on EARTH are we using SOOOO Much?! I have been on the phone to ovo for many many hours who refuse to acknowledge that there is even an issue.
I have called in electricians who have lit just looked at the meter, put their little metal prongs on it and then left saying it all looks fine (and charged me £80 for the pleasure).
We had a smart meter put in which tells us nothing really. Except that we sometimes wake up first thing in the morning and already £2-£3 worth of electric has been used? Somehow?
I've tried to monitor the meter for a while and it seems to go up by the amount they claim we are using?
This is literary ruining my life, nobody gives a crap, nobody wants to help, nobody wants to advise and i'm just at my wits end. It's making me depressed.
I want to get heating but i don't dare because as soon as we do god knows what our electric bill will be then!

On Ovo they have this chart which shows what is using what electric. I don't know how they determine it but it goes like this:
For this month:
Heating - £0 - 0/kwh
Idle(fridge etc) - £? - ?/Kwh
Appliances - £? - ?/Kwh
Entertainment - £? - ?/Kwh

And then it has another category called 'Other' Which is always higher than everything else. Ovo say they don't know what this is or where it came from or what it could be?

Anyone got any idea of what this could be, or what i can do or give me just anything... I'm losing the will to live. I wish i had neve bought my own place. I should of just either rented or quit my job and begged for a council house like everyone else round here seems to do.

Aside this we have 2 kids a boy and girl with what can only be described as a broom closet for them to share, No heating, Mould all over the place, Damp all over the place. We all have breathing issues and skin problems but apparently we ern soo much money that we are entitled to nothing and no help in anything. Though equally we are told we earn to little to get enough money to actually get a mortgage for a house or even another flat and that our flat is practically worthless and trash.

IF someone can please at the LEAST help me with this energy crisis you might just save a life.
Im currently training to become a salesforce developer which I hope in 2 years will save me from this cesspit of a life I have landed in. Though in honestly I dunno if I will survive 2 years in this crap-hole. If someone can AT LEAST help me with the energy bill that nobody cares about that might just about be enough to get me through the next 2 years of my miserable life.

Many thanks
Ant

Turn off every item that is in standby except the fridge and freezer, even the cooker and microwave. According an article in one paper you can even turn off the router at night when it's not in use. Personally by doing the same I will be cutting the kWh used from 2100 down to around 1300 kWh over 12 months. 

Cookers, kettles, microwave oven, washer, dryer, shower light, TV, video, games console, stereo, surround sound system, even lights can be turned off as the light from a PC monitor screen gives off enough light to use it without external lighting. 

Using a flask to fill with a hot drink can save more as the larger the flask the more drinks it serves. 

Armengar

that is a huge amount. We have a large 5 bedroom old house, insulated walls and roof but very old double glazed windows.  4 children with a washing machine and tumble dryer on daily.   Two fridges, at least 4 tvs and computers running.  Gas central heating and boiler, many showers per day!  We use 5.5k electricity and 14k gas per year.  At a rough  5 to 1 ratio of gas to electricity rates we are similar in consumption of energy to you.

We do have deadswitches for our standby tvs and consoles etc. All lights are LED and our washing machine and dryer are newer. We use a gas cooker a lot and have the thermostat set to 20.

Verdigris

As I said before, with a properly insulated hot water cylinder (note that not all are!) there shouldn't be much difference in consumption between leaving the immersion heater on all the time and just turning it on when you need it as the heat loss should be minimal.

I wouldn't be so sure about that, even foam lagged cylinders lose quite a bit of heat. Why is the airing cupboard warm, otherwise?

I surprised/shocked, some years ago, to find that in the summer months, when the heating was off, it was still costing me about £20/month for the "luxury" of constant hot water. I then did some measurements to see how long, and how much gas it took, to heat a tank of water from cold. From then on I just put the boiler on for 6 minutes to get enough water for a shower or a minute or so longer if I was going to do the washing up, as well.

That cut my summer gas bills by more than half. The same principle applies to immersion heaters, although I do acknowledge this sort of tactic is easier to employ in a single person household.

QrizB

Verdigris said:

As I said before, with a properly insulated hot water cylinder (note that not all are!) there shouldn't be much difference in consumption between leaving the immersion heater on all the time and just turning it on when you need it as the heat loss should be minimal.

I wouldn't be so sure about that, even foam lagged cylinders lose quite a bit of heat. Why is the airing cupboard warm, otherwise?

A quick search on Google suggests standing heat loss from a modern cylinder in the range 50-80W, ie. around 1-2kWh/day. Not a huge amount but it all adds up, particularly if you're paying E7 daytime rates not nighttime ones.

Verdigris

QrizB said:

Verdigris said:

As I said before, with a properly insulated hot water cylinder (note that not all are!) there shouldn't be much difference in consumption between leaving the immersion heater on all the time and just turning it on when you need it as the heat loss should be minimal.

I wouldn't be so sure about that, even foam lagged cylinders lose quite a bit of heat. Why is the airing cupboard warm, otherwise?

A quick search on Google suggests standing heat loss from a modern cylinder in the range 50-80W, ie. around 1-2kWh/day. Not a huge amount but it all adds up, particularly if you're paying E7 daytime rates not nighttime ones.

The size of the cylinder will have an effect, too. The smaller the cylinder, the greater the proportion of surface area to volume and the greater the heat loss.

In my case, the cylinder is very small, only 80 litres IIRC, because it is integral to the boiler. However, I suspect the cylinder in the OP is pretty small, to serve a small flat, so may have disproportionately large heat loss, particularly if not factory lagged. Even a factory foam lagged cylinder would benefit from an extra jacket.