Cheapest way to heat

mrsyardbroom

Scot 39. I only have the immersion heater on during off peak times. That uses a lot of power. Other things use power during the day such as the electric kettle. As a pensioner I'm at home quite a lot of the time. Someone who works outside the home is going to have a lower bill. One problem with this storage heater is that the room heat doesn't correspond to the temperature shown on the display. The room heat is usually at least 2 degrees less. At the moment I have the heater set to 20C. The reading on my thermometer is 16.8C. I wouldn't be able to stand 20C. That's much too high. At the moment my hands feel very cold. I went out this afternoon and set the heater to 17C. When I came back after three hours the thermometer showed 15C. I know the thermometer is accurate. I spend yesterday afternoon at a friend's house and her room had a temperature of 20C. It felt really overheated and I was sweating. It's the first time I've felt warm all winter.

Gerry1

mrsyardbroom said:

I'm not staying until after midnight to watch the electricity meter. I've emailed my supplier to confirm the charging period.

The E7 times vary by DNO area and are not set by your supplier.  The agent may well be just guessing or following a generic script; they may not have a clue or they may be well trained, they may be wrong or they may be right.

But if they're wrong they won't be the one paying an unnecessarily expensive bill.  I certainly wouldn't risk it, I'd stay up slightly late one night to be absolutely certain that I wouldn't be wasting lots of money year after year.

mrsyardbroom said:

Since the cheap rate carries on for 7 hours this would also indicate that the charging period started at 00.30.

Not necessarily.  As previously explained, it's 7 hours but not necessarily contiguous: there can be a two-hour gap in the middle.  My E7 also ends at 0730 but it starts at 2230.

If your meter does the same, by wrongly assuming it starts at 0030 your Elnur would be charging up for one hour at cheap rate followed by two hours at peak rate, so that would seriously increase your bills.  There might also be a variance with BST/GMT.

If Elnurs have a poor reputation it's very likely that they haven't been programmed optimally.

mrsyardbroom

I know my cheap rate doesn't start at 22.30. I have emailed my supplier for help and I'm waiting to hear from them. They will use photographs of my meter to determine the exact charging period. I don't think much of the Elnur heater. I looked at a YouTube video about my model and the comments from people were all negative. They all said they'd been sold rubbish. I may try contacting the local council again and explain the problem. I'd love to have the heater changed for one that's more efficient. I don't know if they can do this but it's worth asking. If you don't ask you don't get.

Gerry1

mrsyardbroom said:

I'd love to have the heater changed for one that's more efficient. I don't know if they can do this but it's worth asking. If you don't ask you don't get.

That would mean a heat pump.  £10k or whatever... 

chris_n

It looks to me like you need to do something about draughts and or insulation. Your bedroom shouldn't be dropping from 17 to less than 12 overnight. 

mrsyardbroom

Gerry1 said:

mrsyardbroom said:

I'd love to have the heater changed for one that's more efficient. I don't know if they can do this but it's worth asking. If you don't ask you don't get.

That would mean a heat pump.  £10k or whatever... 

I just want a storage heater that doesn't include a fan that's going all the time and possibly working as a fan heater. I will check and see if this is likely but I feel a better storage heater would be more energy efficient and save me money. A friend''s elderly storage heater costs less to run than mine does.

Gerry1

mrsyardbroom said:

Gerry1 said:

mrsyardbroom said:

I'd love to have the heater changed for one that's more efficient. I don't know if they can do this but it's worth asking. If you don't ask you don't get.

That would mean a heat pump.  £10k or whatever... 

I just want a storage heater that doesn't include a fan that's going all the time and possibly working as a fan heater. I will check and see if this is likely but I feel a better storage heater would be more energy efficient and save me money. A friend''s elderly storage heater costs less to run than mine does.

You've already got one.  You still haven't said which model it is, but it'll probably have a setting where you can set the maximum number of 'fan heater' (balancing heating element) hours to zero instead of the default 3 hours.  Read the manual.

An old style box or bricks will cost more to run because it wastes heat overnight.  Your friend may also be on an E7 tariff that works out cheaper than yours.

You need to work with facts, not feelings.

RedFraggle

@Petriix

The holes in the wall aren't always permissable (e.g. leasehold) and they're noisier. 

EssexHebridean

Ok - the temperature shown on your storage heater - if it is similar to mine - is an output temperature - it doesn’t work like a room thermostat on central heating. Currently my programmable storage heater is set to 22 - and I expect that to get the centre of our flat to around 19°. During the very cold snap in December I tweaked it to 23°. 

Make certain that the output times are set as you want them too - mine has various options between “out all day” which is two burst of heat in the course of the day, “home all day” is three bursts. There is a holiday setting too which I’ve never used, as yet. You’ll need to adjust it according to the outside temperature too - I usually look three or four days ahead and change the settings/times as needed for both the weather and our plans, too. 

We are currently running two storage heaters here - the programmable one is quite small, the front room one is slightly older but also larger. We’ve also got an electric shower, and immersion heater and the usual appliances - but we cook on gas - that only makes a relatively small overall difference though. My use in December cost around £160.

most modern storage heaters will have a fan - it’s one of the things that helps make them work better to get the heat out into the area they are heating. They shouldn’t run as a fan heater on peak rate electricity unless you are using the “boost” function though - unless perhaps yours has a function where the heater automatically switches to boost if it runs out of stored heat - in which case you may need to run it for shorter periods of output time, or check that the charging time is correct. 

mrsyardbroom

I change the settings manually each time I leave the house and when I return. The heater is currently set to 20C but the room temperature it's sensing around the heater is 18C. Where sit, which is not on top of the heater, it's now 16.8. I couldn't afford to set it any higher. The lowest setting I can use is 17C and I set it to this when I go out. I don't program it to set times as I go out at different times.