please i need help urgently!

cadburyminiroll

i moved into this new flat 23rd august 2008, its all electric, with a megaflow central heating system with radiators, its only a 1 bed flat, first 9 weeks cost me £71, the next 8 weeks cost me £366! and now i am using £52 a week in electric! i have the heating on between 6 and 7 am , and 6 and 11pm each day. cooker is on for about 30 minutes after 7pm, thats all i have. i never leave anything on standby, no chargers plugged in and no dishwasher or tumble drier, so far this place has cost me £700 since end of august surely something must be wrong! please somebody help! i am about to have a nervous breakdown!

KimYeovil

£140 per month with electric heating is, unfortunately, and in fact, not bad going this winter - many people with cheaper gas heating would be happy paying that!

Have a look on the comparison sites and look closely at the Tier 2 tariff costs and see if there are cheaper tariffs.

I take it your heaters are not storage? Do you live on your own? Can you cope with not switching the heat on in the morning and just jumping in the shower and using it's steam and warmth to get up by? (But don't luxuriate too long - they're deceptively expensive.) Have you turned down the temperature in your bedroom/hallway? Can you switch the heating off an hour earlier? Are there thermostats on the radiators? If you own the flat, put thermostats on and turn down radiators not in your sitting room.

It's been a very cold few months. Bills should come down substantially once it's warmer.

KimYeovil

Also, is the heating on a timer? Are you home all evening every evening? If not, take the heating off the timer and just switch it on when you get in (unless you're going straight to bed). It's nice coming home to a warm house but no point if you're just popping in and back out again - even if you only go out two nights a week that could reduce your bill by at least a quarter!

cadburyminiroll

firstly thank you for replying, i rent this place and i was assured it was economical several times before i agreed to lease it, having been told it had stood empty for many months. there is no room thermostat, i have 4 radiators, 2 of which i never use, ( i hate heat in the bedroom and whats the point of heating a bathroom you are hardly in) i phoned my supplier tonight and in 8 days i have used £52. on the energy website, since moving here, in 3 months i have used more than i would have paid for a years heating, and the old place dodnt have double glazing! jeez this cant be right. £700 now for 5 months!

KimYeovil

Are the numbers in your first post actual readings? Ie, the first nine weeks you only paid £8 per week?

Have you checked what tariff you are on and the prices you are paying? Who is your supplier? With an electricity only household, the savings and variance with different tariffs and suppliers can be significant. How much are you paying per unit?

(Have you checked for an immersion heater left on?)

cadburyminiroll

yes, they are all actual readings, i read the meter myself. i pay 24p per unit for the first 59kwh and 11,93 per unit after that. i am with bg. they assured me they are the cheapest , think i should put my thermals on and lose the heating...im so despondant, something must be wrong, i am about to pay bg £60 for a check meter to be installed, i cant think of anything else to do

KimYeovil

Unfortunately British Gas are usually (reasonably) competitive (for electricity) so it isn't your tariff that's too expensive.

Don't forget it is substantially colder this year so everyone is spending a lot more than in the last couple of winters - you can't really compare the bills with those of recent memory - I have literally spent more on gas over the last three months than in the whole of the previous two years!

cadburyminiroll

i have asked several friends of mine, one of which has a 4 bedroom house, all radiators on full, his bill gas and elec combined was £500 for the quarter, and i owe $700 for 5 months, i am only home for 2 days a week, i sit here with 2 t shirts on and a fleece, i just bought a health grill which will cut cooker costs, i have done the burns test, i just dont know whats left to do except move again

cadburyminiroll

this cant be right surely! my last place had old wooden framed windows, no central heating, i live in a shoe box surely this can not be correct unless the meter or boiler is faulty

Magentasue

All electric heating is cheap to install and maintain but expensive for the person paying the bills, and, as said, it has been very cold.

violetta

Turn absolutely everything off, then see if the meter is still going round, just in case someone has managed to wire their flat into your meter. My friend told me that this happened in her daughter's block of flats.