High electricity consumption at night

[JohnW2]

Well... last quarterly one was £270 for a one-bed flat in the middle of a block. It's warm (maybe from the flat underneath, I don't know) and she rarely puts the radiator on. £90 a month seems excessive?

Although my house is much larger than a one-bed flat, I have no electric heating, but my bills are nevertheless a bit more than that.

I think she said it went up a lot maybe 6 months ago, but I'm not sure...

That's an important question - she (or you!) need to look at some of the old bills! Even before the recent/present very large rises, the cost has gone up a fair bit more in the last two or three years, usually each April - so the first bill she got after last year's rise will probably not have been much more than 6 months ago..

Kind Regards, John

 

[Roger465]

Thanks John - but for me I suppose the suspicious thing is that the SWALEC girl told her the heavy consumption was during the night, when nothing much is turned on really...

 

[ericmark]

And what's this exactly?

Expansion vessel water expands when heated, so either a header tank or expansion vessel is required. Likely for domestic hot water not central heating.

Yes, and here's a pic of the consumer unit (one of them):

That seems like the supply to storage heaters, likely you can switch off whole consumer unit and all lights and sockets will still work.

I had a storage radiator at work, it was to evaluate the bricks we were making for them, started using concrete instead of clay, it was not a success, as when heated for the first time the iron ore changed state, and it caused water to be produced which ran out of bottom of storage radiator, the idea had been pressing bricks rather than baking them would cost less, but had to bake them any way to remove water.

However it was turned off, set to no output, but to keep the energy inside the unit at 900°C is simply not going to happen, it still heated my office.

And that is the problem with the storage radiator, you can alter how fast the heat leaves it, but can't stop it. There have been some systems with a central brick store which could retain the heat for a week, and also large water stores, but they take up a lot of room, so not really an option as an after thought.

There was a control for how much heat goes in, hotter the bricks the more heat it can give out during the day, cooler the bricks less heat it stores. but it was the trying to estimate how much heat is needed next day which means they don't really work.

Not seen answer is she on a duel rate, as said so many still have the heaters but have got rid of the duel tariff.

If not on a smart meter or a duel tariff not sure how they know power used over night, however it could be she still has two meters even when she no longer has split tariff, so that is still the big question.

 

[JohnW2]

Thanks John - but for me I suppose the suspicious thing is that the SWALEC girl told her the heavy consumption was during the night, when nothing much is turned on really...

As has been suggested, it sounds as if that is probably the storage heaters. My usage is also high at night since, although I have no electric space heating I do have an immersion, which is usually on on at night - but that alone (even with n unusually high level of lagging of my HW cylinder) accounts for about one third of my total electricity consumption which, even at 'cheap' night-time E7 rate probably accounts for best part of £30 per month.

Kind Regards, John

 

[Diver Fred]

Well... last quarterly one was £270 for a one-bed flat in the middle of a block. It's warm (maybe from the flat underneath, I don't know) and she rarely puts the radiator on.

£90 a month seems excessive?

I think she said it went up a lot maybe 6 months ago, but I'm not sure...

That certainly seems excessive - my retired tenant who is on a pre-payment meter with NSH is paying less than £200 per quarter.

If the flat is 'warm' it would seem that the heaters are on so switching off at the CU has to be a good start.

 

[Mottie]

We have a three bed semi. Just two of us here. I fixed our fuel prices in October just before they went crazy so they are a lot lower than those on a variable tariff. Even so, our electricity usage at this time of year is around £60 per month and we have a gas hob, gas heating and gas hot water. If we were all electric, I'd expect it to be well over £150 a month so £90 for someone who is all electric doesn't seem too bad to me.

 

[Roger465]

OK an update. Firstly, thanks to everybody who has contributed useful thoughts and suggestions.

The rads do indeed have two cables, and two wall switches. Since she’s lived in the flat, the actual storage heaters have never been switched on; on the rare occasions she doesn't get enough heat from the surrounding flats (I assume that’s why she never gets cold), she has turned the convector portion of the rad in the living room on, and off again when she goes to bed.

Given that SWALEC have told her the heavy consumption is at night (yes, she has two meters/dual tariff), and the storage heaters are never switched on, I can’t see what it might be except the immersion heater…anybody think different?

 

[ETAF]

Meter readings estimates , based on when the storage heaters where used - years ago , or just a guess

or meter is faulty, or when its switched over to night rate, we had a old timer , that was wrong and gave us cheap electricity upto about 11am , so all washing etc planned then

hence why it maybe worth a photo of the meter
and then turn that CU off and see what the readings are like

Immersion heater on all day/night - then should expect day to be higher then night, as you only draw hot water when in the property and during the day, so i would suspect the water is heated during the day

Bill readings ???

 

[Roger465]

Here's a picture of the meter... is it possible to tell when the switchover takes place?

I suppose she could switch one of the storage heaters on, and watch for when the switch lights up...?

 

[ETAF]

you may have a clock in the same cupboard, we had , also i have seen a clock on digital meters - which switches over to the Storage heater consumer unit.
Which you may have
But there are radio controlled switch over units

The immersion heater may have 2 elements , 1 is controlled by that CU , and a 2nd which is at the top of tank for a boost

you should see the small disc spinning
If you turn off the Storage heater CU, that may slow right down , depending on time of day and whats on
just boil a kettle and you will see it spin a lot

 

[ericmark]

1983? I thought they had to be changed every 20 years? I do not know the meter, however returning to main question is what tariff is she on? Just because it is a duel tariff meter it does not mean she is on a duel tariff.

I would turn off the CU with the 4 x 16 amp MCB's then middle of night say 2 am, check if electric meter is turning, then turn on the CU and recheck. I think output of heaters may be off, but input is still on?

I will guess she is not on a duel tariff which would explain high cost of electric.

 

[Chunky19]

That appears to be a Sangamo Teleswitch to the right. There is a small red lever behind the glass which shows the on/off state of the off peak. Also the red indicator near the 1/10th indicator on the meter shows which set of dials are active at the time.