Switched off electric heating

mrsyardbroom

I'm just wondering, has anyone else switched off their electric heating? I've turned off all all storage and other heaters as I can't possibly afford to turn them on. In the mornings I light  a small camping heater for about an hour and in the afternoons I light the multifuel stove. The electric heating was paid for by the government and was installed just before Christmas. I was delighted to finally have a clean and easy heat source that kept the house warm all the time. Now I'm having to find old bits of wood and cut them up with a chainsaw. It's a filthy dirty job and I hate it. I do buy a few small bags of smokless fuel but these are expensive too. I'm nearly 74 and thought I'd earned a bit of a rest from this struggle. Sorry for the moan but I've spent most of of my life wanting a clean and easy heating system and just as I get it it's snatched away from me.

Mstty

This is heartbreaking. Not the first time I have heard of pensioners not able to afford heat.

I wonder if you have considered an electric blanket throw for when sat down they are very energy efficient and even if you had it on 24 hours a day it might only be 60-70p per day.

mrsyardbroom

Thank you yes, I'll look into them.

QrizB

mrsyardbroom said:

I'm just wondering, has anyone else switched off their electric heating? I've turned off all all storage and other heaters as I can't possibly afford to turn them on ... The electric heating was paid for by the government and was installed just before Christmas. I was delighted to finally have a clean and easy heat source that kept the house warm all the time.

I'm please that you got your storage heaters in the end, since last year (despite the best efforts of the forum to persuade you otherwise) you were going to buy conventional electric heaters instead:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/78150628/#Comment_78150628

I don't know which energy supplier you're with but EDF have relatively keen E7 prices at present - 17.83p/kWh for DD payment on their cheap rate for the south-west, 14.96p if pre-pay - and are taking switches if you phone them.

For what it's worth, I've turned off my heating too. Not specifically because of the expense but because it's April and warm(ish) and I don't need it anymore.

Edit:

mrsyardbroom said:

II'm nearly 74 and thought I'd earned a bit of a rest from this struggle.

My mum's 75 (nearly 76) and lives in Cornwall, much like you do. Until last year she was cutting wood and shovelling coal to stoke a Rayburn for heat and hot water, but then she moved to a nice double-glazed terraced house in Redruth with mains gas and doesn't have to put up with all that any more.

Perhaps you could consider something similar?

Gerry1

Apologies for the silly questions, but are you absolutely sure you are using your NSHs correctly?  Misunderstandings and incorrect setting / tariffs, clocks etc can be expensive and easy to overlook.

• Do all the new NSHs have both E7 and 24h circuits?  If not, they have to be slaved to your meter's E7 hours, and the installer won't have been able to check the times unless he was there around midnight.  The only way to be certain is to watch your meter switching over and then to program the NSHs accordingly.  The installer may well have left them on inappropriate factory defaults.
  
• Are they programmed to top up using the convectors?  Expensive mistake because daytime E7 is even more expensive than single rate.
• Are your bills all based on actual meter readings?  If not they may well be inaccurate.
• What is your E7 night usage percentage?
• What are your day and night kWh rates?

Your small bags of smokeless fuel probably work out far more expensive than E7, ditto the camping heater.  Bit like showing with Perrier water rather than turning on the tap !

mrsyardbroom

I was with EDF before but they insisted I had to cut my payments in the summer and then increase them a lot in the winter. I'm with Bulb and they let me control my monthly payments.I found them much cheaper, easier to deal with and more forgiving with the payments. I was going to buy heaters last year until I finally got a grant for free storage heaters downstairs with electric heaters upstairs. They don't install storage heaters upstairs so you still have to pay for an ordinary electric fire. We have a high speed gas main running past our village but they won't supply the village with mains gas. I bought a mini chainsaw to cut the wood which is easier than using a saw. It's not so good for the planet but there's plenty of free wood about.

mrsyardbroom

Gerry1 said:

Apologies for the silly questions, but are you absolutely sure you are using your NSHs correctly?  Misunderstandings and incorrect setting / tariffs, clocks etc can be expensive and easy to overlook.

• Do all the new NSHs have both E7 and 24h circuits?  If not, they have to be slaved to your meter's E7 hours, and the installer won't have been able to check the times unless he was there around midnight.  The only way to be certain is to watch your meter switching over and then to program the NSHs accordingly.  The installer may well have left them on inappropriate factory defaults.
  
• Are they programmed to top up using the convectors?  Expensive mistake because daytime E7 is even more expensive than single rate.
• Are your bills all based on actual meter readings?  If not they may well be inaccurate.
• What is your E7 night usage percentage?
• What are your day and night kWh rates?

Your small bags of smokeless fuel probably work out far more expensive than E7, ditto the camping heater.  Bit like showing with Perrier water rather than turning on the tap !

I'm not using the NSH at all. The electric fire upstairs eats power so that only goes on if it's really cold in the bedroom and then it's only set to 17°C. The smart meter tells me when the lower rate starts and it's 12.30am to 7.30am. With a smart meter the bills are based on the actual readings. The NSH was programmed to coincide with that. After the first month I turned the NSH down and the bill was a bit less. The factory settings are always too high. I kept the NSH lower than the original program. I couldn't possibly afford it at the new rate. I burn mostly free wood on the multifuel fire. The smokelss costs me a maximum of £32 a month which is cheaper than the NSH and electric heater. Looking back at the bills it was cheaper to just have a plug in heater that I could switch on when I needed heat and switch off again at night.

Swipe

All mine are off now apart from the living room NSH