We are paying £85 a month for electricty is that too high?

Big_dog

Hi we are with E.On and our initial unit price is 22.38 p per unit capped at 224KWh
and secondary unit price at 9.92p each KWh
our average bill is about £230 per quarter and seems to be going up each quarter.
Rang E.On and they said that there was no other tariff for us. We are an average 3 bedroom house with two kids. Heating and cooking is by mains gas.
Can anyone give a little advise?

KimYeovil

Your tariff is a decent enough price. Your problem is your consumption. You have to work out why it is so high.

BargainGalore

Yes sounds like you are using too much, we average around 13-14kwh per day for a 3 bedroom semi. I pay less than you per month and dont have any debt.

Thing thing is dont use electric for heating. Dont take too long in shower or use tumble dryer too much

I am giving these as examples as they are high usage appliances.

Lokolo

5 bedroom house, all with computers, and a TV, and cooking etc. comes to around £45-50 a month....!

Big_dog

Thanks for the reply everyone...
As I mentioned we don't think that we have an excessive amount of electrical items, even the kettle is boiled by a gas stove.
I guess it must be time to turn off all the appliances and switch them on one by one and see which one uses the most.

JulieM

Check your freezer. My neighbour wondered why his electricity bill was so high and discovered that the thermostat on his freezer was permanently on. He bought a new freezer and is now paying £30 less a month.

deshepherd

Big_dog wrote: »

Thanks for the reply everyone...
As I mentioned we don't think that we have an excessive amount of electrical items, even the kettle is boiled by a gas stove.
I guess it must be time to turn off all the appliances and switch them on one by one and see which one uses the most.

Get one of the energy monitors you plug into a socket then plug the appliance into and go around measuring the energy consumption of each item. I'd endorse the comment about checking freezers etc - if you've an old fridge/freezer then it may be very inefficient. A few years ago we replaced a 15-ish year old fridge freezer with a new fridge (which was larger than than the old combiner fridge freezer) and 2 small upright freezers to go under a breakfast bar (n.b. freestanding - not builtin ones) which were all A+ rating - result was the new fridge and freezers despite now having at least twice the capacity of the old fridge freezer used had reduced electrity usage by a half!

Also, comment about showers is true as well ... we've an Owl energy monitor and I was amazed to see how much electricty the shower uses - 3-4x kettles, ovens etc. To such an extent that reducing shower time by a few seconds probably allows you to forget about the consumption of anything (at least anything modern) in standby mode!

macman

OP what is you annual consumption in kWh.? Get it from your last years bill's or phone your provider and they will tell you.
Then use a comp site to see if you can get a better deal.

Meadows

Big_dog wrote: »

Hi we are with E.On and our initial unit price is 22.38 p per unit capped at 224KWh and secondary unit price at 9.92p each KWh our average bill is about £230 per quarter and seems to be going up each quarter. Rang E.On and they said that there was no other tariff for us. We are an average 3 bedroom house with two kids. Heating and cooking is by mains gas. Can anyone give a little advise?

Not sure that any of us can say yes or no as we all live in different housing and have different usage.

If your house is older and less insulated you will pay more than others to heat it.

If your boiler is old and less efficient you will use more fuel.

Some people cook from scratch, some microwave ready meals, therefore more usage.

Some like a bath, some a shower, heating water costs more.

Some like cooler rooms, some like hotter.

Energy efficient white goods cost less to run

Unused TVs etc left on standby cost money.

Lights left on in rooms not used costs money.

All you can do is be as energy efficient as you can and make sure you are on a good tariff.

space_rider

I pay £81 a month for my gas and electricity. I average 8 hours a day in winter and bit less in summer as don`t use the lights as much. Last week I unplugged the tv, wii and dvd and I am now down to 7.7 units a day. I have all A rated white goods and only use the tumble dryer for towels.

dogshome

Hi Big dog - Having run some very rough numbers from the figures in your post, it appears that you are using around 8700 Kwh of Elect a year, which again from your post would seem to be twice the amount that would be expected for your household.

CHECK that the meter number on your Bill matches that on the Meter if it does not phone your supplier
CHECK the Immersion heater to see it is not on constantly
BUY a Wattmeter for around a Tenner so you can check the consumption on every appliance you have
SWITCH OFF everything, and I mean everything, and check that the meter has stopped moving If it does get a local sparks in to check your wiring