Economy 7 storage heaters

[abwooli]

Hellos guys just need your help here pls

I have 4 Eco 7 storage heater. I only use 3 to save electricity

The ones with blocks on them

I am on a pay as go key Meter
And the heaters seem to take about £5 with only 2 switched on.

My questions i
are there any cheaper heaters out there that do the same job but use less electricity= money

My flat is all electric so am thinkin or ways around it.
No gas in the whole building

And do these heathers get serviced annually to check if they wrking as they should be

And being on pay as you go does the Eco 7 apply or its only for those on a monthly meter.


Thank you all

 

[stem]

With electric heating, regardless of the heater type, (unless you have £1,000's to invest in a heat pump system) if you use 1kW of electricity, you get 1kW of heat back. So the way to save money is to buy cheaper electricity.

Off Peak rates such as Economy 7 / Economy 10 are good value as the heaters will store up heat during the 'Off Peak' times when the cost of the electricity is only about one third of the cost of the normal tariff.

I would suggest that you go on an energy comparison site and see if you can find cheaper rates.

Storage heaters do not require annual servicing.

Also, insulation is your friend. If you can prevent heat escaping from your home, you will use less energy replacing it.

 

[abwooli]

With electric heating, regardless of the heater type, (unless you have £1,000's to invest in a heat pump system) if you use 1kW of electricity, you get 1kW of heat back. So the way to save money is to buy cheaper electricity.

Off Peak rates such as Economy 7 / Economy 10 are good value as the heaters will store up heat during the 'Off Peak' times when the cost of the electricity is only about one third of the cost of the normal tariff.

I would suggest that you go on an energy comparison site and see if you can find cheaper rates.

Storage heaters do not require annual servicing.

Also, insulation is your friend. If you can prevent heat escaping from your home, you will use less energy replacing it.

Thank you

 

[JohnW2]

Off Peak rates such as Economy 7 / Economy 10 are good value as the heaters will store up heat during the 'Off Peak' times when the cost of the electricity is only about one third of the cost of the normal tariff.

True, but the sting in the tail is that 'peak rate' (i.e. daytime+evening) electricity is substantially more expensive with the 2-rate tariffs.

It seems that with most E7/E10 etc. tariffs, one has to have at least 30%-35% of one's total electricity usage during the off-peak (night) hours for it to be financially sensible - with less that that proportion of off-peak usage, E7/E10 will be more expensive than a standard tariff. With the OP's described fairly modest usage of storage heaters, I think he might well be on the wrong side of that 30/35%.

Kind Regards, John

 

[EFLImpudence]

Plus - prepayment keys are at a higher rate.

 

[stem]

True, but the sting in the tail is that 'peak rate' (i.e. daytime+evening) electricity is substantially more expensive with the 2-rate tariffs.

The tariffs can vary considerably from company to company, sometimes the dayrate is loaded, other times, there is an extra fixed standing charge. It would be fairly easy to find out using a comparison website. Enter the electricity consumption in kW as it is used now, ie peak, and off peak and find the best price. Then carry the test out again but this time adding the two kW consumptions together and using a single day rate tariff.

If the figure does work out close, then consider that you may save some energy with standard panel radiators in that their use is more controllable, whereas you can be more likely to overheat your home with storage radiators.

Don't forget heating hot water also takes advantage of the E7 / E10

 

[abwooli]

Thanks guys for your input I think I will shop around see the cheapest provider out there
But I donot know if it will make a diference if one is on a key Meter.

I used to be on a monthly meter but changed to pay as you go
And I can see diference in usuage and the money the meter takes.

 

[JohnW2]

The tariffs can vary considerably from company to company, sometimes the dayrate is loaded, other times, there is an extra fixed standing charge.

Indeed, but last time I looked, most actually worked out roughly as I described. Although the actual costs, and the way they choose to (effectively) charge one more for 'peak' electricity use, vary appreciably, when I looked, the proportion of off-peak use required to achieve 'break even' was similar in most cases.

These tariffs do seem a bit rotten/greedy! I assume that the whole idea of their existence is to encourage a shift of usage from times of day when generating capacity is stretched to times of day when generating capacity is very much under-used and, unless I'm missing something (other than the suppliers' desire to maintain their revenue!), I can see no real reason why there has to be any sort of 'penalty'.

Don't forget heating hot water also takes advantage of the E7 / E10

Indeed so. I have E7, but do not have storage heaters. Virtually all of my water heating uses off-peak electricity, energy hungry-appliances (particularly tumble dryer) are, whenever possible, run off-peak, I have a fair bit of IT and electronic stuff etc., and multiple fridges/freezers etc., which run 24/7 (hence about 29% of that usage during off-peak hours) and will often use a fan heater (rather than expensive LPG) for heating if I'm up during off-peak times. With all that I just about get over the threshold for E7 being worthwhile, but I doubt that is true for many households without storage heaters.

Kind Regards, John