Cost of Electramate 2000, is this right? Or is it using too much electricity?

Here's my situation:
I live in a two bed flat, renting, with a top-up key for the electric meter. I have the electramate 2000 installed and I am paying between £20-£30 per week on electricity, or about £120 a month which I believe most of is caused by the electramate. The only other electrical appliance that is used regularly is the TV, but only for a couple of hours in the evening.

I only live with one other person, we shower once a day, and only have the heating on for half an hour in the morning. (because it's proven much too expensive to run for longer than that.) We don't own a washing machine and the electramate has always been on the 'Summer' switch, as we found it used about £1 an hour to turn the heating on in Winter mode. And we both work 9-5 Monday-Friday so are not there that often in the day.

I'm thinking that maybe one issue could be that after both showers in the morning, the water sometimes runs cold, so the electramate would be heating up water again at peak times, but surely it can't be this expensive?

My question is, do you think there is something wrong with the Electramate? Or is this a normal amount to pay? Or if anyone else has been in this boat at all, can you share your experiences?

Thank you for any responses!

I realise that this comes across as a question about cost, when this is a forum for repairs, but I'm just wondering if at that price that something would be wrong with the EM2000.

I don't want to ring up the landlord to get someone in when there's nothing wrong with it. So does this situation look out of place to anyone?

First of all.
Read the user book.
And the Installation book.
Down load free from Gledhill.
Ascertain how yours has been installed in comparison to the books.
Are you on E7? Or E10 ?
With any electric thermal store E7 really is required.
7 hours half price during the night time.
But you must check the rates and costs because it is possible to obtain a cheaper supply with out E7.
Although the cost per unit may be cheaper.
Standing charges ref the E7 can bump the cost up.
Comparison site may help you.
Mike

Hi
The Electramate design is poorly for the use of economy10, as stated in the manual. You could use this with economy 7 but the best efficiency you get from economy 10. The summer/winter switch on the Electramate is only effecting the heating in terms of settings, as the demand on heat in the thermal store is higher in the peak times in winter, as in summer you mostly do hot water with the boiler. As far as I am aware of, the key meter has no economy set up in any kind ( and there is also no economy tariff on the market for those meters), so you always run on the most expensive rate for your electricity and there for you getting only 75% efficiency out of this boiler. ( means with economy 10 you would save about 25% to 30% of your energy bill)
Another fact, you have to recognise is, the cost of electric energy compared to Gas. Best tariff for electric is (economy 10 rate for off peak) £0.09/ kwh. Gas would be (using wobbe index 20 for north sea gas) £0.018/kwh ( based on £0.36/m3 Gas). So, in a identical property with gas use, for heating and hot water , you would of course pay match less as you do on electric. As the Electramate, running with economy 10, would run about 30 to 40% more expensive than an gas system and capping in mind it is using 90% more expensive energy to do so, as you property do not bother if you use gas or electric, it needed the same amount of energy to do the same amount of heat or hot water. This means of course, the Electramate is a very efficient system as an electric heating and hot water system.
I hope this helps a bit to understand the system bit better.
kind regards Mario at Mario's Boiler Service

Mine just cost me £144 in one month -and we are in a very similar scenario as yourself.

I consider this to be too expensive and have enquired as to any possible reasons why it may be using so much electricity. I am wondering if the pressure is too low on our boiler - it is about 0.75bar and I think it needs to be above 1..?

n34panda wrote:Mine just cost me £144 in one month -and we are in a very similar scenario as yourself.

I consider this to be too expensive and have enquired as to any possible reasons why it may be using so much electricity.  I am wondering if the pressure is too low on our boiler - it is about 0.75bar and I think it needs to be above 1..?

Answering both of you:

It's important to separate out the following issues:

1) How much electricity is being used (in KwHours, the unit of electricity measurement)
2) The price(s) being paid for this electricity
3) The times of day and night this electricity is being consumed

For 1) and 3) you need to familiarise yourselves with your electricity meter and how to read it. For 2) you need to check an electricity bill to find out what tariff you are on.

If you are on an 'off peak tariff' such as E7 or E10, you buy electricity at a far lower price at night than during the day, and your meter will have two separate readings. One tells you the number of units consumed in the daytime (on peak) and the other tells you the number of units consumed during the night (off peak).

Now you need to take a note of both readings, then take readings again a day or two later. Subtract the first reading from the second to get your on peak consumption and your off peak consumption figures. If the number of on peak units consumed is substantiallyhigher than the number of off peak units, then yes there is probably something wrong with the Electramate. It is supposed to heat up to a higher temp during the off peak period so fewer units are used in the on peak times.

There is a second power supply into an Electramate 9kW (the most common model) which tells it when the off peak low cost electricity is available and in each of the several cases where I've been called in to investigate high leccy bills, this has turned out to be either turned OFF, or not connected, or not working. This lead to the unit running mostly on daytime expensive electricity. This will be apparent from the split of off peak electricity and on peak electricity from your meter readings.

Your electricity bills will also tell you how many off peak and on peak units you have consumed, and the price you are paying for each.

Hope that helps you do a bit of investigation for yourselves.

Mike

Edit - not for this thread sorry!