How do people afford storage heaters? is this too much?

[upsetandang]

Right so we put the heaters on in the hallway and the living room last night. storage heaters so should be cheaper on that 7-7 economy 7.
it cost us £4.50 for the night.
thats over 30 a week and just over £125 a month.

we don't use our heaters because of this- its just too much money.
Does this sound like average to people?

In our old place we had central heating so we only had it on for an hour or so to warm up, maybe on for a couple more hours in the day.
our whole electric bill back then was £80 a month so just having 2 heaters on alone will cost us over 45 pounds more than our entire electric bill that wasn't on a key meter.
(and when I left i had over paid and got about 200 pounds back)

I just can't justify it!
I've been using hot water bottles and blankets and copious amounts of tea and hot chocolate to keep us all warm- hot porridge for breakfast, something warm for lunch etc but it is miserable.

How do people afford it? I want to know. I have a new baby so will have to suck up the cost this winter but I'm not sure how.
we already save as much money as we can in all other areas of our life-
I'm not asking for charity just the ins and outs of everyone's lecky bills please
(no gas for us)

I used to pay £40 a week elec for my old small house with storage heaters.... this was 8 years ago tho x

I can vouch for oil filled radiators, we managed to get 2 branded ones from Shpock for £40 the pair as our boiler has broke and we have to wait 2 weeks for the council to get a boiler in. They heat up the room really well but you will have to mind baby with them though as they do get quite hot. Might be worth asking the council to change the heating system if possible?

I have 2 storage heaters in my 2 bed flat (all electric) as it's £70 per month for all the electric. (Heating on October to April, hot water all the time)
So they seem quite good value to me?
Are you sure you are in right tarrif?

My heaters are from 1985 and seem fine.

A brief google shows a 2kw heater should cost around 13p per hour to run. Yours 2 are around 32p per hour?

We had them at work. They are indeed pants. We had to check the weather for the following day and adjust the settings accordingly. If we forgot and the weather changed it was either boiling or freezing!

Last flat was all electric and storage heaters - £45 a month (moved out three years ago, so would be more now).

This flat is gas (Central heating and water) and electric, dual fuel bill is £33 per month.

I also agree that storage heaters are crap - I lived in a rented house with them and absolutely hated them - but also when you say this:

our whole electric bill back then was £80 a month so just having 2 heaters on alone will cost us over 45 pounds more than our entire electric bill that wasn't on a key meter.

Do you mean that you're now on a pre-pay and weren't before? I think they're often inherently more expensive - which is shit, and a classic example of charging people money for being poor. It's notoriously hard to get a company to remove a pre-pay once it's in, but it might be worth speaking to them about it if you have a history of paying on time at your old house?

Storage heaters are not the great money saving option they have always been cracked up to be.I had them years ago in a property and they were not only ugly to look at but as others have said your rooms are either too hot or go cold and there isn't a quick way to remedy it other than plug in some other type of heater.

Never again.

I have storage heaters. Last year I hated them and ended up with a massive heating bill which meant I couldn't afford food for around 3 weeks, but I didn't know how to use them properly. Now I put it on around midnight and switch it off in the morning when I get up. I also close the doors in the rooms it's on to trap the heat in and it stays warm all day. The only one I've never used is the kitchen one. The cooker warms it up enough when it's on. I do still prefer central heating though

I have the same problem OP. I was paying £50-£60 a week on electricity and we were still cold!
I bought 2 oil filled radiators 2 years ago and they work brilliantly. I’m in a 3 bedroom flat and have 1 in the living room/kitchen and one in the hallway. Although most of the time I don’t need the hallway one on as we just open the living room door and it’s enough to warm through. I just put them in the cupboard for summer.