Advice on huge electricity costs

rero71

Hi everyone,

my first post in the forum.

I thank in advance whoever will have time to read the whole post and advice.
It's a bit long but I tried to explain everything in order for you to know all the details and possibly advice, it would be much appreciated.

I live with my partner in a one bed house (2 floors) in North London (tenants).
No gas, only electricity.

When we entered the property at end 2019 there were 2 old storage heaters (both in the living room downstairs) and a hot water tank (3Kw/h, old model) that were dictating the main cost of electricity.

We found in the property a top up meter and when we entered, we switched from British Gas to Bulb, Economy7 tariff, 11p/night, 24p/day (British Gas was more expensive).
- (I am aware Bulb now entered special administration) -

We were spending around £5/6 a day in the winter which I thought was a lot, coming from a flat sharing with heaters and hot water with gas when the costs, even though the flat was for 5/6 people, were almost half.

So a few months ago, as the storage heaters weren't keeping warm until evening/night, our landlady changed the storage heaters with new oil heaters.
Elnur RD12w, 1.5kW/h. We are still on Economy7 and top up meter (but read below please) - we do top up with the key at the post office at the moment.


Since the cold days arrived, we are keeping more and more the heaters on, realising now that we are spending a fortune daily.
I have to set the heaters to 26 celsius degrees otherwise they are not enough.

I keep one oil heater on from 7am to 10pm and the other one on and off during the day depending how the temperature changes.
Reason for this is, I work from the living room and my ideal temperature is around 19/20 degrees.
Probably due to the house not being 100% well insulated, if I turn both heaters off, in a matter of an hour, the temperature drops down immediately to 15/16, which for me is really cold.

I asked Bulb to switch from Economy7 tariff to normal tariff and they said they'd need a document from the electrician stating the 5th terminal was disabled and storage heaters were removed. So the builder who changed the heaters didn't remove the 5th terminal but yesterday an electrician came and disabled the 5th terminal so since yesterday we have only one tariff (I guess is the day 24p/kW). I must say our landlady is really helpful as always listens to what I tell her about the house and issues etc. and sends people when needed.
Since yesterday our hot water tank won't turn on in the night anymore but we will have to turn it on manually.

I am waiting to receive the document from the electrician and send it to Bulb in order for them to replace the old top up meter with the smart meter (only way for them to switch tariff) and also going to a fixed tariff of 20p/kW.

It will be a tiny bit cheaper (from 24p/kW) but I am still realising that due to how this house is, monthly costs will still be huge.

From what I understand these are the reasons:
- electricity is more expensive than gas
- electric heaters are expensive
- house is not superbly insulated

When I talk to friends and ask them how much they pay for 1 or 2 bed houses/flats I have never heard someone saying an amount similar to ours.
I see tons of people keeping heaters on for the whole day, having always hot water and never mentioning a cost more than 150/200.
Some of them even say maximum they paid was £110/month in the winter.

So I am realising that even keeping just one heater on from 7am to 10pm and using hot water tank, kettle, lights, computers, kitchen, etc. we are spending from £8 to £12 a day. It's about £300/month which for me is insane. 

I hope to have given all the details and that someone will be able to advice
Many thanks in advance

(forgive the anonimity for now)

MWT

The key mistake was removing the night storage heaters and replacing them with oil-filled radiators.

That was a cheap move by your landlord and an expensive one for you.

Now you are not only paying more for your heating, you've increased the cost of water heating by removing the E7 night rate.

Not wishing to be unkind, but it is hard to think of a worse way to have changed what you had before...

There really isn't much you can do to make this better other than ask the landlord to put new night storage heaters in and return to E7, but they are unlikely to want to do that as the oil-filled radiators probably only cost them about £75 each if that and replacing the night-storage heaters with properly sized units is going to be lot more expensive, along with the costs of reinstating the E7 electrical circuit.

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.

Sadly you've been very, very badly let down by both your landlady and Bulb.  There's nothing special about electric heaters filled with magic dust or snake oil.  They will cost the same to run as a £20 fan heater or convector from Argos.  Nothing else is more expensive.

Don't allow the storage heaters to be removed.  Go back to using them (and the immersion heater) on E7, topping up the room heating if necessary with something else when the weather is really cold.

Ideally your cheapskate landlady should have installed Dimplex Quantum or similar high heat retention NSHs, appropriately dimensioned, but she's probably been bamboozled by a slick salesman or website.  See the tales of woe on the Fischer (Non-)Storage heaters thread.

Bulb have been a pain.  They no longer offer single rate when you have an E7 meter, but many other companies do.  By insisting that the NSHs were disconnected and removed, Bulb's bad advice will be costing you a fortune.  They should have said that they didn't offer single rate but that other companies do.  Cancel the smart meter because that will probably not be 5-terminal and will stop you using storage heaters on E7.  If the NSHs have gone I think that you can switch to single rate with EDF without a meter change.  They will accept you on the SVT, but only if you phone.

I'd make a formal complaint to Bulb, and consider moving to a property with GCH.

