Electric Key Meter

[littlesally]

As anyone who is on Facebook will know, my flat is COLD. Two jumpers and a hot water bottle cold at the moment and that is with a heater on.

During the summer I was putting £20 a month on the electric. I had the heater on once or twice a week (mainly to dry my washing) and showered once or twice a day.

Now I have put on £60 this month!!
I work full time and put off using the heater until about 8 and turn it off around 10.30.
Yesterday, fed up of being cold, I had the heating on for 9 hours. That cost me £5. The flat wasn't even all that warm for the for the first five hours!
At that rate it will cost £150 a month!
Surely this cannot be right?

There is no way I can afford this and in the evening curl up with a hot water bottle and keep the heating off.

I don't shower every day - the thought of getting out of a warm shower in to my cold flat is the biggest deterrant.

My bed is on an outside wall, it has to be. Behind the bed are brown patches and it is wet. I have now pulled the bed away from the wall slightly. The bathroom is permamently wet around the window and has brown patches. I can't open the windows to get rid of this condensation as it is cold enough with them shut.

So what can I do?
Can I force my landlord to get rid of the key meter?
Surely the condition of the flat will deteriate with out sufficient heat.

Any idea's anyone?
Sally xx

[Amethyst]

Re: Electric Key Meter

Honey, I'm on a key meter too, and yep it is flaming freezing.

They do cost the same pence per kwh but theres an extra standing charge per week.

I did same as you and put heating on after realising we were all sitting in our coats still at 8pm and left it on till about half three this morning, has taken the chill off but yes cost just over a fiver. I'm putting £20 a week on now which is mental. I don't have it on at all during the day when the kids are out, and usually just it on from 3pm till about 9pm when theres enough money to do it. Yesterday there wasn't but it was mental so I used the overdraft up lol. I only have the radiator in the lounge on, bathroom and kitchen are freezing and so are the bedrooms, kids slept on sofas last night which isnt ideal.

I have my hot water on a timer, and it does one bath of water basically a day so i alternate bath/washingup/bath/washingup lol.

Kids room has two outside walls on a hill so very open to elements and their walls have bigs patches of mould on which i have to clean off every few days and the wallpaper all along the main outside wall (end terrace) is always damp.

Have painted with a protector solution thing but doesnt really help, am sure its unhealthy for the kids, hence them sleeping on sofas when its really cold.

I don't think its the way we pay for electric that is the problem, the standing charge is only an extra £2 a week to normal people, its the electric heating that racks it up.

Mine is an 11kw boiler thing with radiators. So at 10.7ppkwh its basically £1.10 an hour to have heating on, and of course you need lights, water and lappy working too.

My stat at the moment after having the heating on last night till 3am is now at 14 degrees. I have it set to 22 for when heatings on. When i'm in bed, and during the day, i can see my breath in the air.

It does get depressing being cold all the time and you end up just staying in bed.


£20 a week is a lot of money IMO to still be freezing cold. My house (2 bed victorian end terrace) is a bit bigger than your flat - and you have that giant window in the lounge which won't help - have you got thicker curtains up now? I keep mine shut 24/7 basically. Though I do open the front lounge ones during the day.


Gas is much more efficient but I would guess you can't get gas into your flat. a credit meter wouldnt make that much difference you;d just have massive bills at the end of each quarter.

[Amethyst]

Re: Electric Key Meter

theres a couple threads on the mould caused by **** heating I was reading yesterday on MSE - they do say things like leave a window open (yeah right) for ventilation and have heat on low constantly (another yeah right).

Why is my house mouldy? - MoneySavingExpert.com Forums

[Mochamoo]

Re: Electric Key Meter

Removing keymeters is really expensive mine cost 200 quid to get rid of. Firstly check you are only paying your electricity, I found out my meter was taking a debt off automatically every week for the people who lived here before us.

Also, is everything heating wise working properly, do you have the economny 7 heaters, radiators, wall heater? Make your landlord check they are fully functional and not just sucking electric.

