I've had storage heaters in my house since I moved in and not had a
massive problem with electricity bills. Recently though, I've had a
frightening bill from British Gas who say that in a month my night
rate electricity has used just over 1000 units (I gave a meter reading
about a month ago and compared it with todays). Even the BG bloke
seemed surprised.

What they have asked me to do is monitor the reading at the same time
every day for 7 days and then call them back with the information.
They will then do some sums and work out if the meter needs checking.

My big question is this: Is is feasable that the meter can go tits-up
as this is what they seem to be suggesting? Its a new electronic dual
rate one..

Incidentally if someone could point out the typical consumption of an
18 brick Dimplex storage heater, I can also do some sums. I'm
assuming they are around 1.5 - 2.5 kWh?

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 23:18:42 +0100, Oshiponga wrote:

I've had storage heaters in my house since I moved in and not had a
massive problem with electricity bills. Recently though, I've had a
frightening bill from British Gas who say that in a month my night
rate electricity has used just over 1000 units

Period 13 Jan 7th Apr one, occasionally two, storage heaters used
2546 units. These where to keep the frost out of the cottage, and
where almost certainly cooling out during the day and thus taking full
charge over night, the maths bears that out 90 days 7hrs/day is
630hrs. 2546/630 = 4kw/hr on average. One heater is a biggie 3kW (ish)
the other 1.5kW or maybe 2.

So 1000kW/hrs for a whole house in a month doesn't strike me as to far
from the mark.

What they have asked me to do is monitor the reading at the same
time every day for 7 days and then call them back with the
information. They will then do some sums and work out if the meter
needs checking.

How is reading the meter the suspect meter going to help work out if
it's gone wonky? Unless they think it's rate switching is wrong and
it's charging to much power at the night (aka cheap) rate.

Incidentally if someone could point out the typical consumption of
an 18 brick Dimplex storage heater, I can also do some sums. I'm
assuming they are around 1.5 - 2.5 kWh?

2.5kWh for 7 hrs is 17.5kWhrs for 30 days is 525 units. Say you have 4
of these and they only take half a charge and you have 1000 units as
near as damn it...

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

So 1000kW/hrs for a whole house in a month doesn't strike me as to far
from the mark.

Thing is, what I may not have made clear is that this is literally for
one and a half storage heaters. One in the living room on at about
half charge rate for the full month and one in the bedroom on the same
charge for about 2 of the weeks in the month.

To me, that seems excessive.

Andy.

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Oshiponga wrote:

I've had storage heaters in my house since I moved in and not had a
massive problem with electricity bills. Recently though, I've had a
frightening bill from British Gas who say that in a month my night
rate electricity has used just over 1000 units (I gave a meter reading
about a month ago and compared it with todays). Even the BG bloke
seemed surprised.

What they have asked me to do is monitor the reading at the same time
every day for 7 days and then call them back with the information.
They will then do some sums and work out if the meter needs checking.

My big question is this: Is is feasable that the meter can go tits-up
as this is what they seem to be suggesting? Its a new electronic dual
rate one..

Incidentally if someone could point out the typical consumption of an
18 brick Dimplex storage heater, I can also do some sums. I'm
assuming they are around 1.5 - 2.5 kWh?

Are you sure that BOTH meter readings are correct? Are they both *actual*
readings, or is one an estimate? Estimated readings can be quite different
from real ones!

Storage heaters *can* consume a lot of energy. Some have inputs as high as
3.5Kw. If one such heater is running full chat for 7 hours, every night for
a month, it will use 735 kWh.

I note from your subsequent post that you have more than one - but that they
are on half-charge. I'm not sure what that means. It could mean reduced
power input. It could also mean that it cuts out before it gets to its max
rated temperature. In this second case, if it loses all its heat during the
day, it could still be taking in heat all night.
--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is Black Hole!

I note from your subsequent post that you have more than one - but that they
are on half-charge.

What I mean by that, is that the input is 1 - 5 (5 being full chat)
and the dial is set to 2.5. I have no real understanding of how this
relates to chucking heat out during the day. I assumed that at this
setting, the heater charges half way, or only consumes half the
electricity, kind of, er...

Andy.

Oshiponga wrote in
:

I've had storage heaters in my house since I moved in and not had a
massive problem with electricity bills. Recently though, I've had a
frightening bill from British Gas who say that in a month my night
rate electricity has used just over 1000 units (I gave a meter reading
about a month ago and compared it with todays). Even the BG bloke
seemed surprised.

What they have asked me to do is monitor the reading at the same time
every day for 7 days and then call them back with the information.
They will then do some sums and work out if the meter needs checking.

My big question is this: Is is feasable that the meter can go tits-up
as this is what they seem to be suggesting? Its a new electronic dual
rate one..

Incidentally if someone could point out the typical consumption of an
18 brick Dimplex storage heater, I can also do some sums. I'm
assuming they are around 1.5 - 2.5 kWh?


When I first moved into my old flat years ago I had all the heaters on full
- 2 living room and 1 in bedroom, bathroom and kitchen. Back then I was on
a token meter. The electricity consumption was frightening. In the end I
could only run the one heater in the living room. Awful things. Really hot
during the day and really cold on a night when you want heat. The knob to
reduced output makes naff all difference, but you wouldn't expect it to -
just wiggles a metal flap. Whilst hunting a mouse I also found the
instructions in the back of one of the heaters - all burnt to a crisp.
Sigh.


--
john

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/dwarfinleopardskin

On Thu, 22 Apr 2004 12:43:53 +0100, Oshiponga wrote:

So 1000kW/hrs for a whole house in a month doesn't strike me as to
far from the mark.

Thing is, what I may not have made clear is that this is literally
for one and a half storage heaters. One in the living room on at
about half charge rate for the full month and one in the bedroom on
the same charge for about 2 of the weeks in the month.

Selective quoting is wonderful is it not?

The rest of my post to back up the above statement was also for one
and a bit heaters.

See other post about what the "charge" control does. It does limit the
maximum temperature the bricks get up too, thus the total amount of
stored heat. If you are letting out most of that heat during the day
then the heater will be taking power for most if not all of the off
peak period to get hot again...

1000 units over 31 days at 7hrs a day is an average load of 4.6kW. Two
3kW heaters and one only on for part of the period, as you say, could
average that without to much difficulty. Remember it has been
winter...

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail