Electricity

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Hi all,

I have been having quite high energy bills for one bedroom flat, up to 130 pounds a month. I am on standard variable E9 Tariff, with 19.71p for normal rate and 7.63 for off peak heating.

I wanted to check whether the storage heater in the living room gets the cheaper off peak tariff, or is it only the water heater?

I have also been rarely turning the heating on, and trying to survive in a freezing flat by wearing more clothes. With the storage heater in the living room sometimes takes up to 5-6 hours to heat the room up, so not really using it. Not doing anything crazy otherwise, no baths everyday, or excessive use of a kettle.

Did anyone else experience mysterious high energy bills?

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Hi there

I have a 2-bed and it is generally quite warm throughout (I have a shower almost every morning and a bath almost every night also). My monthly on E9 with EDF (same as you I believe as the pricing is the same) is generally £90 and has been around that mark for a few years (although they have lifted my direct debit to £110 for some reason which was surprising as I wasn't in debit and was actually £90 in credit!)

Your bill seems quite high in comparison. The first thing to check is whether the £130 is actually based on your spending over the past year or whether they have lifted your direct debit incorrectly (they did this to me several years ago).

If it is based on your actual use, check the meter readings are accurate – do you do yourself or does a person come round to do it?  They check mine annually I believe and I send them updates every quarter or so.

Finally, on a practical point of view, on E9 it is ALL electricity is cheaper during those periods of time that it's 'cheap rate' but the storage heaters and water heater will ONLY work on the cheaper circuits unless you actively turn them on (the red light on the storage heaters and the immersion heater on the water heater). 

The final thing you can really check yourself is to ensure that you do not have your water heater immersion turned on in error and that you do not have that little red light turned on at the storage heater.

Hopefully checking the above 3 things will pick up any problem you have.

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Hello Marina,

Your not using the convector part of the storage heater for heating are you?  That would use the full price electric and use it very quickly.  The storage heaters tend to work best with them on all the time during the winter months. They are not designed to be an on-demand solution for heat.

If you really wanted to get a sense of your daily or weekly use then I would read the meter and keep a spreadsheet of the readings.  That way you would be able to narrow it down to what was using the most units by switching different things on and off during the reading days.

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BTW energy saver bulbs also make a big difference.  Do you use those throughout your flat?

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Thank you all! Very good advice.

I have bought an energy meter reader that shows current energy flow from my flat.

I am suspecting that my water heater was not connected to the right circuit, as it heats up the whole day (I can see that my electricity use is nearly always high unless I completely turn the water heater off). I will try to invite an electrician over, as I am no good at those things.

Most of my light bulbs are LED (apart from maybe 4, but less often used).

I may also replace my storage heater in the living room as it gets a lot of electricity constantly, and takes at least 3 hours to heat the room. It is also because I live in a corner flat which is naturally much colder.

Thank you all – I will update you on progress in case this helps someone else!

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Hi Marina

I don't know if the following will help.  The Water heater should have two elements.

[img]http://elson 2.jpg[/img]

The lower one is the main element and should be connected to the economy 9 supply that comes on by supplier timings.

The upper element is the boost element and should be connected to the normal mains via a timer switch.  It isn't beyond the realms of possibility that the elements have been swapped by mistake.  Yon can check by following the cable from each switch to see if it goes into the side of the heater next to the element expected.

[img]http://elson 1.jpg[/img]

When I moved to RQ |I noticed my charges were a bit odd and the reason was that the electric company was recording the night reading as the day, and day as the night

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