Electricity costs

[FizzyPink]

My DP and I live in a small two bedroom flat on the top floor of a block of three flats. We have electricity and no gas and all heating comes from storage heaters. The electricity cost is half the price for 6 hours at night.
Bearing in mind we have yet to turn on the heating this year and are normally only in one room at a time our electricity bill is roughly £60 a month. Someone commented that we've obviously been using too much so I've been trying to only put washing on at night and unplug unused appliances.
Just wondering if anyone else thinks our bill is high and if anyone has any tips for saving electricity. Changing provider is out of the question as the flat is run by a university tenancy service.

Extortionate!
Are you sure there isn't a debt on the account your paying off (key meter), or that your powering something else? - you can check that by turning everything, and I mean EVERYTHING off at the sockets, and going to watch the meter. if its going round, your powering someone elses flat (do this when they are likely to be in - prob a weekend, as all light off evenings this time of your is likely to be difficult!)

Just as a comparison, we have no economy 7, but our elec bill comes to £35 for 4 of us in a 4 bed (gas hot water, hobs and heating when it goes on). Total fuel bill is just under 80, but thats averaged over the year, so much less in summer, and much more in winter!

It's because you have no gas to heat the water/radiators.

Lower the stat on the hot water tank to 60 and try putting it on for only half an hour not all night & if the cupboard it's in is warm when you open the door then put another tank jacket on it and put foam insulation on the pipes if they haven't already got lagging, the thicker the better.

get on to the electricity company and ask about better tariffs for storage heaters. Also just to check that you are using them properly with the input and output controls? (excuse if obvious)

yes, do check for debt on the meter.

When you say you are trying to use appliances at night what time are you doing it?

Economy 7 doesn't usually start until 11-12ish.

Anything you use outside of those times is charged at ahigher rate than normal.

never mind the £60, how many kwh do you use per month, summer and winter?

What are you charged per kWh?

How much per month is the standing charge?

bill amounts are very misleading as they are generally based on estimates and forecasts, and often include previous under/over payments.

Do you have a hot water cylinder? What colour is it? When is it heated?

Do you use an electric shower? It probably costs about £1.50 per hour.

How old is the building, and what insulation does it have? are you on the top or bottom floor?

Thanks for all your replies. We've only been living here about three months so this is the first bill we've had. The boiler is set to be on from 10 at night to 8 in the morning so I think we'll look at shortening that time. Just out of interest how long do people have their boiler on for during the day? Bearing in mind there's only two of us to shower etc.
I also noticed our boiler doesn't have a jacket and the pipes are all open and giving off heat so will sort this ASAP.
I don't think we're wasting money on the storage heaters as we haven't turned on the heating yet and they're all switched on at the wall.
The bill we received is estimated but I've looked at our meter and the readings are pretty accurate. It says weve used 554 kWh during the day and 217 kWh at night. This is over a 60day period. Our standing charge is 18p per day.
Sorry for the inane questions but this is the first flat we've living in by ourselves after living with groups of friends so no idea about most things household related!!!

when you say boiler, you mean hot water cylinder?

It really must be insulated. Get two red cylinder jackets, one on top of the other. Overlap to stagger the joints. Pay special attention to covering the top. The round plastic cap of the immersions heater(s) should not be insulated over, but should poke through.

Insulating the cylinder will pay for itself in weeks.

Asuming the immersion heater thermostat(s) are working they will stop drawing power when it is up to temperature. This may take several hours. If you have an off-peak supply, try to heat it fully overnight, and only use a daytime topup if you run out.

Also insulate the hot pipes with climaflex or similar rigid foam. The pipes will probably be 15mm or 22mm. Seldom 28mm. Measure first so you get the right size. Unless the pipes are tight to the wall you may be able to fit the BS "Water Regulations" grade which is as thick as your arm. You might not find it in the high street. You cut the foam with a serrated knife. Mitre and tape the joins to avois leaving exposed copper.

I'm thinking £60 is quite good? Seeing as you're not paying for gas.

We have storage heaters as well however have no heating on right now as it's quite warm in our apartment. Our water heater comes on in the early hours (before 6am) to make the most of Economy 7. We pay around £60 a month for electricity for two of us. I always put the dishwasher on at night but cant do the washing/dryer as the former is incredibly noisy!

Piglet - might be a daft question but how will the jacket help the water cylinder? Will it keep the water hotter for longer?

yes indeed.

like a thermos flask compared to a hot kettle.

With the water staying hot it will not need electricity tipped in to re-heat it.

I heard on the radio recently that tenancy agreements that say you can't change energy suppliers are not enforceable as it's not legal to stop tenants changing. might be worth checking out the looking at changing suppliers (as well as lagging the boiler/pipes)

4 of us here. Kids share a bath. Dh usually showers twice a day.
Hot water goes on for an hour first thing, and an hour before the kids bed time. We've not run out of hot water yet.
iirc, when the boiler wasn't on a timer in my student days, it was 20 mins to heat the tank to acceptable level.

Can you turn the temperature down on the hot water tank?