Extremely high electricity bill

bwgames

I moved into a 2 bedroom flat in September. It's just me in here. Been keeping an eye on my electricity use and I worked out that my electricity bill for October alone was £75!! This is for one person, who works during the day.

The first thing I did when I moved in was change all the lightbulbs to low-energy. The only things left on during the day are the usual - fridge/freezer/sky box.
I used the heating VERY little, maybe 2/3 nights, and only off-peak - see below
It's an all-electric flat, with the heating (both water and room) heating connected to the off-peak supply.

The flat has two electricity supplies, one 'normal' and one that only comes on when its off-peak. Off-peak is 6p/kWh. Peak is 25p/kWh. I get 10 hours of off-peak electricity a day.

I have a pulsacoil water heater (designed for this kind of electric supply), which heats up during the night.

I have no idea why the bill is so high - it shouldn't be near £30 I reckon.

I can't help but wonder if having the water heater on 10 hours a day is partly why? I never thought it'd be on for the entire 10 hours - just heat it up for an hour a night then turn off when its all warm surely? It's not a standard water heater from what I can gather.
There is NO timer for it, just an on/off switch.

The manual for it says:
"this appliance should be left permanently connected to the off-peak electrical supply and not switched on and off when hot water is needed"

In any case, I can't see this being responsible for a £75 bill... so I'm at a loss...

Jesthar

Not really my specialist subject, but any form of heating eats energy. Do you know what the kilowatt rating of the heater is? If you do, you can possibly work out an estimate what it would be costing you a month if it is on for all 10 hours of the off-peak as follows:

(boiler rating in kW) x (no of off peak hours) x (no. of days in month) x (price in £)

So, if the boiler is 1kW, for October you would get:

1 x 10 x 31 x £0.06 = £18.60

This possibly isn't an exact science, though! Is the majority of the spend on the night time meter? If so, I think you mentioned the heater has an on/off switch - if you could bear to go without heating water for one day, you could try taking a reading before off peak begins one night, take another the next day after off peak has finished, then switch the boiler off for the next night, and see if there is any significant difference in the second overnight reading?

Hope that helps,

~Jes

spiro

If you search this forum I think you will find other threads that indicate this level of consumption is not too high. One thing to bear in mind is that typically E10 is about 10% more per unit than a E7 tariff because of the extended night rate. You also need to remember that the day time is much more expensive. If you post the day and night comsumption for say a week no doubt one of the experts on here will advise if this is about right or not.

Magentasue

I think it would be helpful if you posted your daily/weekly or quarterly averages for peak units and off peak units.

smunden

Sounds like you have a very similar place to mine. My bills are over £100 a month with hardly any heating. And the consumption is almost entirely the waterheater.

I have a Gledhill Pulsacoil A-Class. This is an over-glorified immersion heater. It is designed to run on an off-peak supply. In your case it should charge when the off-peak supply is available, and then hopefully provide enough hot water for the day. Imagine it to be like a storage heater for water! If it goes cold in the day and you need more, there is a boost button which kicks in a high power heater just to quickly warm it up again, albeit at a high cost. If your water heater is similar to this then it probably has a 3kw element. So whilst heating up it will use 3 units of electricity an hour. Mine takes 3 hours to charge from cold, thus 9 units. I have calculated that my water heater costs me about £30 to £40 per month to run. The problem is I do not have an off-peak supply and so my water heater runs all day and all night, thus my bills are so high. Your's sound about right.

If it makes you feel better, remember you don't have a gas bill to pay in addition!

Fire_Fox

9KWH of electricity to make a tank of hot water?? Ouch!

Ben77_2

I too have a Pulsacoil water heater with no off peak supply. It uses about 9 units of electric per day which is effectively £30 per month just to have 2 x 5 min showers per day, seems a lot. When I moved into the flat last summer which is located in the staiths development in gateshead, tyne and wear i only used on average 8-10 units per day and that included cooking, watching tv, domestic appliances such as the washing machine but obviously no heating as it was the summer. I cannot understand how the electricity consumption from the water heater can increase so much. Can anyone suggest a reason ?

I'm considering getting a timer fitted which would turn the water heater on for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening.

NowThenAgain

I turned my electric water heater off completely last September. It was using approx 9KWH per day.

It's saved me a fortune and not having running hot water (bar an electric shower) has been manageable.

My usage during this February, in an all electric 2 bed flat, averaged out at 8KWH per day total.

HJS86

We were in a similiar situation. Moved into new build, didn't read the water heater manual correctly, assumed it would all be reasonably set up:rolleyes: ...

...turns out it was on over night between 12am and 7am! :eek:
Our bill for those couple of months was enormous.

So we sat through the manual after figuring out that it was prob something to do with the hot water - got Dad round (lol ) and figured it out.
The water now comes on at 3.45pm and goes off at 6.00pm so is on for 2.15 hours per day instead of the 7 hours is was automatically set up for when we moved in.

We started by dropping it to 1.5 hours, but the water only got luke warm. Each day we upped it by 15 minutes until we reached the point where there was enough proper hot water for 2 baths/or 2 showers
(our shower isn't the electric heat as you go sort).

Our bills have reduced massively :T , however our meter tells us that whilst were out at work, during which time only the fridge, a goldfish filter, heat lamp and water heater are on, we're still using 7 units.

We've been testing things recently...turning off the towel heater one day, then the goldfish filter another to see which appliance is using what.

Ben77_2

Now and Then, what kind of boiler / water heater do you have? Does an electric shower not rely on the hot water provided by the heater ?

NowThenAgain

Ben77 wrote: »

Now and Then, what kind of boiler / water heater do you have? Does an electric shower not rely on the hot water provided by the heater ?

The water heater is a Gledhill 120 litre tank with two heating elements, one 3KW and wired into the E7 circuit and one 2.3KW wired into the main circuit.

I don't have an E7 tariff anymore because I don't use the water heater or storage heaters. Heating is provided by a 2KW oil filled radiator only used when I am in and even then usually on low (0.8KW).

The shower is the electric type where the water is heated by the unit. It's a 10.4KW model (the most powerful you can get) and is pretty good.

Other hot water water (i.e. washing up) is provided by boiling a kettle.

This all works for me and has saved me more than £500 this winter.