QrizB

MWT said:

There really isn't much you can do to make this better other than ask the landlord to put new night storage heaters in and return to E7, but they are unlikely to want to do that as the oil-filled radiators probably only cost them about £75 each if that and replacing the night-storage heaters with properly sized units is going to be lot more expensive ...

I've only checked one supplier but the Elnur RD12W at £455 is actually more expensive to buy than the Elnur ECOSSH208 storage heater at £410. (Admittedly they might not be directly equivalent.)

I'm wondering whether then landlady was very badly advised by her electrician?

MWT

QrizB said:

I've only checked one supplier but the Elnur RD12W at £455 is actually more expensive to buy than the Elnur ECOSSH208 storage heater at £410. (Admittedly they might not be directly equivalent.)

I'm wondering whether then landlady was very badly advised by her electrician?

That is shocking, not only a terrible choice but extortionate for what they are.

May have needed to go a little larger to get enough heat output but even so it would have been the right choice.

Does sound like some bad advice has been given.

jimjames

Gerry1 said:

Ideally your cheapskate landlady should have installed Dimplex Quantum or similar high heat retention NSHs, appropriately dimensioned, but she's probably been bamboozled by a slick salesman or website.  See the tales of woe on the Fischer (Non-)Storage heaters thread.

As I read it the landlady has done what was requested, it might have been a bad move but it sounds like it wasn't instigated by her. That doesn't fix the problem but if you've been asked to change the heaters and having done that, are asked to change them back again I can imagine that wouldn't be well received although it sounds like what is needed as per your suggestion.

rero71

Thanks a lot to everyone for the replies, massively appreciated.

When we agreed to change storage heaters, what I thought was indeed to have new storage heaters.
As I knew that new models keep the heat up to night so our main problem would have been solved.
(main issue was that from 7pm old storage heaters were basically cold, 35yo models they were!).

I was a bit surprised when I saw her trusty builder coming with 2 oil filled radiators.
This wasn't decided by me and I don't know if he too got advised by someone else.
I'm sure he didn't do it with bad intentions.

I didn't even know any of this stuff at the time so I only knew oil filled weren't storage heaters.

And the huge monthly cost is something I am experiencing since a few weeks due to winter weather.

I have 2 questions: considering I try and have a word with her explaining the situation (possibly let her read this thread), is there a chance she can sell these Elnur oil filled heaters? Is there a market for used heaters with no box etc. ?
Basically if we spend £300 a month instead of £150 or less, I could pay for both new storage heaters in one year.
And this every year... so I think it's well worth it?

If by any chance she agrees to replace them with new storage heaters, can I stay with Bulb and have an electrician to re-connect the 5th terminal to have again Economy7 tariff?

So from what I generally understand, if a house doesn't have gas, the cheapest option for heating the house is still to have storage heaters in 2021 right?

Many thanks,

Gerry1

Is there no gas in the area?  Seems strange for North London.  Although the landlady might not be keen on the costs of installing GCH, but it would add value to her property and make it easier to let or sell.

Oil is cheaper to run than electricity, but the capital expense would still be a big problem, and deliveries might be awkward.

Correctly dimensioned modern HHR NSHs on E7 is probably the least worst practical solution if moving is unrealistic.  Ideally each heater needs two supplies, E7 and 24h.  A single 24h circuit can be used with some HHR NSHs but great care needs to be taken to make sure the programming matches your meter's actual E7 times, not what someone thinks the times are.

QrizB

rero71 said:

I have 2 questions: considering I try and have a word with her explaining the situation (possibly let her read this thread), is there a chance she can sell these Elnur oil filled heaters? Is there a market for used heaters with no box etc. ?
Basically if we spend £300 a month instead of £150 or less, I could pay for both new storage heaters in one year.
And this every year... so I think it's well worth it?
If by any chance she agrees to replace them with new storage heaters, can I stay with Bulb and have an electrician to re-connect the 5th terminal to have again Economy7 tariff?
So from what I generally understand, if a house doesn't have gas, the cheapest option for heating the house is still to have storage heaters in 2021 right?

You say she's quite reasonable so yes, an honest and up-front conversation is a good place to start.

I'm not sure about the market for nearly-new wall-hung oil-filled heaters, even fancy ones like those. You might get £100 each on one of the popular auction or small ads sites, or you might not.

As Gerry1 says, fitting new storage heaters and reinstating E7 is the "least worst" option for a rented all-electric property. If you owned it I might have suggested a heat pump but that's a big capital outlay (thousands) that will only pay back after 7-10 years.

Fred2712

Have you got an immersion heater for your hot water ? 

If so this will use a lot of electric if left on all day, much cheaper to turn on for 1/2 hour or 1 hour a day when you want it, for example.

markin

If she said no or got fussy over it you would break even on them in 12 month if you had to buy them yourself, And i would also buy a £30 oil heater for under your work desk as a boost if needed on really cold weeks.

*based on £12 a day back to £6 a day, and if you move take them with you.