Can’t afford to heat the office

[Hormonal23]

My partner and I have a small office that we opened at the end of spring up until November we haven’t had to use the heating (storage heaters). As we are a business the rates aren’t capped and are bill just came through for 550 pounds for the month and that was with the heating not fully on as it was t as cold as it is now. we’ve had to turn the heating off and I sat with water bottle electric blanket hat gloves and scarf on today. Are night rate is cheaper than the day rate I suffer from raynauds so I’ve had to go home to defrost my feet as it was painful. We can’t have clients turn up to the office if it’s frozen im not sure what to do it’s a really new business and can’t afford to carry on of the heating has to be paid.

There are laws regarding minimum workplace temperature - 16 degrees C which isn't hot if you're sitting down. So if you have staff you will need to provide them with this minimum temperature. If it's just you and your partner - could you work in a hotel / pub ? There has been lost of news articles about people working in hotel lobbies / pubs rather than working at home. Is your business decant-able to the local ? At a minimum you could meet clients at the pub or a local hotel? I'm sure you would have to buy several coffees at a minimum. I found a link which might give you some ideas - www.youngs.co.uk/work-from-pub

There are no actual laws...just guidance in England.

PP is right - there are no laws covering workplace temperature, only guidance www.gov.uk/workplace-temperatures#:~:text=There's%20no%20law%20for%20minimum,for%20a%20maximum%20temperature%20limit.
After all, if there were set temperatures then it would be illegal to work in an abbatoir or steel foundry.

£500 for one month? How many rooms is the office? It sounds excessively high even now that fuel prices are through the roof.

It’s just one big room but it’s a building it’s not actually that big but business energy rates are through the roof. We actually need space in the office to be able to work a coffee shop or pub wouldn’t provide enough space. pluss I would have to lug loads of folders and documents and be able to spread out plus we are open to the public who pop in when we are open.

You need to do something about insulation then. What sort of construction is the building?

What kind of heating do you have ? if its electric storage heaters they warm up through the night and then kick out heating during the day (well that's what they are supposed to do) my office has them and we are all still layering up whilst sat at work. Have you given readings recently ? I've resorted to giving them readings 4 or 5 days before the bill is generated so that it is a true bill and not an estimated on, mind you last months bill was over £1000 so dreading this one.

If you own/mortgage the office space then there are grants out there that pay a big chunk towards having things like eco-boilers installed with radiators if it means that you are doing away with things like 2000W-2500W portable heaters. You just need to show proof that you're wasting electric on multiple, high wattage heaters (photo evidence etc). Otherwise, ask the landlord to look into it.

Other than that, change your storage heaters to newer, lower wattage ones. You can get fan heaters for around £25 each, that have low wattage heat settings of 650W and 1000W.
You can also get some window insulation film very cheaply and put it over the windows yourself, it's almost invisible so clients won't notice it.

We don’t own the building it’s rented but for next to from some family we can’t afford to replace the heaters. We give regular meter readings and the office is well insulated. The heater stores heat and night and to do that it’s using ex amount of electric and with how much the electric cost per kw it’s coming to 500 or more we are on the cheapest deal there is a slighty cheaper one but our night rate is cheaper on this one so it works out better value