Unfortunatley you have to keep the flat in a habitable condition, which means keeping it aired to prevent things like mould - sorry.

January sales coming up, I know it sounds silly but invest in some thermals, I did when we were on the key meter, they are not attractive but they really help!

I dont know where you get it from but my mother used to put clear plastic over the windows every winter, heated the plastic witht the hair dryer till it was skin tight over the windows and voila tempoary triple galzing for windows. Apparently it really helps keep the heat in.

Do you have everything draft excluded, internal doors kept closed ect?
------------------------------- merged -------------------------------
this stuff Glazing Film - MoneySavingExpert.com Forums

[Sapphire]

Re: Electric Key Meter

When I bought my first house, (4 bedroomed, detached, very expensive to heat) it was a repossession and the old owners had ripped everything out. All it had was the old fashioned hot air heating and cost a fortune to run. So I went for 5 years without central heating brrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Anyway's I invested in two of the wheelie Calor Gas Fires, one for upstairs and one for downstairs, ok it wasn't perfect, but it kept me warm as toast and because I bought the gas bottles as I went along I wasn't running up big bills.
Obviously that was a few years ago, and prices have probably shot up since then but its worth a thought.

[bloomingflower]

Re: Electric Key Meter

Hi Littlesally and Ame


I can totally relate to what you are both going through

Before me and my o/h moved to this house 8 years ago, we lived in a 2 bedroomed council flat. It was like living in a green house, literally. We had mould and mildew all over the walls, living room, our bedroom, our kids bedroom, etc.. Our bathroom was the worst, because of the condensation, caused by the freezing cold walls and inadequate heating.. In those days we had those bloody awful electric storage heaters,which were absolutley useless.

I remember spending most of my days trying to scrub the mouldy stuff off the walls. It's not healthy to live like that, especially for the kids. We complained to the divvy council about the mould, they were supposed to treat it. they just painted over it!

Condensation, lack of heating, is the cause of mould and mildew.

Littlesally,I presume you are renting with a private landlord? from reading your post, it obviously sounds like you have insufficient heating in your flat. Do you only have one heater to heat your whole flat?

I agree with Mocha,your landlord should be checking all his heating are working properly, after all, you are the tenant who is paying your rent to him.

I have found this website that may be of some help....

Landlords are legally responsible for a list of things which are included in here >>>>>> Repairs and maintenance - TheSite.org



bfxx

[littlesally]

Re: Electric Key Meter

Mmmm still got my blinds on the big windows Ame. The other night I hung two sleeping bags up there, which worked a bit, but the condensation made them wet so needed the heat on the next day to dry them out! lol
The girl with the damp problem on that link, is named Sally too.

Will try Wilkinsons for the clingfilm stuff and a friend of mine told me about some thin polystyrene on a roll, that can be stuck to walls. But I imagine your walls need to be dry for that. Will ask if landlord will pay for that as it is in his interest.
Also will try to keep bathroom window open for an hour or so (brrrrr)

So fed up of being cold in my own home. All my thoughts seem to be "*uck it's cold" "Shall I put heat on yet" "How much is on the meter" etc.

Roll on the spring!! lol
Thanks guys,
Sally xx

[littlesally]

Re: Electric Key Meter

The polystyrene stuff is amazing!
And cheap. Used two and a half rolls, plus the glue, so cost about £15.
Covered the two outer walls in the bedroom and my whole flat is warm. Didn't put the heating on until about eight, haven't even done the outer wall in the lounge yet.
I will need to paper over it, probably with quite strong wallpaper as polystyrene is not that strong.
Anyway, I recommend it to anyone having the same problems as me.
If you do use it, start off somewhere it doesn't show too much (behind a door) as it took me putting up the first sheet to learn to be more gentle with it.
http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav/na...&isSearch=true

Have also bought the clingfilm stuff, will do that within the next few days,
Thanks for all the suggestions,
Sally xx

[Mochamoo]

Re: Electric Key Meter

Great news Sally !

You will be walking around your flat in you bikini soon!