Fischer heating - please help

hrm1987

I recently bought a house with Fischer heating and a Fischer water system. I know, not ideal. However, we loved the house and there’s no gas.

We turned all the heaters off at the wall and have the minimum hot water on and Octopus have charged us £225 for a month in electricity. Of course this is madness and not sustainable - we’ve no idea where the electricity is being used. 

Can anyone help with what to do? We’ve changed the thermostats to low, hot water is on for an hour and I’ve no idea how on earth without heating we can be spending so much money. Please help. 

Netexporter

Is the bill based on actual use (ie, from meter readings) or an estimate (which may be based on historic consumption at the property)?

Resistance heating is going to be expensive, whatever the brand name. In the short term look for a tariff, such as Cosy, that will give you some lower cost units at certain times. In the longer term I'd be getting quotes for a heat pump, in your situation.

WiserMiser

Oh dear, the 'magic dust' radiators. 😱. Sadly, you've made a big mistake: they use daytime electricity which is the most expensive form of room heating unless you burn tenners in the fireplace.

If it's impossible to get gas in your area then you'll have to change your heating system.  Consider oil, High Heat Retention Night Storage Heaters (e.g. Dimplex Quantum) or a heatpump.  There are pros and cons with all of them.

Air to air heatpumps might be useful.  They don't attract the government grant but you can reverse them to get sir conditioning in the summer.

Robin9

As you have found out Fischer are generally not a good idea.

Can we have some actual meter readings please - from when you moved in and today please. I assume you are reading meters monthly.

Your meter is probably a 2 rate meter so give us R1/R2  please.  Look at you bill and see what tariff you are on and if the bills are based an actual or estimated.

debitcardmayhem

When you say 225 for a month, is that your monthly direct debit? Tell us the meter readings from the bill . If it’s DD then there will be an estimate for winter bills.

WiserMiser

Did your survey not flag up the cripplying high cost of using daytime electricity?

This thread has a lot of useful background info, although it'll be more useful in helping others to avoid an expensive mistake.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3516223/fischer-storage-heaters

QrizB

hrm1987 said:

We turned all the heaters off at the wall and have the minimum hot water on and Octopus have charged us £225 for a month in electricity. Of course this is madness and not sustainable - we’ve no idea where the electricity is being used. 

To repeat in part what others have said:

- What tariff are you on?

- What payment method - fixed monthly DD, variable monthly DD, pay-on-receipt-of-bill?

- Is the bill based on actual meter readings or on estimates?

Without this info, the "OMG £225" is meaningless.

QrizB

For background info, OP's previous thread is here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6584123/purchasing-a-new-home-with-electric-heaters

hrm1987

So we are with octopus on their fixed tariff. They have repeatedly told us we are on the best tariff - it’s only been a month. Call me stupid but I don’t understand the meter readings - their readings don’t match anything on our ‘smart meter’. It’s not a direct debit and this is their readings:

18 June: 91683
19 July: 92538

As far as we understand we’ve had no heating on (we turned off the heaters at the plug, maybe this was not sufficient - I don’t understand why - so also turned them down on the thermostat in every single room today), and not much hot water. 

We don’t currently have an in house console that reads the electricity despite asking. As mentioned, it’s only been a month and it’s been very warm.

I understand people saying the heating system is crap - but we wanted the house and are ok being cold with no heating, but at the moment, no heating, minimal hot water (used) and ridiculous bills. We realise we must be doing something wrong but unsure what and the information on how to get the best out of these systems (that I understand are crap) is difficult to navigate. 

Apologies for being a novice to electric only! Thanks for your help.

hrm1987

P.S. I did stop my mum buying these systems, so at least someone won thanks to previous help - her bill is circa £75 a month on the old storage heaters!! 🙏

Scot_39

hrm1987 said:

So we are with octopus on their fixed tariff. They have repeatedly told us we are on the best tariff - it’s only been a month. Call me stupid but I don’t understand the meter readings - their readings don’t match anything on our ‘smart meter’. It’s not a direct debit and this is their readings:

18 June: 91683
19 July: 92538

As far as we understand we’ve had no heating on (we turned off the heaters at the plug, maybe this was not sufficient - I don’t understand why - so also turned them down on the thermostat in ever single room today), and not much hot water. 

We don’t currently have an in house console that reads the electricity despite asking. As mentioned, it’s only been a month and it’s been very warm.

I understand people saying the heating system is crap - but we wanted the house and are ok being cold with no heating, but at the moment, no heating, minimal hot water (used) and ridiculous bills. We realise we must be doing something wrong but unsure what and the information on how to get the best out of these systems (that I understand are crap) is difficult to navigate. 

Apologise for being a novice to electric only! Thanks for your help.

Thats a difference of 855kWh - in one of the hottest months on record - I would expect more like 200-250 kWh in a summer month - even allowing say showering and washing for 2.  Add maybe another 50kWh per person.

I am concerned though that you say it doesnt match the actual meter. So thats the first thing we need to address.

Does the serial number on the bill match the meter ?

What do you actaully think the meter is telling you the current reading (or note (*) readings are).

What model is the electricity meter - if digital / early smart ? - have you checked your suppliers website to make sure your reading it correctly ?

(My meter has two different buttons for single rate and multirate register readings for instance.)   

(*) If digital / smart - it might be set for single rate now - but given that high a reading (for your bills sake I hope it's hopefully quite old)  - and so there may be a frozen "rate 2 for old off peak heating " say immersion / storage heating in past - kicking around - and your reading register 1 and their reading total - or vice versa (in which case chances are one might already have wrapped around the 100,000 mark typically.

And assuming the 18th June is your day 1 reading - is that the number you supplied on taking over the property.  Or again wildly different.

There is a risk they have picked up the wrong meter if serial numbers or readings dont match.