horrendous elec bill

bockster

jentiggy wrote: »

last night between 11pm & 7 am we used 10.3KWH and had on the following:- fridge, freezer x 2, aquarium, 2 x outside lights (9W bulbs), 1 alarm clock, telephone answering machine, microwave (clock), and Gas cooker (clock). everything else was unplugged.

you def have a problem.

like i say, turn cicuits off though.

if its not the meter, which it looks like, it could be something thats 'hard wired', burglar alarm, imersion, elec underfloor heating you didn't know you had!!!!;)

jentiggy

i have contacted British gas - and they said to keep monitoring the situation for a couple of days and ring them back. They charge £40 to put a meter check on (but you get this back if the meter is proved to be faulty).
We have no immersion, nothing hardwired - we have had the house for 19 years and have rewired 10 years ago.
I think i am going to have to pay to get them to check the meter, as i am using so much electricity.

Alan_Vickers

Jentiggy - I suggest that you contact your electricity distributor, as you would for a supply fault, rather than your supplier. Tell them that the meter is revolving whilst the switches are off. I don''t think that it is right that you should be charged for a visit when this is happening.

We had a meter change carried out here some years ago and it was done by Northern Electric, as distributor, although we were supplied by Scottish Piower.


Alan Vickers.

christineperseus

No ponds in the garden, heaters in greenhouse, computers, telephones, speakers attatched to computers or TV's.
Have you checked your bill agains this time last years,
our usage was about the same - but the price of units had gone up so much - ours too was high - but would have had yours any day!

LindaMary

jentiggy wrote: »

last night between 11pm & 7 am we used 10.3KWH and had on the following:- fridge, freezer x 2, aquarium, 2 x outside lights (9W bulbs), 1 alarm clock, telephone answering machine, microwave (clock), and Gas cooker (clock). everything else was unplugged.

What is the wattage of your aquarium heater if it is a tropical tank?

credit_crunch_victim

fish tank heater could be going all night and be as much as 4kwh over 8 hours pump maybe another 1.5kwh
i take it your tank lights are on a timer to go off in the evening
our energy meter drops down to about 130-160 watts at night time so that could add you anothe 1kwh just need to find the other 4kwh

jentiggy

the aquarium is not heated, and just uses a pump for an air stone. I switch off the light when i go to bed, so the pump is just running the airstone.

I'm going to ring EDF and British Gas on Monday to see what they say.

SwanJon

Not quite related, but may help you bring down your bills.
You say you have day & night readings but heat your home with gas.
Check that you would not be better off on a single rate electricity meter (depends on yur relevant prices).

notbritishgas

Jentiggy. You can roughly check your own meter. Have you got something of a known wattage, eg a 1kw heater. If not can you borrow one.
Then switch everything off, even fridge and freezer, and plug in the heater for one hour, noting the meter reading at start and finish of the hour. If the heater was 1 kwh the meter should have gone up by 1 unit.
If the heater has a thermostat make sure it is switched to maximum or permanently on.

amcluesent

>freezer x 2 (1 small table top in the shed)<

IIRC, freezers not designed for outside use can go haywire when the air temperature is low...it's been cold at night.