single person daily electric usage is this too high?

Chrysalis

Ok I have just finished a call with my electric company atlantic.

I was on the wrong meter (diff flat) and I now have a £750 catchup bill which they wont write off so have to catch up with using monthly payments, on top of this they saying my actual daily usage is 15 units a day which amounts to £57 a month.

I live on my own.

Appliances I use.

Old Fridge/freezer on 24/7
Electric cooker one hot meal a day no breakfast.
Gas heating.
Electric shower used for my hair but have baths for body.
Computer on 24/7.
sky+ box on 24/7 in standby mostly not fully on, cant turn off due to recordings. But plan to try and turn off some days when not recording.
21" crt tv lightly used probably on average 4-5 hours a week, when not in use is fully turned off not in standby.
Occasional electric used for charging mobile phone, lights etc. All energy saving bulbs only ever have room im in lit and not even always on when in room.

£57 a week roughly £15 a week so roughly just over £2 a day. Does this seem high for a single person in 1 bedroom flat in the summer although I am in most of the day usually on computer. They told me they think its not excessively high, when I asked if its the average they sort of evaded the question just saying its not excessively high.

The period between dec 2008 and march 2009 on which I had a large meter reading jump, dec 2008 was a different meter and march 2009 on this meter the reading was average 34 units a day on which I am expected to pay even tho my current usage is average 15 a day which I am debating is high and my previous usage was averaging 6 a day.

and finally I am on incapacity and housing benefit, is there a better supplier who will offer me a discount on my circumstances? my annual income is a whopping £80 a year above atlantic's threshold for low income tariff.

Building is split into 3 flats, I am the only one with a credit meter, all meters are in same accessible cupboard, is it feasible to also think someone else may be tapping into my supply?

thanks for any replies.

Cardew

The UK average is 3,300kWh pa.

15kWh a day is 5475kWh - high, but not excessive.

Your 1 bed flat is not really a factor as you heat with gas.

Depending on your type of PC and equipment, and if you have it on power saving, it could use 4 to 5kWh per day left on 24/7.

It is possible that someone could be 'tapping into your supply' or the 'common parts' on your meter. Often with houses converted into flats they have the wiring wrong.

It is very easy to check - switch off everything including fridge for a couple of hours and check the meter before and after.

Jumps in consumption are usually because an earlier meter reading was under-estimated and you then get a 'catch-up' bill.

Chrysalis

ok thanks, now where do I go from here?

my dad told me to get the electric company to check if the meter is faulty, good advice I am guessing. But I am also guessing this is only a basic check if the meter is reading consumption correctly, it wont check if the wiring is correct or tampered with? for that I would need to get onto my landlord?

I have dipswitches in my kitchen which control the various electrical points in my flat, I assume if they all turned off there should be no way to use electric in my flat and this could be a good way to test if the meter is feeding electric into other flats?

sorry and to add the dec 2008 reading was not estimated it was an actual reading but from the other meter (which I was wrongly using).

fabjenni

I used to work for a gas/electric company & before we would even talk about getting someone out to check the meter we would ask the customer to take 7 days worth of meter readings, once a day at the same time every day. Do this before you contact them, explaining anything that would give a rise in consumption, eg if you're like me I don't run the washing machine/tumbler dryer during the week, but 3/4 times at the weekend, giving me a rise in units used at the w/e.

Once you've got the full weeks worth (eg Sun-Sun) have a look at it yourself, & see if you think its averaging out at the 15 units a day, then speak to your supplier, some have calclulators that they can run thru with you what you have plugged in & what it on average you should be using.

Bearing in mind that if the meter reading have not always been accurate & on the correct meter the company may have to use an average units daily figure to get a bill for you as they will not have the correct information to go on & no way of checking.

Chrysalis

yeah we already calculated (I was on the phone for over an hour).

we calculated approx 9 units a day in extreme condition such as the fridge been faulty and using more than it should. When I questioned the extra 6 units I just got a response of umm well you not excessively high so thats that.

I was told 1 unit per 6 hours of computer usage. (no idea if this includes monitor been turned on or not, I assume it does since hard to use a computer without a monitor) although my computer is on 24/7 the monitor isnt. so approx 4 units day for pc.
on my old fridge they reckon around 2-4 units a day. (4 been if faulty).
then they gave me various estimated unit usages for the appliances I use occasionally but not all the time such as electric shower and tv, even going on about how much a 40" lcd on for 6 hours uses, except I only have a 21" tv used nowhere near that much.

incidently my dad thinks my bill is insane. he is going to check his daily usage as well this week so we can compare, only him and my mum in their own flat.

--edit--

I just had a quick read of ofgem site, says what you said may need 7 days readings.

interesting on the average consumption figures they have.

Number of bedrooms at your property Avg. electricity consumption (kWh)
1 2,500
2 4,000
3 5,500

I would say double consumption and close to average of 3 rooms is excessive, the more I think about this the more dodgy it seems.

Swipe

I live alone, detached bungalow and my average daily summer rate is around 6kwh per day. This includes heating water too for 45 min in the immersion heater. My electric bills more than halved when I got rid of an old chest freezer that had a broken hinge.

aelitaman

I am single and i discovered that i used 15 units per day on average.

The main culprit was the PC, when you are not using it turn it off.
Turn off the tv at the wall when you are not using it, turn off all chargers when not being used. Turn the fridge level down to 1 or 2.

my usage is now down to an average of 9KW (40% reduction) per day and I still use the oven to cook 3 to four times a week.

Take your meeting reading today do all this and see how much your usage has reduced by over the next week.

libra10

We are a family of 3 (OH and I retired, son working full-time). The PC and TV are on and off during most days. Our Summer average weekly electricity reading is low to mid 70s, hardly varying.

Hope this helps. Good luck

daveyjp

Our latest bill shows 5.1 units per day. Gas for water and cooking, but we use a tumble dryer all the time.

cattie

You don't mention washing machine or electric kettle, do you have either of these as they can use a fair amount of electricity?

As a person on my own paying electricity by monthly direct debit, I currently pay £24 per month, provider is BGas. I use gas for heating & hot water, including daily showers, tv, computer etc. turned off & unplugged when not in use, engergy saving bulbs & lights never put on unnecessarily, electric kettle filled with only the amount of water needed. Fan oven, but used once in a blue moon. Hob is gas. Washing machine once, sometimes twice per week.

So called social tarrif's for people on low incomes are usually more expensive than online rates offered by supplier's so check online rates for your best deal. Follow the advice given by Martin on the homepage.

Cardew

Chrysalis wrote: »

interesting on the average consumption figures they have.

Number of bedrooms at your property Avg. electricity consumption (kWh)
1 2,500
2 4,000
3 5,500

I would say double consumption and close to average of 3 rooms is excessive, the more I think about this the more dodgy it seems.

You are a single person living alone in a 1 bed property.

As you don't heat with electricity, why would you use any more, or less, electricity than if you lived in a 6 bed property? You would still have the same appliances and use the same lighting etc.

Presumably the ofgem site assumes that several people will live in a 3 bed property - more lights, TVs, PCs more cooking etc etc.