Electricity bill help

Adz1000

Hi guys, I have just had my electricity bill for this quarter and it is £225 which I think is much too high (correct me if I am wrong though!)

6 months ago it was £129 for a quarter which I am more than happy with compared but still feel it could be cheaper! The bill before last was £230 and this bill is, as above, £225.

I live in a 1 bedroom apartment with my girlfriend, I have no gas so everything is powered by electric. We only use 1 radiator which is in the living room (the one which blows hot air out the top) and it is only really on 1 or 2 hours a day if at all. We have a PC/TV and cook every night.

I think the root of the problem is the electric boiler as I can't manually set it to just turn on at off peak times (it is a Horstmann BX2000). It has an off peak button but all it does is switch to the off peak rate if it is fully turned on. I turn it on around 11/midnight and turn it off at 8am when I wake up.

I am also on Economy 7 with e-on so I have tried seeing what hours are the cheapest by trying to see when it flicks the off peak light on but it seems to change daily so feel I am paying way over the top when I don't need/want to!

Do you think I should switch to e-on's normal tariff or could I just be paying similar bills? I am just very confused how 6 months ago my bill can be almost £100 less than now when I am not doing anything different! Also, looking at my bill I have 'Day - primary and secondary' units, what are the differences?

Sorry for the long post just trying to understand how to sort these electricity bills out once and for all! Any tips welcome!

Magentasue

Several points here:

- Electricity and gas jumped in price last year.
- Electric heating is very expensive.
- Most Econ 7 tariffs means you pay more for your daytime electricity and this makes your heating even more expensive.
- There are two ways of paying a standing charge. Either you pay a separate charge and so many pence per kwh. Or you pay more more the first kwh a quarter (primary units) and less for the rest (secondary units). The difference is the standing charge paid in another way.

You need to look at how many kwh you use a day. You would almost certainly be better off on a single rate tariff but check a comparison site using annual kwh.

Adz1000

Thanks! Surely £75 a month is still a lot though for a 1 bedroom apartment? What's it like for a 3 bed house :eek:

I will check the comparison websites and see what is going on and may switch over to a standard tariff as I am sure I don't use more electric during the day. Is it worth getting a few of those gadgets that you plug into the mains and it tells you how much kwh you are using for that socket?

I am still a bit confused on the standing charge though, how do I know which one I am doing as I am paying an amount for both the primary and secondary units

Thanks again for your reply.

Magentasue

The problem with comparing energy use by household is that when you consider heating, there are so many variables. Boiling a kettle will cost the same in small flat as in a large house, but heating is different. The number of kwh used will depend on number of heaters and rooms, but also volume of space heated and insulation. So, it could cost as much to heat a one bed flat as a three bed house.

Plug in monitor - good if you don't know which appliance is eating the electricity. If you're using a reasonable number of kwh, it could just be your tariff. How many kwh do you use a day? With and without heating?

With Econ 7, I think all kwh are charged at the same rate, say 6p per kwh. Your day units are two tiered. It's usually the first x units per quarter. Say, for example, the first 225kwh. If you usee 500kwh, the first 225 are charged at higher rate and the rest at the secondary rate. Does that make sense? If the difference between the two rates (say 16p and 10p) are 6p, your standing charge for that quarter would be 225 x 6p. Example only.

Fire_Fox

Actual or estimated reading? How many KWH per day are you using?

Adz1000

Well this bill is estimated but it varies when it gets read so just confuses me even more!

I have the current bill here and I'll quote the kWh for all the day/night etc usage:

Day primary units used - 5 kWh @ 30.89p each
primary units used - 224 kWh @ 32.52p each
Secondary units used - 15 kWh @ 12.33p each
Secondary units used - 680 kWh @ 12.84p each
Night units used - 2 kWh @ 4.58p each
units used - 72 kWh @ 4.69p each
Boost units used - 0 kWh
units used - 0 kWh
Afternoon units used - 2 kWh @ 5.81p each
units used - 81 kWh @ 6.05p each
Night/evening units used - 12 kWh @ 5.81p each
units used - 543 kWh @ 6.05p each
Standing charge 2 days @ 9.16p per day
Standing charge 91 days @ 9.54p per day

It all seems VERY high considering my 6 month old bill which was:

Day primary units used - 108 kWh @ 25.41p each
primary units used - 96 kWh @ 32.52p each
Secondary units used - 178 kWh @ 9.88p each
Secondary units used - 146 kWh @ 12.84p each
Night units used - 44 kWh @ 4.39p each
units used - 37 kWh @ 4.69p each
Boost units used - 0 kWh
units used - 0 kWh
Afternoon units used - 13 kWh @ 4.92p each
units used - 11 kWh @ 6.05p each
Night/evening units used - 196 kWh @ 4.92p each
units used - 166 kWh @ 6.05p each
Standing charge 44 days @ 7.76p per day
Standing charge 39 days @ 9.54p per day

Any advise as I'm pretty sure I am doing nothing different I just don't understand what the change is, do you think something has gone wrong somewhere?

Thanks in advance, can't wait to sort this out!

Adz1000

Anyone? Main thing I am wondering about is should I change from economy 7 to a normal rate tariff as I just did a comparethemarket rate and they said the cheapest was 'British Gas - Websaver 2 Paperless Billing, Internet Only'.

I input around 6400 kWh usage for the year and it said approx. £719 which will work out around £179 a quarter. Does this sound pretty good? That was without economy 7 by the way as I feel I just don't take advantage of it to justify having it?

VanillaDelia

Your bill was for the winter months which would be more, the previous bill will have been for the summer months and if as you say the bill for last year was around the same then again thats your winter months.

You will probably pay more if you go on to normal rather than economy 7. We started on a normal tariff and landed a £700 bill for our quarter so we had to go on a prepayment meter to repay the debt and the moved us onto economy 7.

I am in a one bed flat with my husband, we just have a heater on in living room and we pay £100 a month on prepayment meter, which is more as it is, its the storage heaters that are expensive and the boilers. Are you using a boost button to heat your water up or is it cutting in on a night time to give you hot water for the next day.

Adz1000

Never use the boost button, just turn it on at 11pm and off at around 8am, I mean I could start turning it on around 3am but just don't fancy messing up my sleep for it! If I don't turn it on one night the water won't be that warm and I shower every morning so have no choice really!

I suppose it has only really gone up since using the heater (does it really use that much power? :eek:)

I am thinking of changing anyway to British Gas online only like my above post but with the economy 7 option instead (I have never switched suppliers since I have been here about 4 years) I am just worried that I might mess something up and end up with a huge bill the next quarter! I'm no good with change What do you reckon? At 30% night usage the bill on comparethemarket came up as £650 ish per year which seems better!

I could then ring them up and ask exactly what times the economy 7 hours are I suppose.

stewie_griffin

From the details of your bill that you posted it looks like you've got a heatwise meter not a standard E7 meter. this is going to make it difficult (impossible) for you to compare as none of the switching sites have support for 2 mpan meters. Also you may find that not many if any of the other suppliers may be able to fully support that type of heater.

Since your bill is estimated I would call your supplier with actual readings and ask them to produce an amended bill.

Adz1000

What does that mean exactly? Am I not actually on an economy 7 tariff?