Electricity bill regularly high but with no apparent cause

Phonix · 4 October 2005 at 5:06PM

I live in a house with three other people under single tenency agreements.

Our electricity and gas is with scottish power and paid via a monthly direct debit.

I joined the house in July but since April the electrcity bill has been very high for no apparent reason.

We are being charged about £75/month for electricity.

Even more oddly, after checking the meter reading on the phone with scottish power, they have concluded that we've used 1 unit of gas since April despite the fact we use gas to heat the water.

Something is very wrong as most of our house are low electrcity users. Since July we have had energy saving light bulbs in almost every room and it hasn't made a dent in the bill. I also use barely any electricty in my room as I only use an 80w laptop and a 20w bulb.

I'm very concerned about this as the bill is about to go into my name.

Additionally if I try and plug the kettle into the kitchen socket this trips and disconnects the electrity in the kitchen leading me to beleive that something in the kitchen must be using alot of electricity and overloading the circuits.

Admittedly we do have both a fridgefreezer and a freezer in the kitchen but I used to have a similar setup in my last house and our electricity bill was almost the same but for three months usage instead of one and some of us even left our computers on all day.

What do you think is the best course of action if there even is any course of action? I'm thinking of trying to turn off the freezer in the kitchen for a week to see how much of an effect this will have on units used. Is there a service I could ask for from my elecicity supplier or should I just call an electrician pronto?

Something is very wrong. The bill is just way too high and as for the 1unit of gas used in five months, that's just utterly ridiculous.

We also have an electric shower, which I guess could be on the blink.

emujuice · 9 October 2005 at 4:32PM

hi, sorry i can't help. i'm here to pose my own problem, and see if we can find a solution.
i live in a 1 bed flat with my bloke. we're not in during the day, and we don't have any high usagae appliances (dishwasher, tumble drier) just basic stuff. we turn the telly off at the wall at night etc...
so how have we used nearly 900 units of leccy in 2 months? any body got any ideas? that's about £90 we think. the only thing is that we get shocks off a lot of our equiptment, but thats mainly me, so may be static.
also, the freezer ices up a lot, could that account for it?
thanks for your help/ideas

Fastflys · 9 October 2005 at 6:24PM

Have you checked your gas/electricity bills. Are the present meter readings estimated [a small “e” next to the reading]. If so take your current meter readings and pass these on to your supplier. An accurate bill will then be produced and posted to you.

Next, I would log my electricity usage by taking meter readings on a daily/weekly basis.

Are you using electricity for heating, I.E. storage heaters/Immersion heater. If so you may have an Economy 7 meter. This meter shows two meter readings, Day rate and Night rate. Electricity used overnight is charged at a much lower rate. Check your storage heater/immersion heater timers and confirm that they are switching your appliances on overnight [as a rough guide between the hours of 1 a.m. and 6 a.m.].

If you are not consuming electricity, your logged daily/weekly meter readings will produce a low figure [minus 1st day/week’s reading from 2nd day/week’s reading etc].

If you are actually using the electricity, it may be possible to trace which appliances are consuming the most by plugging one in at a time and noting your meter readings.

If your meter reading is high and you are certain that you haven’t any high energy appliances plugged in, your meter could be faulty. Contact your supplier.

You will be charged if they test the meter and it checks out OK.

bunking_off · 9 October 2005 at 9:12PM

How long does the shower get used for? These can be incredibly high (electrically) powered, upwards of 7KW, or 50p per hour. If you each have a shower every day that could easily account for £15 of your bill.

On the circuit tripping, this may be incorrect, but an electrician did tell me that the RCDs on modern consumer units are only rated to trip a limited number of times, after which they can become overly sensitive : might be worth getting that particular breaker replaced.

Given the lack of gas usage and extra electricity usage, if there's nothing strange regards estimated readings, my first port of call would be to check that the immersion heater isn't switched on : if it is, then the gas boiler would never need to kick in hence accounting for no gas being used.

emujuice · 11 October 2005 at 10:54AM

thanks for the advice you two. for my little flat, the readings are the readings we've been taking.
we left everything turned off yesterday while were out for 9 hours, and 3 units were used just for the fridge freezer, but that doens't seem too bad. overnight though we've used around 15 units, which is odd. all we did was watch tv for 4 hours (2 hours with the dvd player on also), we had the computer on for around an hour, also the electric fire for around 1 hour on a low setting. we sat in one room most of the night, with no other lights on. this morning i had a ten minute electric shower (we don't have hot water as that runs off the raybaun and we doon't have that on)
do you think it could be the electric fire that uses so much? we only had one bar on?

