Tricky flatshare electricity issue

d00fus

Hi all,

Got a question sort of in the same vein as the "Moral Dilemma" polls I'm in a 4-bedroom flatshare, and our normal electricity usage a day is around 11kWh. This last month (Jan) our usage has been just under 45 kWh per day! :eek: I'm pretty sure that one of the others is running an electric heater in their room which I don't really have a problem with, but using it that much is going to make the other 3 of us pay 4 times our normal power bill. If the bill was double or something I wouldn't really have an issue but 4 times is quite a lot! Do I raise it or is it better to just let it slide?

Cardew

The usual problem with houses/flats used as flat share is that a couple of the rooms were originally bedrooms.

The radiators are sized in most properties so that bedrooms are considerably cooler than the living rooms e.g. with the temperature set at 20C in the living rooms it might be 16C in the bedrooms.

If someone 'needs' to run an electric heater in his room, and you or others don't, perhaps one of you should offer to swop rooms.

That said it is highly unlikely that an electric heater in one room will increase consumption by 34kWh.

If you "don't have a problem" with them using a heater, what point are you going to raise?

Premier_2

It's good to talk!

Even though you "don't have problem with it" are the other 3 aware of the present high usage?

I don't think it's caused by one person having a heater on in their room. Your consumption has increased by 34kWh per day!
The biggest plug in heater is rated at 3kW - so that would need to be on and pumping out maximum heat (so no thermostatic cut out) about 11 hours a day. Unless the rooms are absolutely enormous, the room would be like a sauna with that type of continuous heating (especially if in addition to some other form of general heating that presumably exists).

I suspect something else is happening which has quadrupled your daily usage; something that your housemates may be able to explain and which may not be aware of the cost doing so.

wakeupalarm

Do you have Gas central heating and the electric heater is an unexpected extra or are you all electric heating?

d00fus

Cardew wrote: »

That said it is highly unlikely that an electric heater in one room will increase consumption by 34kWh.

Yeah I can't understand it, but it's the only thing I can think of. We haven't got any new appliances, I've been putting in energy saving bulbs recently and we've turned off our crappy old inefficient second fridge, but still this month the usage has gone through the roof.

Cardew wrote: »

If you "don't have a problem" with them using a heater, what point are you going to raise?

It's not so much for me, but the others in the house could have trouble paying even an extra £10 a month at the moment, so I try to keep bills as low as I can for them.

wakeupalarm wrote: »

Do you have Gas central heating and the electric heater is an unexpected extra or are you all electric heating?

Yeah we use gas for heating, water and cooking, which is why I'm so mystified as to where it's all going!

Fire_Fox

Do you have an electric immersion boost as well as gas hot water? Someone may have left the switch on 24/7 or your thermostat or timer may have broken?

spiro

Trying checking the readings twice a day and see if the useage is constant or peaks overnight. This might help identify possible causes.