I have quite a major problem with my electric storage heaters. I've recently ran up a bill of £533.63 for the quarter of 7 November 2007 to 7 February 2008. Its for a rented 2 bedroom flat with only 2 people living in. This is the first bill we have received and it says my day usage is 1443 units, but my night usage is 8016 units! I am on Economy Seven as well. After doing a bit of testing, I have been able to work out its the electric storage heaters that have caused such a huge bill. To try and reduce the sheer amount on energy being used, I have set the 'Input Control' to low and the 'Boost' function is off as well. However I noticed that last night with 3 heaters set to this, I still used up 38 units. From other sources I use up around about 4 units (established through testing), so even if we round that upto 8 units, my heaters are still using about 10 units each, every night! Is this normal, because that would still cause a damn high bill. I appreciate that when the weather becomes warmer, I wont have this problem - however I still a). Have a £533.63 bill to contend with! Should I contact the landlords as if the heating is using more electricity than it should, I shall probably making a claim for them to help with the bill. b). Next winter I shall only have this issue all over again.

Any assistance would be most appreciated, as I am only a modest wage earner and this is causing alot of stress!

P.S. The Immersion Heater is not on either.

Sorry to be the one to tell you, but the level of usage is about right for the storage heaters. You will have the same usage levels next winter unless you can seriously upgrade the insulation of the flat. But I guess that's unlikely. Is it possible to iron out the high winter bills by paying extra/saving the difference through the summer?

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Circumstances alters cases!!

Hi Jim,

Are you with the cheapest Electricity provider? I have overnight storage heaters also, but I don't run up nearly that amount! Did you have the heaters set on full prior to testing? One thing I have started doing, that's recommended is turning off things that are normally on standy by. This means that my TV, dvd player, cable box are completely off for about 20 hours a day, which works out at about 1800 hours per quarter!

Thank you for your reply - I still find it bizarre though, how do other people keep their bills down with these things. Should I have the thing checked out just to make sure - I mean I havent seen anyone posting a bill as high as this - and this is often for dwellings bigger than mine.

Thanks for the reply as well phrostphyre, Im with Southern Electric - and this is the first time I have had to pay bills that went already included in the rent, so my knowledge of the best providers is weak/non-existant! However I feel my problem lies with how much the things are using, not the actual cost. To be honest, prior to testing they were set at different levels, so dont think that helped the bill. Good call on the turning off things on standby, will start doing that as well. If you dont mind me asking, what is your quartly bill during this time of year?

Hi Jim,

I'll do my best, but British Gas bills online are incredibly difficult to read. They overwrite previous bills, and since I owed them some money from trying to get my account sorted it looks like they back date all statements to the start of that repayment period.

Looking at my current bill, they say I've used about £180 worth of Electric between 24 July last year and 8th Feb this year. Not sure I believe them to be honest, and that I still owe them an extra £70 from previous usage.

I never take my storage heaters beyond half or 2/3s on the input dial. However, I go to the gym a fair bit, which I reckon keeps my metabolism going, keeping me warmer than more sedentary people (doesn't mean that I'm right though ;) ). Also, since storage heaters are reactive, if there's a cold day or two, I tend not to turn it up, unless it gets REALLY cold. I also live in a 2 bed flat, but live on my own, which means the spare room heater never gets used at all. If you're you're sharing with flat mate then this could be increasing your costs, if their heater is on max all the time.

Another thing that occurs to me is that the heaters you have are really old and not that efficient? Mine are around 7-10 years old. I've thought about replacing them, but they cost around £200-300 apiece, and let's face it, I'd need to be able to save a LOT of cash on a monthly basis for that outlay to ever become economical.

Hope that helps, and sorry for the delayed answer.

Chris

Stampy Jim,

If i've missed this in the post I apologise but can you confirm whether you are best suited for an Economy 7 meter? i.e. are you using +20% of your energy during the E7 hours (usually 1am - 8am).

If this is not the case then this will be pushing up your fuel bills. The reason being is that the day rate is higher than normal and therefore means if you are using more than 80% of your energy during day rate hours you're not getting the best deal.

+£500 is very high for a quarterly bill even at this time of year. A bill at this time of the year, based on the size of your property and number of occupants should be alot less.

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Regards,

Scott Byrom
Utilities Manager
moneysupermarket.com

Hi there Chris, thank you for your reply - apologies for not replying quicker, I've been off with a cold (linked to the fact I've had to turn off the heating maybe! haha). I think your last paragraph holds the key, I checked up on the age and information on the actual heaters themselves and I believe they are about 23-24 years old. This I imagine will certainly stop the things from working properly! Im going to contact my agency I rented through and then the landlords themselves and will ask an engineer to look at them, as I think the thermostats have been faulty and its just been losing the energy and then just replacing it - over and over and over again.

Hi Scott, thank you for your reply as well. I am on Economy Seven and my heaters are using the high levels of energy during this period. If it wasnt, financially it would game over. I'd hate to think what it could have been!

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 ;-)

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.

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

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

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 ?

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.

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