no idea wot im paying for

krissybeck

my electricity meter had never been read in the year id lived in my house so i gave british gas my reading they then sent me a £2500.00 electricity bill.(we only have electricity) when i called to object to this they cut it to £200.00 very strange.(this was last summer) i have now recieved my bill which says i have used £456.60 in 3 months. i live in a 2 bed semi detached bungalow. it has night storage heaters and the meter is economy 7. Does any 1 know if this is right my bills go up and up we have turned our heaters off so no heating in our house and also our boiler as its a very old boiler so no hot water we just use our shower. we have a cooker fridge tv and lap top all our bulbs are energy bulbs and we turn all apart from the fridge off at the plug. British gas say my meter is fine and there is no problem!!!!!!! i need help im now £800 in debt and ive been paying £87 per month since summer last year then last month they put it up to £187 per month and now its £207.00 per month, Surley i cant be using this much????????????

NeverInDebt

I would monitor your meter readings to see your daily/weekly rate

Not sure on all electric house but bills tend to be higher as electric costs more than gas to heat your home

it could be that your not on a tariff where you get cheap electric at certain times of the day, economy 7 or possibly they may be billing you wrong way around high rate at night when your suppose to be on cheap eco 7 rate

Its just possible that you are not on it and bill is correct therefore you need to be on a cheaper rate

Cardew

Electricy only houses are expensive to run - although your storage heaters are on cheap rate(I hope!!) all your other electricity is at a higher rate.

By 'boiler' I assume you mean the immersion heater in the hot water tank? By not heating this on cheap rate you are paying a lot more for showers with daytime electricity.

The average bill even for those with Gas is around £1,300 a year and as said above, electricity is more expensive. It would appear you have used about £1,800 in a year which is high but not excessive.

krissybeck

yes i mean the hot water tank. This only has an on off switch should i leave it on over night? I dont know if im being thick but i thought my shower used cold water and heated it its self????? is there anything i can do to check if im defo on the cheap rate at night. mind they arent switched on so shouldnt be using any night energy but i am . i just cant believe i can use that much a year my house is tiny and we are hardly ever here. I really am greatful for your comments and help.

Cardew

You need to look at your meter and it will have two readings if you have an Economy 7 tariff(i.e. cheap rate for 7 hours late at night) - your bill should state 'Economy 7'(you stated in the first post you were on Economy 7)

Your shower could be an electric shower(heats cold water) or a normal shower with the hot water from a tank.

What about water for basins etc if that is hot it comes from the tank.

Post how much electricity you have used at the cheap rate(should be around 5p for a kWh) and how many kWh at the expensive rate.