High BG Electricity Bills !!!

Frances17

We received a paper bill reminder dated 2 Feb 09 that stated our electricity bill was for £486.24. Between that date and 9 March we made payments to bring the account down to £300 debit. I can see the transactions in my bank statement, I paid £186.24 which leaves a debit of £300. Obviously, this does not take into account the usage of electricity from 2 Feb to 9 Mar. Just over one month.

Around that time we changed to on-line billing, and on the bill that i have printed out for 03 Oct 08 to 08 Jan 09, it states "Please pay £546.24 by 26 Jan 09. That already contradicts the paper bill we received on 2 Feb 09. On the on-line bill it shows £118.32 debt brought forward, a total of £411.39 electricity used that period, £3.84 discount, £9.00 debit plus Vat of £20.37 which amounts to the £546.24 for the beginning of Jan.

During the 09 Jan to 8 Apr 09 period (states 10 April 09 bill date), it states that £546.24 debit brought forward, £302.24 paid, £553,82 electricity used for this period which puts the bill back up to £821.80 debit, including a £3.53 credit and £27.51 VAT.

Yet sorry to repeat myself but on 9 March, one month before the bill date mentioned above, they had confirmed a £300 debit and as mentioned in earlier thread, the estimate and actual was a difference of 163 kWh. It would have been particularly Jan to Mar we would have been using the storage heater.

It just seems to me that between Feb and Apr, when we changed to on-line billing, something drastically changed? Sorry I just can't seem to get my head around the consumption of 10,800 kWh in the last 9 months and the billing that particularly changed around when we went online!

Sorry I am getting myself in a pickle and my head is hurting..

Magentasue

OK, so you have statements dated 2 Feb and 8 Apr?

What are the meter readings on these statements and are they actual (A) or estimated (E)?

Sorry if you've already said this, have scanned through but there's a lot of information on this page and I can't see the details.

Cardew

Frances17 wrote: »

Sorry I just can't seem to get my head around the consumption of 10,800 kWh in the last 9 months .

10,800kWh in 9 months is not particularly high. With 3 months ahead with no heating required you are probably looking at an annual consumption of around 12,000kWh.

Bear in mind that the average consumption in UK is 3,300kWh electricity and 20,500kWh gas(for heating and hotwater)

Wickedkitten

Cardew wrote: »

10,800kWh in 9 months is not particularly high. With 3 months ahead with no heating required you are probably looking at an annual consumption of around 12,000kWh.

Bear in mind that the average consumption in UK is 3,300kWh electricity and 20,500kWh gas(for heating and hotwater)

That is most definitely high.We have Economy 7 and no gas and use about 300 day units and about 150 night units a month.and aren't exactly going out of our way to be energy saving bar all of the lights being energy saving bulbs and the main stuff in the living room being switched off at the plug.

To the OP, check the timer on your immersion heater to make sure its not set to come on outside of economy 7 times, make sure its not set to boost, and make sure for your storage heaters that they aren't coming on outside of the offpeak time as well. We have an electric shower so our immersion is only on for about an hour a night.

greenhippo_2

I have had problems with high electricity bills and unexplainable electricity consumption.
Below are my meter readings from 27th November – 21st August which is for almost 3 separate quarters. You can see from this that so far during the last 268 days ( approx. 9 months ) I have apparently already used 3114 units of off peak energy (2774 of these units were in one quarter) and 6254 units of Standard energy ( 4130 of these units were in one quarter).

Meter

Date

Reading

EA22053

27th November 2008

53117

7219901

27th November 2008

58007

EA22053

27th February 2009

53854

7219901

27th February 2009

58056

EA22053

1st June 2009

60830

7219901

1st June 2009

57894

EA22053

21st August 2009

61121

7219901

21st August 2009

59371

I also believe that due to the very extreme differences in my energy usage during the 3 quarters there must be problems with my meters and also the radio controlled settings for the water heater and storage heaters.
Over the past few days I have been taking note of when the off peak radio controlled timer switches on for the water heater it is meant to be 9am – 10am, 3pm – 4:30pm,9pm – 12am and 12am – 5am under my current tariff Domestic Standard and Restricted Hours B. This would give 10.5 hours of off peak electricity per 24 hour period. On the 21st August and 22nd August the timer came on at 9am – 12:15pm then going off and coming back on at 1:45pm until sometime after 9pm as I couldn’t check it later than that due to being in bed but it was still on then.
This seems to mean that the water is being heated pretty much constantly instead of just for the 10.5hrs outlined with my current tariff with no need for this to be happening. The only items running of the off peak meter are my water heater and two storage heaters which have been switched off at the wall since February when these problems began but mainly due to having a coal fire they have not been needed. I do not have gas in the property.
I have had a timer control set on my water heater on the 21st Aug. This is set to only heat the water between 2am – 7am which means 5 hours of off peak usage a day. I have also been measuring how many units are used each hour by the water heater and on the 21st August I recorded the following information: Meter reading at 9pm – 61124(1.5) and second meter reading at 9am – 61124(6). From this you can clearly see the water heater has used 0.45 of a unit over the 5 hour period set with the new timer control (it is set for between 2am - 7am) which provides more than enough hot water for my house.
Units used during 27th Nov – 27th Feb a period of 93 days
Standard Energy Units – 737 at 12.79p each = £94.26
Off Peak Energy Unit – 49 at 10.09p each = £4.94
Standing charge at 16.240p for 93 days = £15.10
Standard Units used per day = 7.9 units
Off Peak Units used per day = 0.5 units
Cost for this period (minus direct debit discount at 5%) = £108.58
Total Charges for this period (including VAT at 5%) = £114.01




