New Unit – Guide to Electricity Prices.

[Martin Pearson]

John, I don’t think it will make a huge difference as far as electricity is concerned unless you are thinking about heating the whole unit. To do this via some sort of electric heating would be hugely expensive. I would probably base my decision on which unit to take by other factors like location, layout and what work I had to do to make it work best for what you want to do.

[John Gregson]

Hi Martin, Thanks for the reply. I’ve had my current unit for over 4 years now but the electricity is paid for out of my rent, that I pay to the council, so I’ve never had or seen a bill for electricity. My current unit is approx 1500sqft and I love the size but there is a lot of open or wasted space so I am thinking about down sizeing slightly. I was just wondering, as a guide, what I would be looking at paying per year for electric.

Cheers John

[Martin Pearson]

Like I said before John it depends on how much of the unit you intend to heat, I had a unit that was approx 1800 sq ft but I only used to heat the office and the vinyl application/preparation area. Probably only about 1/4 of the unit maybe even a bit less. On average My electric bills worked out to about £60 a month over the course of the year and gas for a portable heater which I only used when I had a van in the unit to graphic worked out to about £30 a month for about 4 months of the year.

[Chris Wool]

about £800 £1000 a year rates about 1200.
dont use calor gas as it makes to much water.

chris

[Martin Pearson]

Chris, I never found using calor gas a problem but I didn’t use it to heat the whole unit, didn’t use it to heat the office or the vinyl prep/application area.
I only really used it to take the chill out of the air when I had a vehicle in the unit to put graphics on so there wasn’t a problem with it producing a lot of water at all.

[Phill Fenton]

We have a 1000 sq ft unit and our total spend on heat, light and power last year was £1407 (the previous year it was £1149)

[John Gregson]

Thanks for the replies guys. Phill that’s just what I was looking for, thanks for that. I now know I can afford both units but the smaller one would be a saving on what I currently pay. Decision Time.

Cheers John

[David Lowery]

Careful with calor John. You may find your insurance will insist that you don’t use it. Had that problem in my last unit. There we had to buy the electricity off the landlord and, because it is not regulated by the government, they are not restricted to a mark up as domestic customers are.
In my old unit, I was paying 16p per unit + a service charge for reading the meters at £15!! 👿 My new unit electricity is costing me 7p per unit.

[John Childs]

quote John Gregson:

Thanks for the replies guys. Phill that’s just what I was looking for, thanks for that. I now know I can afford both units but the smaller one would be a saving on what I currently pay. Decision Time.

John, if my experience is anything to go by, you should choose the bigger unit. What I thought was ridiculously large when I bought it soon filled up and now we are very cramped.

[John Gregson]

I’ll check about the calor situation, strange that they build units these days without any heating.
Landlord has informed me that they are in charge of the electricity and charge this out at 9p per unit, the meter will be spinning out of control when I switch on the dryers. Hopefully a couple of large magnets will slow it down abit 😉

Only kidding – honest

Cheers John

[Martin Pearson]

Landlords controlling the electric tariff can make a huge difference to what you pay but 9p a unit doesn’t sound to bad, can they just change this when ever they want or is the rate written into your lease?
Watch out for other charges as well like any service charges that they may add on top of your rent and also check to find out how you stand with things like repairs to roads around the estate any upgrades to electric etc that you may be asked to contribute towards.

Like John I would be inclined to take the larger of the two units but you will have a better Idea of what space you need both now and in the future yourself.

[Peter Normington]

calor is cheaper than electric if no mains gas is available, but needs to be bought in bulk (LPG) and not used directly, the same ammount of water would be given of by natural gas if used directly IE a naked flame, but used through a heating system, worth looking at

the insurance issue I believe is when using space heaters, parrafin diesel or gas, all have naked flames, and do produce fumes

Peter