Economy 7 electricity bill question!!! Please help!!!

Premier_2

grahamka wrote: »

... We've just recieved our first quarterly bill which came to £281. We know this can't be right-I used to pay this quarterly when I lived in a house with 6 people with the tv, washing machine and heating always on!!!! ...

What makes you think it's wrong?

6 people living in an all electric property with an annual bill of < £1200 would be extremely good/low usage.
Also remember that whilst the current property is smaller, there are a lot less people living in it to generate their own heat.

grahamka

Because everyone else I've spoken to in two bed flats are getting quarterly bills for around £160 on average.Theres only two of us and we're hardly in, don't use the heating and the electric company has told us it seems very high for our circumstances. A lot of energy is being used during the day-it doesn't add up!

Kate

Fire_Fox

Are you sure your day and night readings haven't got mixed up? If the immersion was on all the time, you'd have high day AND night readings. Do you seem to have hot water 24/7 regardless of who has had a bath or how much laundry has been done?

If your day readings of 1588KWH are for exactly 90 days (you don't specify) then that is about 17 KWH per day which is high but not excessive, especially if you are doing laundry and/ or using a tumble dryer during the day and/ or have an electrically heated shower (again you don't say).

329KWH for your night rate over a quarter is fairly low which suggests to me you have nothing much on overnight - basically you aren't using the economy 7 properly! We use under 10KWH per day (day and night combined) in a two bedroom flat, that gives us just half an hour of hot water per night, no heating, low temperature for laundry and no tumble dryer and no electric shower, lots of halogen lamps for lighting, hardly any gadgets.

Fire_Fox

grahamka wrote: »

Because everyone else I've spoken to in two bed flats are getting quarterly bills for around £160 on average.Theres only two of us and we're hardly in, don't use the heating and the electric company has told us it seems very high for our circumstances. A lot of energy is being used during the day-it doesn't add up!

Kate

Don't compare what you are paying, compare what KWH you are using, and make sure your comparisons are based on actual not estimated readings. If you are on an E7 tariff when you shouldn't be, haven't switched from an expensive supplier or haven't switched from the 'standard' tariff whereas your friends are on the right tariff with the right supplier you will end up looking like you are paying through the nose.

I am using half the electricity you claim to be using but my quarterly bill is £100 a month, simply because I am on the best tariff with the best supplier for my usage pattern.

macman

Clearly the clock is kn**kered if the time it shows is always 14.30! Is there an override switch on the timer-usually there is an option of 'on', 'off' or 'timer'? If the timer option has failed, then it may have been switched over to 'always on' to keep it working.
Get on to your landlord and get it fixed ASAP, as it will be greatly increasing your consumption-not only is it on 24/7, but for 17 hours a day you are paying for it at the higher Economy 7 day rate.

macman

PS: you can't have looked very hard for the Pulsacoil III manual!
http://www.gledhill.net/pdfmanuals/Older%20Ranges/PulsaCoilIII.pdf
This explains the system, but no mention of a timer, so this must be an ancillary timer fitted to it. There should be a separate make/model description on the actual timer/clock itself.
From p7:

The PulsaCoil III appliance is provided with two side
entry immersion heaters. The lower element is connected
to the off peak supply and enables the whole of the
contents to be heated overnight using a low cost tariff.
The upper element is connected to the unrestricted supply
and enables the upper part of the contents to be given
a day time boost. This is switched manually or by a
timer and uses the standard tariff. In some areas the
local electricity company allows a limited day time off
peak boost.
It is normal to supply the PulsaCoil III using an Ecomony
7 controller as shown in Figure 2.2.
Alternatively the PulsaCoil III can be supplied from
separate circuits as shown in Figure 2.3. In this case the
two switches should be clearly labelled for the
householders use.

I suspect either the 'boost' function is permanently on, or possibly the lower element has been wired to the peak supply side rather than the off peak.

grahamka

Are you sure your day and night readings haven't got mixed up?

This was the first thing that the eltric company checked the reading hadn't been mixed up!

PS: you can't have looked very hard for the Pulsacoil III manual!

This explains the system, but no mention of a timer, so this must be an ancillary timer fitted to it. There should be a separate make/model description on the actual timer/clock itself.

This was the first manual that I found but like you said it doesn't include the timer instructions (due to it being separate) so this manual wasn't really useful. I agree that it is the timer-my landlord has finally supplied me with the instructions for the timer and it had been switched to an off position (which you can't tell unless you have the instructions!!!), so the immersion heater has been on the entire time. Can't believe it was something so simple after all this. I have now programmed for it to come on from 4am until 7am.

Thank you to everyone who sent a message-really appreciate it!!!

Kate

Premier_2

grahamka wrote: »

...
Useage from my bill: Night: 329 kWh
Day: 1588 kWh...

Well that usage would cost about the amount billed.

So, assuming the readings are actuals, you need to check if the meter is accurate.

A couple of simple checks would be first to turn off everything in the property and see if the meter is stiil recording usage.
If so, either the meter is faulty or there is still something consuming your electricity (which may not be authorised)

Then check usage on a day by day, even hour by hour basis to see if it corresponds to what you are doing at the time. Perhaps something like an owl monitor would help.

Failing all that, you could ask the meter to be checked for accuracy, but the supplier will probably charge you should the meter not be faulty. (about £50)