Units used during 28th Feb – 01 Jun a period of 94 days
28th Feb – 29th Mar
Standard Energy Units – 1319 at 12.79p each = £168.70
Off Peak Energy Unit – 886 at 10.09p each = £89.40
Standing Charge at 16.240p for 30 days = £4.87
Total cost – £262.97
Standard Units used per day = 43.9 units
Off Peak Units used per day = 29.5 units
30th Mar – 1st Jun
Standard Energy Units – 2811 at 11.66p each = £327.76
Off Peak Energy Unit – 1888 at 9.00p each = £169.92
Standing Charge at 16.240p for 64 days = £10.39
Total cost – £508.07
Standard Units used per day = 43.9 units
Off Peak Units used per day = 29.5 units
Total Cost for period 27th Feb – 1st June (minus direct debit discount at 5%) = £733.26
Total Charges for this period (including VAT at 5%) = £769.92

Units used during 02 Jun – 21st August a period of 81 days
Standard Energy Units – 1387 at 11.66p each = £161.72
Off Peak Energy Unit – 291 at 9.00p each = £26.19
Standing Charge at 16.240p for 81 days = £13.15
Cost for this period (minus direct debit discount at 5%) = £191.00
Total Charges for this period (including VAT at 5%) = £200.55
Standard Units used per day = 17.1 units
Off Peak Units used per day = 3.6 units
As you can no doubt see from the above figures there are very large differences in my bills and to the usage per quarter, none of my bills are estimated they are all from readings on the meters which is why I feel there must be a problem with the meters themselves. I was told on the 21st August by an advisor that the average off peak units per year for a household was 3300 units so I do not see how it is possible for me to have used 2774 units in one quarter.
I have listed below the items in my house that use electricity in order for you to understand better the situation:
Living Room
·Sky Box
·LCD TV 40”
·BT Vision Box
·Computer attached to the LCD TV
·Small 2nd computer with 15” LCD monitor
·9 light bulbs ( not energy saving)
·Storage heater ( has not been used since start of February)
Downstairs Hall
·2 light bulbs ( energy saving)
·Storage heater ( has not been used since start of February)
·Tumble Dryer ( used for 2 hours when in use but not on a regular basis due to it being summer )
Kitchen
·Fridge
·Cooker ( used once a day for approx. 1hr )
·Dishwasher ( used once every 2 days )
·Washing Machine ( used once every 3 days on average )
·Microwave ( rarely used and not left switched on )
·Toaster ( used once every 3 days on average and not left switched on)
·4 halogen lights ( Energy saving )
Upstairs Hall
·2 light bulbs ( energy saving )
·1 mains smoke alarm (only just fitted on the 21st August 2009)
·Water heater
Bathroom
·Electric Shower
·2 bulbs ( energy saving )
Main Bedroom
·2 bulbs ( energy saving )
2nd Bedroom
·2 bulbs ( energy saving )
·Small 15” TV
·DVD player
Outside
·Security light front door (only used during the evening in winter)
Since I do not have any electric heating on in my property I find it very hard to see from the above how my property uses so much energy.
Even when all the above items were all on at the same time for 2 hours (as I did yesterday as a test) the results were as follows: Meter reading at 5pm – 59372, Meter reading at 6pm – 59375, Meter reading at 7pm – 59377 which shows only a usage of 5 units in 2 hours meaning only 2.5 units an hour were being used. From this it is simple to conclude that even if I used all the above for the entire time I am up in a day, 8am – 11pm which is 15 hours the units used would only be 37.5 units not the 43.9 units I have been billed for during 27th Feb – 1st June.
Obviously I do not have every item in my house on at once all day so I also did a test with the normal household items as listed below that are on, on continually daily basis.
Living Room
·Sky Box
·LCD TV 40”
·BT Vision Box
·Computer attached to the LCD TV
·Small 2nd computer with 15” LCD monitor
·3 light bulbs ( not energy saving)
Downstairs Hall
·2 light bulbs ( energy saving)
Kitchen
·Fridge
Upstairs Hall
·2 light bulbs ( energy saving )
·Water heater
Bathroom
·2 bulbs ( energy saving )
2nd Bedroom
·2 bulbs ( energy saving )
The results from this test on 22nd August 2009 are as follows: Meter reading at 11am – 59372 (3), Meter reading at 12 noon – 59373 (9). This shows that only 1.6 units have been used so I can estimate that for the 15 period I am up during the day (8am – 11pm) only an estimated 24 units are being continually used not the 43.9 units I have been billed for during 27th Feb – 1st June. This obviously doesn’t take into account the times that other above mentioned daily items are being used i.e. the cooker and dishwasher.
During the last week I have had an electrician come out to test all the circuits in the property and he found less than 30ma leakage and no excessive touch faultages on the earths so I do not believe it was a problem with the wiring.
Since an engineer is now booked to come out on Friday 28th of August I will write again once he has had a thorough investigation of the meter box and timer settings.
Any help or input into these problems would be much appreciated.