High bills since installing storage heaters
- Thread starter Amo63
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storage heaters don't run on free electric....
An electrician may be able to help but the high bills could be down to a number of things not least the tariff they are being run on, how the charge period is regulated and are they set up properly
How was this property heated before the storage heaters
How was this property heated before the storage heaters
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Make sure the tenant is on a time
Of use tarif. Like octopus go. Or an economy 7 tarrif so they get cheep energy at night when the storage heaters are charging. For instance go is 12p per kWh over night but the tennant may be on standard tarif at the moment at 34p.
34p x 30kwh a day of heat would be £10 a day. On economy 7 or time of use that would be half to a third of the cost.
Too late now as well but a heat pump would use 70% less energy than storage heaters and there is a 5.5k grant for all at the moment.
Of use tarif. Like octopus go. Or an economy 7 tarrif so they get cheep energy at night when the storage heaters are charging. For instance go is 12p per kWh over night but the tennant may be on standard tarif at the moment at 34p.
34p x 30kwh a day of heat would be £10 a day. On economy 7 or time of use that would be half to a third of the cost.
Too late now as well but a heat pump would use 70% less energy than storage heaters and there is a 5.5k grant for all at the moment.
Does the property have economy 7 ?
champagnecharly
Active member
Each storage heater will be rated in KW. Thats 1 hours use and it equates to what you would theoretically use if it the heater was on and never got to temperature. . e.g. if your storage heater is 2Kw then if on a normal tariff that would be 68p/ hour of it being on. (assuming it was permanently on) so two of them that would be 1.36/hr. ... an energy monitor like this:
Energy monitor like this might help work out what the usage actually is and how frequently it is actually on for,.
Remember a storage heater is just an electric heater with additional material that holds the heat. usually like brick type material. which give what is called thermal mass.
So about 30 kw per day . For a flat it’s certainly looks high BUT how many heaters, and what rating are they and has he been using the day time boost?
Clearly likes a warm flat. Half the trouble with NSHs is people simply don't understand how they work.
champagnecharly
Active member
You could run a Airsource heatpump for a 2 bed or bigger on that amount of KW. wether it is excessive for that kind of flat is hard to say although i would think almost deffinately. much would depend on:
insulation of the build (EPC)
hot it is set to/
how long they are left on
outside temperature is/ location in the UK
whether they keep their windows open all the time and loose the heat generated.
Storage heaters are not magic devices and not meant to be just left on. They are meant to use cheap electricity e.g. at night on economy 7 and then store that energy using the thermal mass =brick type things. so the heat is radiate throughout the day.
Octopus has a great deal on air source heatpumps you may wish to consider that.
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Sounds like it could be a design failure on the installing electricians part which ultimately comes back to the base level of training some newcomers to the trade believe they only need to be an electrician
My other thought is are they actually storage heaters could they be one of the many panel heating offerings that claim to be cheap to run
My other thought is are they actually storage heaters could they be one of the many panel heating offerings that claim to be cheap to run
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Post the actual figures from the bill, units and rates, and the name of the tariff they are on.
If you have only just installed the storage heaters, they won't be old school real storage heaters, the EU outlawed those and even though we have left we have not reversed that. So they will be some fancy modern combination of part storage and part convector and will use a certain amount of peak rate daytime electricity to top up the heating when it's control algorithm thinks is best. Perhaps you can post pictures or a model number of the heaters?
And are they even that sophisticated, or were you hoodwinked into getting a certain notorious brand of electric radiators with a clay core that have sometimes been described as "storage"?
If you have only just installed the storage heaters, they won't be old school real storage heaters, the EU outlawed those and even though we have left we have not reversed that. So they will be some fancy modern combination of part storage and part convector and will use a certain amount of peak rate daytime electricity to top up the heating when it's control algorithm thinks is best. Perhaps you can post pictures or a model number of the heaters?
And are they even that sophisticated, or were you hoodwinked into getting a certain notorious brand of electric radiators with a clay core that have sometimes been described as "storage"?
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