€238 for 1 months electric bill

[HouseHunter]

We moved into our 2-bed apartment at the start of Dec 2006. We have electric storage heaters in our living room and hallway and seperate panel heaters in the bedrooms. Our water is heated off the immersion. We got our first bill for the month of dec only which came to €238.00. This obviously includes our cooking and lighting etc That said, it seems ridiculous to me that it could be so high.

We are considering changing it to the new Duoheat system. This uses combi style electric heaters. Besides the obvious asthetical value, they can actually be set up as a central system with a timer. This means not having to run around when you come home from work and before you go to bed changing the settings on radiators.

I have two questions,

1. does anyone else find our bill extremely high, and
2. would anyone recommend the duoheat system who has it or knows someone with it, set up as a central system.

 

[colin79ie]

It seems high to me. If your water is heated solely off the immersion, use nightsaver. Make sure the tank is properly insulated. In a new apartment it should be the foam covered type. Leave the immersion on all the time. It is cheaper as it only tops up the hot water instead of heating a whole tank all the time. And no, it is not going to go on fire etc etc...

I would check with the ESB when exactly you are being billed from. The builders may have been using power tools before you moved in, or, as I have found before, if the premises has been unoccupied for some time then the storage heater could have been on for months with no-one there and then you get the bill for them. Check with the seller.

 

[ClubMan]

Is the bill based on a reading or an estimate?
Have you checked the bill meter reading/estimate against the actual meter readings?
Perhaps you are paying for electricity used by somebody else (e.g. builders) before you moved in but after you signed up with the ESB?
You can [broken link removed] if necessary.
See here for my records of our ESB bills (description of the house included) in case it's of any use for comparison purposes (I need to update it).
I'm not sure that Duoheat units are necessarily any more cost effective than normal storage/convection heaters. In fact I didn't think that they were different at all.

 

[clio1999]

The bill does seem a bit high generally bills are bi-monthly are you sure the bil is not estimated. Our bill for 4bed just go the otehr day for 2 months with the increase is €140. Sorry I dont know anything about duoheat. But defo check your bill and see if it was estimated.

 

[CCOVICH]

For new apartments, I have heard that more than one unit can be connected to a single meter. Likewise, common areas/car parks have been fed off an apartment meter. Or that the first bill includes other usage by the builder while they were onsite. May be worth checking.

 

[Guest111]

This is actually normal I'm sorry to say.
There are a few ways to get it down to a more reasonable level, say about 150.

Never ever use the booster function on the storage heaters.
If there are two storage heaters in the main room use only one...it and the heat from cooking are more than adequate.
Set the immersion for 3 hours in the morning, say 4-7. You'll get 4 showers, dishes and a shave out of that.
Avoid using the immersion booster.
Never use the dryer for clothes during the day.
Try and use washing machine/dishwasher etc during the day.
Don't have your bedroom heaters on all the time...2 hours morning, 2 in the evening and an hour at bedtime is enough.

Speaking from experience!

 

[ClubMan]

Never ever use the booster function on the storage heaters.

I presume you mean don't switch on the convection part of a dual mode storage/convection heater? After all turning up the boost dial/switch of a storage heater doesn't use any additional electricity at that point in time - it just releases heat that was stored overnight while the electricity was being used.

Also - make sure that your master wall thermostat is not set too high. This is the thermostat that normally controls the level of background heating required and thus the amount of electricity used when the storage heaters "charge up" overnight. Of course quick changes in the weather (e.g. from cold at night to warm during the day or vice versa) can leave the place either too warm or too cold but that's just a risk you take with storage heaters.

In addition - if you do use the convection part of dual mode storage/convection heaters then make sure that any individual wall thermostats are not too high. These control how much electricity the convection heater part uses while switched on.

Try and use washing machine/dishwasher etc during the day.

Why? Ideally you should use them on the night rate to cut costs but from a fire/safety point of view this is normally not recommended.

Don't have your bedroom heaters on all the time...2 hours morning, 2 in the evening and an hour at bedtime is enough.

We never use the bedroom panel heaters as the house retains enough heat to keep the whole place relatively comfortable. If we do need a boost then we use an oil filled electric heater instead as I think it's more economical (although I've never analysed this locally).

 

[Guest111]

Sorry, I meant use those appliances at night!

I meant don't use the instant heat function of the storage...is that called the convection part?

There's a lesson there...don't type while you're on the phone!
Sorry

 

[santiago]

After all turning up the boost dial/switch of a storage heater doesn't use any additional electricity at that point in time - it just releases heat that was stored overnight while the electricity was being used.

Could doing this (releasing more of the stored heat by turning up the output dial for a boost) cause the heater to use up more electricity the following night when it's building up heat again, since it's starting from a colder state (less remaining heat)?

 

[ClubMan]

Sorry, I meant use those appliances at night!

OK - that makes more sense alright. But bear in mind that it is generally not recommended that you use heavy load appliances such as washing machines/driers etc. at night for safety reasons (assuming you are in bed and not around to keep an eye on them). The same way it is generally not recommended to put these on during the day when you are not around.

I meant don't use the instant heat function of the storage...is that called the convection part?

Yes - often storage heaters are combination heaters with a storage heater part (which "charges up" and stores heat overnight on night rate) and a convection heater part that can be switched on on demand to supplement the "background" heat provided by the storage heater. I agree that it's best to avoid the latter as far as possible.

Could doing this (releasing more of the stored heat by turning up the output dial for a boost) cause the heater to use up more electricity the following night when it's building up heat again, since it's starting from a colder state (less remaining heat)?

Ah - I was just wondering that mself. I don't really know but in my own experience whether or not the "boost" dial is turned up at all the heaters often lose most of their heat anyway during the day so I'm not sure that it makes much difference. Remember that the boost control on most (all?) storage heaters merely opens/closes vents in the heater over the heat storage bricks and is no more sophisticated than that. (Unless more modern storage heaters are fancier?).

 

[nutty nut]

There was another thread here recently along the same lines and the common denominator between the threads is "storage heaters"