Really Expensive Bills!

faith1984 Fri Feb 22, 2013 9:35 am

I moved into a private all electric flat about a year ago and my partner was looking after the electric bill and have just discovered that at the moment we use approx £86 per month!! OMG I went nuts!

We have eliminated the usage of a majority of our appliances and changed all bulbs and appliances to low energy of a* rating to induce lower electric costs when we moved in as we have no gas.

We are now under the assumption that this is the boiler (PulsaCoil A Class) and have checked and double checked to ensure that this is set up right however reading the instruction manual and various FAQ's still bewildered with the best way to operate. Unfortunately we do not have an on peak and off peak electric box however a timer has been fitted (Time Guard) which we have changed to come on between 2am and 5am in the morning as this is where our off peak rates are and reading up about the boiler understand it takes three hours to heat through the tank.

My partner believed that he turned off the hot plate however after two and half days of this switch being turned off we found that no hot water was being issued. I have now ensured that this switch is on. The other switch seems to run the off peak setting however this is also attached to the time guard timer.

I turned off the boiler completely when resetting the timer to ensure that no fault was made, and then switched back on. Within three hours the tank had heated up and now worried as I am trying to dramatically reduce the electric bill as I was expecting the tank to heat up between 2am and 5am! I have checked to make sure that the timer is off which it is and have ensured that this comes on and off when the timer reaches the desired time!

I checked the isolation box where this is connected to two rcd's - one as water immersion and the other as water heater! This is where I now become stuck! I need to make sure that the PulsaCoil does not heat water through out the day and only between the hours I require! There is only myself and my partner and other than two showers, washing up and washing hands we do not require any more hot water and feel like the system is costing more than what it should!!

Please could someone help and please be kind with the technical jargon! How can I set up my timer to heat the tank on my off peak setting???

Mario.S Fri Feb 22, 2013 4:23 pm

1. find the exact times for your Off Peak supply from your energy supply company. Set the timer for those hours on your off peak immersion timer.
2. PC A class has 2 Switches on the wall, one to switch the Boiler on and of completely ( this has to stay on all times to get any hot water if available and is indicated with the green on off switch on the Boiler on or off !!), the other is for the off peak immersion heater only.
3. a bit of calculation !! 1 immersion heater with 3kw running for 3h = 9kw/h times the cost of your energy per unit (1 unit=1kw/h, I guess £0.14) times 30 Days is £37.80 for your hot water only , plus all other use ( storage heater, electro hob, dishwasher, kettle, tumble dryer....)
I hope this helps
Mario at Mario's Boiler service

Ncope68 Wed Apr 17, 2013 6:52 pm

faith1984 wrote:I moved into a private all electric flat about a year ago and my partner was looking after the electric bill and have just discovered that at the moment we use approx £86 per month!! OMG I went nuts!

We have eliminated the usage of a majority of our appliances and changed all bulbs and appliances to low energy of a* rating to induce lower electric costs when we moved in as we have no gas.

We are now under the assumption that this is the boiler (PulsaCoil A Class) and have checked and double checked to ensure that this is set up right however reading the instruction manual and various FAQ's still bewildered with the best way to operate. Unfortunately we do not have an on peak and off peak electric box however a timer has been fitted (Time Guard) which we have changed to come on between 2am and 5am in the morning as this is where our off peak rates are and reading up about the boiler understand it takes three hours to heat through the tank.

My partner believed that he turned off the hot plate however after two and half days of this switch being turned off we found that no hot water was being issued. I have now ensured that this switch is on. The other switch seems to run the off peak setting however this is also attached to the time guard timer.

I turned off the boiler completely when resetting the timer to ensure that no fault was made, and then switched back on. Within three hours the tank had heated up and now worried as I am trying to dramatically reduce the electric bill as I was expecting the tank to heat up between 2am and 5am! I have checked to make sure that the timer is off which it is and have ensured that this comes on and off when the timer reaches the desired time!

I checked the isolation box where this is connected to two rcd's - one as water immersion and the other as water heater! This is where I now become stuck! I need to make sure that the PulsaCoil does not heat water through out the day and only between the hours I require! There is only myself and my partner and other than two showers, washing up and washing hands we do not require any more hot water and feel like the system is costing more than what it should!!

Please could someone help and please be kind with the technical jargon! How can I set up my timer to heat the tank on my off peak setting???

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Really Expensive Bills!

Really Expensive Bills!

Re: Really Expensive Bills!

Is this really right that the tank only takes 3 hours to fully re-heat? We have ours on for the full 7 hours but now you've got me wondering as we only need 2 showers a day and sometimes 1 bath in the evening.

Re: Really Expensive Bills!