Storage heaters...

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Hayleye21
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Storage heaters...

Post by Hayleye21 »

Hello,

I have a storage heater query (again!)...I live in a one bedroom flat which contains 3 storage heaters, one small one in the bedroom, a medium one in the hallway and a big one in the living room. They've only been on for a month and I took a meter reading at the end of last month and one again last night. My bill for the month has come in at £150! Does anyone know if this sounds right? I know they're expensive but never anticipated they'd be that much! They're on Economy 7 and currently I have them on as follows:

Small bedroom one: full input (it doesn't have numbers on the dial but I guess it's 8) and output 2
Medium hallway one: input on 4, output on 0
Big living room one: input on 4, output on 0

This seems to be fine in terms of heat but with the medium and large one only on halfway in terms of input I can't quite believe it's costing as much as it is. I'm with Southern Electric on their Economy 7 tariff.

Any advice would be much appreciated! I have a standalone radiator which is oil filled so could turn them all off and use that but have no idea how much that'll cost plus condensation is a problem already and I know the oil radiator will just add to it.

Thanks!
Hayley
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kellys_eye
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Re: Storage heaters...

Post by kellys_eye »

Without knowing the wattage of the storage heaters we can't tell you how much they cost to run.

A 'basic' storage heater has from 1 to four heating elements in it, each rated at 850W (or thereabouts) so can range from 850W to 3.4kW. At an economy seven payment rate of (say) 7p/kW this would mean from 6p/hour to 24p/hour to run them - but these figures themselves depend on how much you 'charge' the storage heaters.

For a basic 8 hour off-peak charging period and the radiators on FULL input (load) then you are looking at 56p per day for the smaller one up to £1.92/day for the largest.

I suspect you'll have a 1.7kW a 2.55kW and a 3.4kW version (you tell me....) so you're looking at a total of 40p + 143p + 192p = £3.75 per day = £112.50 PER MONTH

Blame the Government and their 'green' policies........
Don't take it personally......
DonV
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Re: Storage heaters...

Post by DonV »

I'm having the same problem with electric heating. Costs seem to be going through the roof so that sort of bill is possible.
The tariff for the off peak are as stated about 7P per unit.
You may also have a standing charge of about 21p per day depending on the tariff you are on.
Not sure what arrangement you have with economy seven. Are the storage heaters timed to come on at certain times?
What else are you using?
Don
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