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Economy 7

PiKe

PiKe

PiKe

Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
25,295
Location
Lake District
My girlfriend just has a standard rate meter in her flat and an immersion heater for the water, the bill is £300 a month!

They have refused, citing some bull about the flat not being old enough. This strikes me as ridiculous because even new builds still have economy 7 installed!

Granted theres no storage heaters in the flat (wall mounted convection heaters) but surely the immersion heater warrants an Economy 7 meter?
 
£300 a month :eek: Jesus....Does she have those heaters on 24/7?

You need to read the meter and work out when the most electric is being used to see whether economy 7 is worth it tbh.

I have an immersion heater that comes on for ~1.25 hrs during the night and 0.5hr at 4pm, this gives me all the hot water I need and my electric is ~30-40 pounds a month.

Granted I dont have electric heaters, which is why I ask how much she uses them
 
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Sounds to me like she's got the immersion heater on 24/7. We have ours on for on average 30 mins/day, use an electric shower and we're also on a standard meter. Fully electric flat.

Bill is about £40/month.
 
Freakbro said:
£300 a month :eek: Jesus....Does she have those heaters on 24/7?

You need to read the meter and work out when the most electric is being used to see whether economy 7 is worth it tbh.

I have an immersion heater that comes on for ~1.25 hrs during the night and 0.5hr at 4pm, this gives me all the hot water I need and my electric is ~30-40 pounds a month.

Granted I dont have electric heaters, which is why I ask how much she uses them
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The electric heaters are never on, currently its warm enough not to need them on as for turning off the water heater? we have a boost function and when that isn't on my mum seems to think the actual system isn't on either but I'm going to take a guess that this isn't so? in which case it should be turned off altogether when not in use? ... £300 a month isn't affordable and when we told them they said they can cut it down to £151 pm but my mum still wont accept this we would be willing to at least give the economy 7 tariff a shot but they claim we can't even have it cos the flat is to new :confused:
 
Afaik economy 7 tariff is cheaper off peak but more expensive in peak hours so you need to make sure that you have the right peak / off peak usage balance to make sure its cheaper overall.

Also £300 sounds a lot, maybe its being left on all day, you could also try turning the stat down so its not heating up so much, or maybe the immersion is faulty.

Guessing immersion alone should cost about £36 a month to run, based on..

3kw x 2hrs per day = 6kwh
6kwh x 30 days = 180kwh
180kwh x 0.20 = £36

Adjust to your timings and elec price per unit, i assumed 3kw element

Also try asking for a smart energy monitor or get one from somewhere else if you supplier doesn't do them free, then you can keep an eye on the costs, find out whats using so much juice.
 
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Indeed, what HardwareGeek said. If she's using that much hot water the heater must be on for quite a lot of the day. On Economy 7 she will get slayed at the daytime rate.

I'd seriously look at her usage. Even on normal leccy rates it shouldn't be that high.

Is she on a payg meter or something?
 
£300 a month? W T F

Something can't be right here, she's either using her house as a homeless bath house or the settings are wrong somewhere.

That's just ridiculous. :eek:
 
Jonny69 said:
Indeed, what HardwareGeek said. If she's using that much hot water the heater must be on for quite a lot of the day. On Economy 7 she will get slayed at the daytime rate.

I'd seriously look at her usage. Even on normal leccy rates it shouldn't be that high.

Is she on a payg meter or something?
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No we aren't on payg its just a standard meter .. it has been suggested the settings on the water heater might be wrong so perhaps we'll look into that although I don't really know what to do with it and doubt my mother will ... perhaps I'll ask the other half to have a go or pike to all of you, he's handy for things like that.
 
person said:
The electric heaters are never on, currently its warm enough not to need them on as for turning off the water heater? we have a boost function and when that isn't on my mum seems to think the actual system isn't on either but I'm going to take a guess that this isn't so? in which case it should be turned off altogether when not in use? ... £300 a month isn't affordable and when we told them they said they can cut it down to £151 pm but my mum still wont accept this we would be willing to at least give the economy 7 tariff a shot but they claim we can't even have it cos the flat is to new :confused:
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The economy 7 may make a difference, but not as much as you are thinking, it may even make it worse depending on when most of the electric is being used, as above - the unit price is cheaper overnight, but more expensive during the day.

You need to work out what is using so much electric in the first place. Lots of hair drier/kettle usage? Electric oven? that immersion heater should be on a timer.

Even then, £100 a month is a lot of electric, esp during the summer months as you say you dont use the heaters yet!
 
a lot of immersions i see are just wired straight from a fuse spur in the airing cupboard with no timer so if thats the case unless you turn the fuse spur off its permanently on and only goes off when it reaches the temperature its set to, if the stat is working correctly.

Guessing that stat must be working or the tank would probably explode tbh

To adjust the stat, wait until the tank is cold or be careful not to burn yourself and remove the metal cover on the immersion, secured with a nut, then the stat will be a piece of plastic inside with an adjustable dial (live wire passes in one side and out to the element at the other side) you can turn the temp down by adjusting the dial.

Goes without saying turn the power off first so you dont get a shock, exposed wires under the immersion cover.
 
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person said:
can electric cookers use lots? we do have one of those
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Anything that turns electric into heat uses a lot, so Ovens, Hair Driers, Kettles, Immersion heaters etc etc

Even so, I have an electric oven I use most days, an electric shower and immersin heater plus juicy computers and 3 monitors and I use £30-40 / month electric.

As Hardware Geek said, my immersion was directly wired from a spur, but i replaced that with an electric timer, so it controls when it comes on and off. Dont do that yourself if your not confident and know what your doing though! :)
 
Yeah cookers use a lot of power but generally are only on for a short amount of time, most often wired on their own circuit cos of the power they use.

Quick tip is, resistive loads use a lot of power because they are basically controlled short circuits, anything with a heating element in it will use a lot of power.

So..

Kettles, elec fires /elec heaters / immersions /cookers / elec showers.
 
Turn the boost thing off, the boiler should heat the water on the fly. It'll just take a little longer to get up to heat.

My current bills..

Electricity =£40 a month
Gas = £15 a month

ish, and I'm in credit on both accounts
 
I've never had an elecy bill as I am with Spark and they are morons :)

Although going by meter readings I've used less than £200 over the least ~5 months :)

My house has no hard wired heaters though....

Bring on the cold!
 
The boost on the hot water is normally off, its only ever on if someone has used all the hot water and some else is wanting a bath and doesn't have time to wait for it to heat ... Thanks for the advice guys and will be checking the water heater again to make sure its set up correctly cos it was suggested by the bf that its coming on at the wrong times like heating up at the more expensive times of the day.
 
Can you get hold of an energy monitor, then you can switch everything off then switch things on one by one and find out what's eating electricity

I did this and found leaving stuff on standby costs pittance
 
We do have something like this that was given to me by the bf will see if I can find out where my mum has put it.
 
Economy 7 is what keeps me up at night with some neighbours doing their appliances in the garden garage/shed.

Cheaper though I guess, dont quote me facts as I dont know any apart from it keeps me awake :)
 
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