Gents,

Moved into new premises last December , now share office space with the wife and another lady, both who naturally as cold as fook most of the time.. my old office was tiny, 2 desks and a filing cabinet , plus leccy was included in the rent. New office is huge in comparison with a non insulated suspended ceiling.

The landlord meters the power, I have zero control over the provider, was a bugbear but nowt I can do. I ponied up for additional wall mounted oil radiators, we sadly have no gas.

Naturally during summer , our lowest month was under £20for leccy, but our latest was £620... radiators are not on all day, just up to temp then off. Only other thing we power are 3 laptops and a router. Whilst I can afford it a part of me just wants rant I guess.

Would stand alone calor gas type heaters be any good? Would also look at running a few heaters off old full fat batteries via an inverter too, just think the leccy cost is an absolute p!ss take tbh..

Thanks for listening

you could consider infrared space heaters. they work really well. don't know about power consumption though

Is it a multi occupancy building you are in? If so l would be checking that the meter you think serves your offices actually does. You wouldn’t be the first to find you were paying for electricity for half the other occupants.

I fitted inverter air conditioning to my wife's business and her electric bills plummeted from about £200 a month to around £25

She ran three storage heaters before and by midday they were exhausted and they used fan heaters. The AC now heats in winter and cools in summer.

Worth considering if you're going to be there long term. Christian.


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It’s allegedly on it’s own meter, I’ve no way of checking, but the fact summer bills are peanuts ties in with usage. It was originally a large shop which has been split into different spaces. I’ll have a look at the options , thanks for the input chaps.

You mention that the suspended ceiling is not insulated, but what is the general state of insulation?
If you are struggling to keep the heat (therefore heaters working harder / longer) then maybe look at where you are loosing heat?

Insulation can help, but first i would investigate any form of drafts or air movement as any drafts are basically sucking warm air out and replacing with cold air. Shut doors, windows etc, and add draft excluders wherever you can.

My partner lives in a Victorian property and she struggled with warming the place up, and with huge gas builds. I spent time stopping drafts on external doors and windows and it made the world of difference. Currently driving: 2012 L322 SE Overfinch 4.4 tdv8

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It’s originally a Victorian era shop, re purposed into separate units last year so the standard of insulation will be negligible at best . I guess I have to make the most of it. It’s the only downside to the premises really .

I would switch off the consumer unit or fuse board adjacent to the meter and see what happens. If you get a reaction from other building occupants it can only point to one thing. Better to know than not.

I kind of agree at this point , we had our worst ever usage when we haven’t been in the office full time since the 23rd December . Need to speak to landlord I think . Now to ask politely without accusing them …

The other thing l would consider is is the correct meter been read and costed to you. Also was the building totally rewired when split into units. It’s amazing how many building occupants are charged for other users consumption. I’ve come across it quite a few times over the years.
You could always get an electrician to check things out for you.

On the basis of a 22 day month, 8 hours day, 5 days a week at 17p kWh, that's about 20kWh per working hour. That's a lot.

Just asked , we are charged 24p per KWH, he uses some utility broker , obviously there would be commissions built into that rate right? I have zero knowledge about commercial rates, and really appreciate your insights. Is that rate crap?

24p kWh is quite high. Christian.


Current Cars
2011 Range Rover Vogue SE
2020 BMW M4 Competition
2019 BMW X4

My RR Blog: www.facebook.com/L322Project
or
https://www.fullfatrr.com/forum/topic61540.html

Seems it was down at 17 until their fixed price ended, December charged at the higher amount. I moaned then he came back on the offensive, really don’t understand why they don’t have a separate board for my office. Looks as though the "honestly guv , those heaters are dead efficient” chat was way off the mark..

Thanks all.

Caesium wrote:

24p kWh is quite high.