Nightstore heating + high power bills – advice?

[Anonymous]

Hi team, wondering if I ask about nightstore heating, energy costs, and what I should recommend to reduce energy consumption/costs.

I’ll lay out the facts first, then ask a couple of questions.

Facts:
1-I have a customer who has nightstore heating in the hallway, and all their other heating is on gas. Electric hot water, temperatures OK, cylinder wrap etc good, low flow shower.
2-She has two electricity tariffs/meters: Anytime (ie., standard) , and Economy (ripple control).
3- Her ‘Anytime’ consumption is about 150kWh per month, steady over the year.
4- Her ‘Economy’ consumption goes from 124kWh in Feb, to 787kWh in August.

My advice:
Based on these facts, my assumption is that her Nightstore and Hot water are running on the Economy (ripple control) meter. My advice is that the customer should have the nightstore changed over to a ‘night rate’ meter, then have it turned down as low as is comfortable.
Reasons: – The night rate is $0.12/kWh, whereas the Economy rate is 0.17/kWh.
– It is likely the nightstore is running almost all the time at the moment, since it is running on the ‘ripple control meter. Nightrate will mean that the nightstore only operates at night.
-Changing to to nightrate will therefore save in energy, and also save unit cost.
-The downside is that the tariff switch charge is $125, and she will also need an electrician to change the wiring.

Question:
So my question is – what would you recommend to the customer in this situation?
Do this, or something else? – eg heatpump etc etc.

Thanks for your help!

Cheers!
Simon Morris
Sustainability Trust
Wellington

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[philgregg]

Hi Simon

Night store heaters are still One energy unit in = One heat unit out. It is a nice radiant heat.

Heat Pump is one Unit in = about 4 Units out. Blown Heat which dissipates as soon as it is shut down.

Seems that current costs of running the night store are about $100 per month. To change to the lower rate would possibly have an all up cost of around $400 with Tariff change and electrician – this would mean a 1 year payback.

One option would be to stay on the current tariff and have the electrician put a multi set timer on the night store, maximum cost of $250. They then could set the night store to work when they need the heat and current their electricity consumption by a minimum of 50%.

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