Help needed about unfair electric bills!!!!

villa2010

Hi,

My girlfriend and I moved in our apartment about a year ago.

We have been left with a huge deficit of £800 just for electricity!

We were recommended to keep our immersion heater on 24/7 by our landlord management teams. this was put in writing by them. they suggested that it would be cheaper to leave it on, than it would be to have it on a timer as they are economy scale 10 boilers. we took there advice and left them on 24/7t

We registered with our electric company who said they would send us bills every 1/4.

9 months later we received a phone call saying that we were urgently in debt by £800, due to the fact that the boiler had been on 24/7.

What made matters worse was that we only revived one bill from the electric company out of three that were supposed to be sent. the bill we received was only a predicted estimate and not an accurate argument, so after 3 months we thought that we were keeping on track with the bills.

I phoned up the electric company and made the point that if we had received the bills accurately and on time then we would have been pro active by changing them to a timer setting.

the last bill took then 2 and 1/2 months to send out due a back log according to them.

Is there any thing we can do either about the advice we received or the electric company?

Any help and advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated!

Andy_WSM

Leaving the immersion on 24/7 doesn't actually add much to the bill. It's not cheaper, but the very most EXTRA it should cost you is 20P to 30P per day assuming the tank is insulated? Modern water tanks have a loss of around 3KW per day, multiply that by your unit price and that's the additional cost. Note also though that the heat that "escapes" from the tank escapes into the room, thus reducing your heating costs in colder weather, so it's not all bad leaving the tank on 24/7.

McKneff

There is nothing yo can do but pay up I'm afraid, you have used the electricity, its as simple as that.
The management company advised you, you chose to take that advice, so not their fault.

The bills came late but you could have been proactive since you moved in by taking a monthly reading and checking what
yu were using yourself and putting that money to one side or at least budgettng for it.

Like I say, youve used it and consequently have to pay for it.
Sorry,
Annie

themull1

not receiving the bills makes no difference, you should have rung your meter readings in.

villa2010

Andy_WSM wrote: »

Leaving the immersion on 24/7 doesn't actually add much to the bill. It's not cheaper, but the very most EXTRA it should cost you is 20P to 30P per day assuming the tank is insulated? Modern water tanks have a loss of around 3KW per day, multiply that by your unit price and that's the additional cost. Note also though that the heat that "escapes" from the tank escapes into the room, thus reducing your heating costs in colder weather, so it's not all bad leaving the tank on 24/7.

On average we were using 26 units per day with the boiler on 24/7.

Now With the boiler on the timer setting we only have been using 5 units on average!

Cardew

villa2010 wrote: »

On average we were using 26 units per day with the boiler on 24/7.

Now With the boiler on the timer setting we only have been using 5 units on average!

You are getting things a little mixed up here.

You stated earlier:

We were recommended to keep our immersion heater on 24/7

The Immersion heater just heats the hot water for bath/taps and as stated by Andy above, will only use 2 kWh(units) or so extra a day if your tank is well insulated, if left on 24/7. The Immersion heater is fits inside the Hot water tank.

Presumably your 'boiler' is for heating?

If you are mixing up terminology, there is absolutely no way an immersion heater will account for the sort of consumption you are stating - reduction fro 26 units to 5 units a day.

moonrakerz

Cardew wrote: »

there is absolutely no way an immersion heater will account for the sort of consumption you are stating - reduction fro 26 units to 5 units a day.

Unless the tank is unlagged at the temp set at a very high level ?? - but even then.............

C_Mababejive

How can an electric bill be unfair?

You use electric,the meter measures it,they read it,you pay.

Terrylw1

Seems you should have had more bills.

However, you use the elec and they have to pay the local distribution company for the juice.

That would be between who told you to leave it was cheaper.

Your Supplier will help you with a payment plan.

Given what other posters have said about the immersion, there could be other things wrong here. You need to try and work out how much you use to see if other usage accounts for it. Otherwise, it could be billing problem e.g. your opening reading is too low, could there be a missing tenant or did the last tennant underpay etc. If so, your Supplier need to work out your daily usage and possibly adjust your start read upwards. Always take reads as you move in and out, never rely on the landlord.

davidgmmafan

"Always take reads as you move in and out, never rely on the landlord."

Very true this, most landlors or ok but you do get the odd one who gives the same opening and closing reading even though they've blatently used some electricity AND gas whilst doing the property up ready for a new tenant.

Elliot.Rigsby

It sounds like the thermostat on the cylinder was faulty!