How much should my brother be paying for electricity - 1 bed flat

saxonrosecliff

I had a call from my mum this morning in a bit of a panic. My brother moved into a one bed first floor flat (above a shop) in March last year. He has received an electricity bill that he thinks is high but as he has never gone through a winter paying his own bills we are not so sure!

The flat is all electric he has a lounge with a storage heater, bathroom with what I believe is a fan heater, bedroom with either a convector or fan heater with a built in timer. Obviously the water is also heated by electricity but he says this is hardly ever warm enough to use as hot water and he boils the kettle.

He has all the usual items - shower in bathroom, fridge freezer, no washing machine, microwave and the usual 'man' gadgets in lounge - xbox, PVR etc. He also has a laptop but I've no idea how long this is on for.

Is there anyone in a similar situation that could let me know what they pay?

By the way he is with EOn at the moment but is in the process of moving to Scottish Power.

Thanks.

millymollymandy2K7

Sounds very similar to my current set up. I have hall and living room storage heaters on since end of October, set timer on bedroom convection heater for 1hr around bedtime and 1hr around "getting up" time. I never use the fan heater in bathroom - just leave bathroom door open to allow heat from hall through ( also use this method to provide heat in bedroom throughout the day). In addition to this I have a washing machine on atleast 3 times a week (mainly wash at 30 degrees) and although no x-box, PC is on alot.

I'm currently paying £50 per month direct debit which I know was more than enough to cover my winter bills last year but remains to be seen if it will this year. Taking it over a 12 month peroid I do think (hope) £50 per month should be fine. I'm with Scottish Hydro THTC.

furndire

Sorry, I don't know how much he should be paying, but if the property is an old one, check that you aren't paying for something wired into to your meter from the shop below. This happened to us years ago. Only found out when a fuse blew in the meter, and we had an irate bloke waiting at the door on a Tuesday morning (electric had been off all the weekend) All his freezers had defrosted - shame.

edgex

Couple of points:

using the kettle for hot water is very in-efficient
what sort of shower is it - electric or using pre-heated water?

are the storage heaters set up correctly

using energy efficient bulbs
turning off things like the xbox fully, when not in use

saxonrosecliff

Thanks for the replies. It sounds like his bills are about right. As I said its his first place of his own since leaving home and I think it has come as a bit of a shock to him just how much electricity costs!

I will mention all the other points to him so thanks again.

Fire_Fox

I have a two bed flat but the second bedroom is unused: there are two of us but was just me the first winter. Firstly has the meter been read or estimated? I was stung at the start but soon got my DD reduced. Does he have Economy 7 - you mention a storage heater? Eon is much more expensive than Scottish Power, and day rates are very expensive if you have E7 and don't use it correctly.

The first winter I used 7.5kwh per day - just me and no heating at all. This winter and last with two of us we are up to 11.5kwh per day maybe more: no heating last winter but heating one room to about 15C (not hot) this year. This works out now to be £35 a month ish but we do really have to work at that, I am all wrapped up and we don't leave stuff on standby. Washing machine is on a timer plug overnight and hot water immersion only 45 minutes overnight.

I suspect your brother is using a lot of energy during the day - if the hot water is not that hot I guess he has an all electric shower, also gadgets left on eat electric, similarly fan heaters are energy hungry. I think this will be a good lesson for you brother, it's good he's got a bill half way through winter.

butler_helen

we're with eon and are in a similar situation and had a one month bill for £113! which is massive, however I'm hoping the next one will be much lower as we're being more carefull this month with our energy use during the day. I'd recommend buying jumpers/blankets and slippers!

H

spiro

The best bet would be for him to check the meter readings once a week or so, this will allow him to estimate what he is going to have to pay. Should be using about 40% of the elec on the night rate, assuming he has economy 7.