In defence of storage heaters: With ours our total electricity costs for a 2005 build 2 bed flat (without gas) are £55pcm by direct debit and we're racking up credit with Scottish Power. As other posters have mentioned a combination of usage, age, insulation and correct supplier plan all help.

E7 rates from Standing charge ppd 14.10 Day Rate 14.25 Night Rate 4.72

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Again, thanks for the reply.

My girlfriend has just called npower again and it looks like they have been taking the meter readings down incorrectly ie, day readings and puting them as night time and vice versa, they are sending out someone at the end of the month to take readings as we normally provide them with them over the phone. They have been shocking to deal with, heres hoping we get something sorted, i will post what happens incase anyone is interested in the outcome.

Thanks

kingsofloen:

it is possible that we are not using the storage heaters to our benefit however surely not that bad?!

Unfortunately I think you are suffering the expense of electric heating especially for a house which is unoccupied during the day. A house needs to be really well insulated for storage heating to even half work as a system.

What to do? Check you are on the most competive tariff, including the best payment terms, normally fixed monthly direct debits. Probably you are not getting good value from the hall storage heater, consider leaving it off as much as possible. Is the tank well insulated, normally the most cost effective thing to improve. Are you familiar with the controls on the storage heaters to reduce the charge in warmer weather and to (slightly) delay the heat output?

Sorry there are no easy answers here.

Hi Jalexa,

Thanks for the reply, we are now taking down the meter readings last thing at night and first thing in the morning, our night time reading has gone up by 29k/w and our day reading by 2k/w, god these bills are just getting ridiculous, it is possible that we are not using the storage heaters to our benefit however surely not that bad?!

kingsofloen

Don't like to be harsh when people are presented with worrying bills but you didn't mention your meter reading(s) once. Its impossible to give advice without your meter readings.

Also to get a handle on your consumption, read your meters every day for a week. Unfortunately as the winter is over this won't show up the worst of the storage heater readings.

Hi, like Stampy Jim, im also having severe issues with my electricity bills. I currently live in a 1 bedroom flat which has only electricity as a from of power, there are only 2 of us in the flat and we are at work all day and have everything switched off with the exception of the kitchen white goods, we also have 2 storage heaters on full time, 1 in the hall and 1 in the living room. Our bill for the last quarter was £650, YES £650!! For the month of December, we had everything switched off, even the heaters as we where in South Africa. We have been in the flat for over 2 years and every quarter the bill goes up, we even stopped having baths every night (not using the booster button for the hot water) and having electric showers most nights, How can this be, every time my girlfriend tries to call the energy company for some sort of explanation they just dont seem to be listening or caring as we are paying them every month, someone please help, £150 a month for electricity for a 1 bedroom flat is ridiculous!!!

Thanks

Storage heaters do have excessive running costs. I have them in my flat despite there being gas available. I'm in a housing association property incidentally. I would never have accepted the move to this property had the housing association been honest about the running costs. My utility bills more than doubled in price after the move.

I personally don't see the value of storage heaters compared to other electrical forms of heating. Yes they use the cheaper rate of electricity, but they have high wattages, I think the highest wattage I have is 3kw. I'm on something called 'Superdeal' with Southern Electricity, which prevents me from switching supplier as no other company supports my meter. I don't know if it can be changed to economy 7 for free so that I can shop around or not.

Anyway to get back to my point. On this 3 tier system, I pay 16.09p per unit before VAT for my day rate. 7.52p for my night rate and 5.54p for stored heat. Now it sounds good when you look at it. 5.54p doesn't sound a lot at all. But being single and on a low income it does add up to quite a bit. I only run 4 out of 5 heaters at any one time, with the input setting on number 6 and the boost on number 1, the lowest setting. My electricity bill for the last quarter is £387.66 inc VAT.

As my stored heat is put seperately on the bill, I can see exactly how much of the bill applies to heating. My stored heating for the last 3 months was £241.63. so that's about £80 per month. Thankfully I prepay, not by meter, using internet banking. So I take meter readings fortnightly as I am paid, and pay as I go so to speak.

So my thought is, even if I were to use for example a 1kw quartz heater during the day, it would not cost me any more than the storage heaters.

The main disadvantage of storage heaters being if you have a sudden change in the weather, you either end up freezing waiting for the night rate to start, or stiffling hot because there's suddenly a warm day.

I'm certainly considering changing to radial heaters for that reason. That way I can just have the heating on when it's cold, opposed to having to keep an eye on the weather reports!

