First flat, need advice.

liamgdr

I've just moved into my first flat everything is going well accept I seem to be paying quit a lot on electricity.

Im on a pre-payment meter (the worst) and an eco 7 tariff as I have storage heaters.

My rates are:

Peak - 18p kWh
Off   -   7p kWh

Last night before I went bed (12:00) I checked my meter, I had £23.80 remaining, this morning I have £21.30, so I've used £2.50 over night (8 hours)

I had 2 out of the 6 storage heaters in my flat turned on. All appliances were on standby, all lights off etc etc.

So £2.50 divided by 7p kWh, is around 35 kWh. Maybe my maths is off, or I don't understand kWh's properly but surely this can't be right?

Any help will be appreciated.

Liam.

Rodders53

My house consumes about 200-250W per hour overnight (fridge, freezer, standby kit, modem/router) so that would be 2kWh on its own.  Then you are pumping in heat for the storage radiators...  guessing at 2kW input each for 8 hours = 32kWh ...  That will be released as heat into the rooms later in the day (hopefully).  They may require less heat input as the weather warms up.  There should be rating labels somewhere on them?

Then there's the immersion heater which, if on a timer, is likely to consume a fair bit to reheat the water for morning use.  More lagging on the tank may help reduce any heat losses there.

I have a modern fairly energy-efficient 3-bed bungalow and we are in most days.  We consume about 15MWh of energy each year... or about 41kWh per day on average... but you can triple that figure for the winter-time (heating) and use very little in the summer.  (We actually have gas heating but energy is energy)

liamgdr

I assumed a kilo watt was 1000 watts, if its 100 watts then that makes a lot more sense and all the figures add up.

I still need to work out my water heater to se if there is any potential for saving money there.

Thanks, Liam.

liamgdr

Just re-read what you said 200-250 watts an hour overnight is close to a couple of kwh. Disregard my above post, I'm really tired

I had one big storage heater on in the living room and a tiny heater in the bedroom, which I've now been told was only on for 2 hours.

I'm terrified for when winter arrives and I have more heaters on,hopefully I can find a cheaper tariff.

brunation

Did you check this meter to see if there was a pre-existing debt?

Switch the meter display to show units used.

liamgdr

I phoned Eon on the day we moved in and had the meter registered in my name, so theres no chance of any debt being on there.

After a week of living in the flat I've realised storage heater just aren't that good. You have to predict if its going to be hot or cold so you can set your heaters the previous day, even on the lowest output setting by the evening they have lost most of their stored energy anyway. When you want heat its just not there.

Im going to have a look into electric radiators that I can run for 2-3 hours in the evening rather than running storage heaters all through the night just to use up most of their energy in the day when its not beneficial.

neilball

In that case you also need to do the sums to see if an E7 tariff would remain cost effective - you need to use enough units at night at the cheaper rate so that if offsets the "penalty" of higher cost units during the daytime. A flat rate tariff would be cheaper than your current day time rate, but more expensive than your night rate, so if most of your usage ends up outside of the E7 rate then you need to get your tariff changed. If that means a meter change then you could also ask to go onto a "normal" meter which would also give you a wider & cheaper range of tariffs although you then need to manage your payments accordingly.

liamgdr

Yeh I don't think there will be much point in an eco 7 tariff.

I've realised my bill is around £2.50-£3.00 a day, around 60-70p is everything except heating, so I'm spending £2 a day on heating. If I can get a 10p kWh tariff and I run one 2000 watt radiator in the living room for say 4-5 hours a day then my heating is only £1 per day. My other costs will also be reduced due to the cheaper tariff.

Im going to have a proper look into it it tomorrow, may need to make some spreadsheets .

AMc

If you're on a prepayment meter you're almost certainly paying over the odds for your power.
If you have a decent credit history you should be able to get this changed to a standard meter on direct debit by your provider which I would try and do asap.

liamgdr

With Eon the pre pay price is the same as direct debit. I've done some research and Scottish Power is 4p a kWh cheaper so I'll be making the move soon. Now its warmer my bill is only about £15 a week so I can't really complain.