How to reduce 2-bed apartment electricity bills?

shoegirl

maddragon wrote: »

This is an approximation but a storage heater is usually about 2kw and is on from midnight till 8am every day so 16Kwh x 60 days per billing period is 960 kwh x 0.18 cents is 173 eur for this one appliance. As I said, they are a disaster and they don't even give heat as and when you want it to boot. The best way to use them for heat is to dismantle them and use the blocks inside for doing weights.

Brilliant but very true. My experience of these is that they are so useless at heating there is no point in having them on at all. The main problem I found was that the heat was released during the day which is when I was at work. In the last place I lived in with storage heating alone I couldn't get the heat above 12C which was pointless. The fact that the landlady had a mickey mouse extension which effectively cut all natural light out of 80% of the apartment only exacerbated the problem.

I'd suggest turning them off altogether and using convection or gas heaters (with co2 monitors as suggested for safety). I found an electric blanket a very useful way to improve heating. Lastly, and this is something useful even where heating is ok, use draught excluders in front of the main doors to prevent heat from being lost.

The reason storage heating is preferred is that there is little or no maintenance for the landlord, also I recall they were very popular in the 1970s during the oil crisis when electricity was cheaper and more readily than oil, which is when a lot of these properties were built originally.

An Ri rua

maddragon wrote: »

This is an approximation but a storage heater is usually about 2kw and is on from midnight till 8am every day so 16Kwh x 60 days per billing period is 960 kwh x 0.18 cents is 173 eur for this one appliance. As I said, they are a disaster and they don't even give heat as and when you want it to boot. The best way to use them for heat is to dismantle them and use the blocks inside for doing weights.

Nope, if the devi reg is set correctly then unless its -2 or -4 outside, then you're not going to see a storage heater kicking in at switch-over. It will vary between 1AM tight up as far as 4am. I've never seen mine switch on to charge at the time nightsaver kicks in. Probably because I always set output at 1 which means that there's a steady discharge all day and right into the night. It means that the input charge is heating up a warmish brick. I would top up the apartment at night with a 2kw convection heater.

Last bill for Dec & jan was 170. I was very snug at that. One 2.5kw on at input 6 and two others on at input 4. All set and left at output 1, unless I was drying clothes near one.

But now, I've switched them off and fired up my trusty Inverter 5006. Search Boards for more on them, I've posted many times about them. Its a modern paraffin heater, very likely not allowed in most apartment blocks but not disallowed on my lease and, as there are no house rules issued and as some of my neighbours smoke even though that's not allowed, I figure I may as well use my 3.2kw demon. Last week's heat cost me a €5. For a 22C living area. Of course, not suitable for night heating or unattended heating and also not suitable I would think around pets or children. In fact, not suited around adults that are not methodical and careful with regards to potentially dangerous equipment. I store my paraffin discreetly on my balcony, disguised within a rubbish bin. I have my own correct fire extinguisher for it. I have a background in oil. Anyone careless should not investigate such devices. Stick to modern living and 'fire and forget' solutions like leccy.

Mimikyu

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