To the person who near the end, who mentioned switching to direct debit, I doubt there are any savings to be had, given the energy companies seem to over estimate what a person's energy needs are. I had a letter of complaint from Southern Electric because I wasn't sticking to my budget plan they had set out for me. I made it clear to them I was only prepared to pay for what I used, took fornightly meter readings and used a spreadsheet to calculate my usage and was never in arrears. I never heard anything from them after that. There are other considerations I save for in the summer, such as christmas, next years redecoration costs etc.

The only reason electricity is so expensive is because of the greed of energy suppliers, poor regulation and a weak government. Perhaps it's time we took a leaf out of the bolivians governments book and renationalized the energy companies, so that there is proper accountability.

stampy jim,

A bill for £533 in the latest quarter (i.e. Nov - Feb) isn't surprising. The average UK energy bill (before recent reductions) stood at £1,300 with approx. 40% of that annual bill being spent in the Winter quarter = £520.

It is for this reason we've been encouraging all customers, where possible, to move to a monthly direct debit arrangement on their energy supply. By doing so, you spread the costs evenly across the year whilst also benefiting from greater discounts due to the reduced admin costs to the supplier.

My biggest concern is that many customers will pay for these bills using a credit card and therefore end up paying interest on their recent energy bills. Again, strengthening the case to pay by MDD.

In terms of using your E7 meter, you need to ensure you are using atleast 20% of your overall energy during the E7 hours i.e. 1am - 8am.

Hope this helps.

---

Regards,

Scott Byrom
Utilities Manager
moneysupermarket.com

For instructions on maintenance and installation of storage heaters you can visit www.storageheaters.com. There is also detailed information on how to select manufacturers, how to select a storage heater according to the size of your room in the home. If everything is right you save a lot of money on your heating bill compared to gas heating and fan heaters.

http://www.storageheaters.com
<a href="http://www.storageheaters.com/">storage heaters </a>

That came from an housing associtation I think.

Maybe different for different system I expect but that main point to use the bloody things effectively you need to be pro-active, my old mom can't even manage the visitor caller system so what chance has she ?

Can I ask if you checked the meter readings when you moved into the flat? Were the meter readings correct on 7th Feb or was it a guess by your power provider. If your economy 7 heaters are only being charged up in the cheap overnight period you seem to be using an awful lot of daytime electricity, approx 15 units per day. I have a large 4 bed detached house and only use 7 units per day. Are things being left on? Maybe change light bulbs to low energy ones etc.

Can I ask how much you are paying a unit for electricity as the bill seems large for the amount of electricity consumed. Try looking around for a supplier that is cheaper, avoid british gas for godsake!

Although the heaters are old and the controls maybe out dated in terms of things they can do, I don't believe putting new ones in will make your flat more energy efficient. It is not like gas where heat is wasted up a chimney. Its all going into the flat.

Are you leaving the immersion heater on all day?

Hope some of this helps. Kevin

Hi,

Where did you get your info about the dials, especially the OUTPUT one?

The instructions printed on my storage heater are somewhat different to what you've stated. That being that a lower OUTPUT gives and evening boost, mid-range an afternoon boost, high setting a morning boost, or something similar.

Mine are also supposed to detect the ambient temperature and output more heat if it's colder than expected. I currently have the INPUT set to about 2.5 - 3, and always turn them off altogether during the summer.

Cheers

Chris

I've been looking at this as my mom as a similer problem. A lot of sheltered housing have these things and I'm sure the energy companies are raking in cash because of it. The problem with ECO7 + Storage heaters is you have first understand how they work, you then must be able to understand how to control them and finally you need to be pro-active to keep down the costs. I don't think your average pensioner fills all the criteria some how, well I know my 84 year mom doesn't anyway.

Key thing is setting them correct so here's what I found out, stick to see if it works;

INPUT DIAL - Use this as the next days heating setting, so set it according to the weather forcast, average setting should be between 4 and 6. This is how much heat it will store so if it's going to be a hot day or your going to be out all day set it lower and save some electric.

OUTPUT / BOOST DIAL - This should be always set to 1, only increase it when you need instent heat. On 1 it lets the heat out over the full day, higher and you may find you run out of heat just when the day is getting colder. Use it when you need it most but always set it back to 1 when you go to bed. This is important because leaving it higher will release heat to quickly the following morning which in turn mean your heater will have to generate more and cost you more to replace the lost heat the following night.

hope that helps.

The best rate for off peak electricity is 3.5 p kwh yes that is after the recent price increases whch would put you heating costs at £1.05 p per day in the winter not bad me thinks if you cant find the supplier through this switching site look for another. Type " discount home buyer broker into your search bar and see what comes up ;-)