Please help! This driving me crazy.

Will see what the reading is tonight after work, and in the morning, to see if it's consistant.

uncle_buck_3 · 11 October 2005 at 11:48AM

You can tell how much electricity an appliance uses by looking on the rating label.The label will tell you the wattage of the item the voltage of the item etc.

Example:
1 unit of electricity is 1000 watts (Kilowatt) used for 1 hour.

A 1000 watt hairdryer used for 1 hour will use 1 unit of electricity.

A 100 watt light bulb used for 10 hours will use 1 unit of electricity.

The only thing to think about is that some appliances (your electric fire as an example) may only have the total wattage rating on the label…this would be the amount of power it would use if it was on full, but not the amount it would use if it were on low (1 bar on)….hope you follow this!

Phonix · 11 October 2005 at 7:13PM

Just wanted to say a big thank you for all the comments. I'm putting this on hold for a month while I sort out some other things. In the meantime it shall remain in his name and we shall continue to be billed extortionate amounts. :-/

Fastflys · 11 October 2005 at 7:32PM

Just a thought – You say that you have a flat – Are you paying rent?

I believe a landlord has the right [within limits] to “Over Clock” your electricity meter and/or resell electricity are a higher rate thus making more profit out of their tenants.

I have never rented so have very little knowledge of this subject and may be talking complete boxxocks so if anyone reading this does know, please post.

I believe one bar on an electric fire = 1000 watts. Therefore as uncle_buck says,
1 hour’s use = 1 unit of electricity.

You say that you have used 18 units of electricity in 24 hours, 126 units per week. This is very high for the usage you state.

We [Mr/Mrs/Teenager] have a 4 bed detached house and use gas for cooking, heating and hot water.

Main electricity appliances:

alarm system, central heating pump, washer/dryer [dryer seldom used], dishwasher, fridge/freezer, separate freezer, hob extractor, kettle, iron, vacuum cleaner,
3 bathroom extractor fans, 6 TVs, 2 freeview units, 3 VCRs, 2 DVDs, 2 PS2s,
2 desktop computers, 2 notebooks, 2 printers, 2 hi-fi units,
mobile phone/PSP/Ipod/camera chargers, under blanket and lights
[mostly energy saving type].

Of course, not all of the above are switched on at the same time but some are on standby.

We’re on Economy 7 and over 52 weeks averaged 49 day units and 16 night units
Total 65 units per week.

bunking_off · 12 October 2005 at 1:11PM

Fastflys, I wouldn't quibble with your figures, but equally wouldn't wish the OP to run away with the idea that the average 4 bed house should be using <10 units a day.

I believe the average house in the UK averages 10-15KWH/day.

As a comparison, we're currently using 21KWH/day, and I would guess that this time of year is approx average (heating on but not much, lights needed in the evening etc). This said, my place is 5 beds, and we run two home offices from here hence there's plenty of electrical kit on all the time (routers etc). Also, I have 3 tropical fish tanks.

Fastflys · 13 October 2005 at 2:52PM

Your correct – I would expect the average house in the UK to average 10/15 units per day.

Over 52 weeks we averaged 9.29 units per day, which we give ourselves a pat on the back for, considering the amount of electrical equipment we have. This average takes into account 4/6 weeks out of 52 of vacation time when electricity consumption would be minimal.

By stating my electricity usage I was pointing out to emujuice that 18 units of electricity used in 24 hours in a “Little Flat” using minimal electrical appliances is in my opinion on the high side.

Phonix · 13 October 2005 at 5:08PM

From memory the last digit on the meter reading is a tenth of a kwh?

If so I'd say it takes about 10 mins for 1kilowatt hour to be used in our house judging by the speed as I remember it.

I will take a daily reading for the next week and get back to you.

Coincidently transco have sent a letter through our door asking to check the gas meter.

Electricity bill regularly high but with no apparent cause

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free