Electricity bill has gone bonkers!

greenfeld69

Hi all

I am trying to get a handle on why my electricity bill has suddenly rocketed. I was previously paying £55 a month but ended up overpaying constantly. So now I am on Energy Smart with British Gas. Last month's bill was around £90. This month's is looking like being £140! I have NEVER had such a ridiculously large fuel bill.

The only changes I have made are using an electric blanket all night, which surely isn't costing much. I use a dehumidifier for a few hours a day, games console, TV, etc., shower and my oven. The hob and central heating are gas.

I recently had an outdoor security light fitted - perhaps it's going off too much and costing me? I also bought a couple of oil-filled radiators but they would be one for no more than a couple of hours a day (and only one at a time, depending on where I am in the house).

Can anybody suggest why suddenly my bill has gone mad?

Thanks!

savemoney

Can you post the energy usage comparable with same period last year?

The above appliances you gave wont make that much of a difference.

Rads might use a fair bit 1kwh-2kwh each but they wont be on all time using that amount due to thermostat

HappyMJ

How many kwh and what's the per unit charge? Electric heating costs a lot especially when you already have gas central heating available to you.

victor2

Could be a number of things, like an immersion heater left on or a faulty fridge for example.
Do a bit of detective work to find out. Leave things as they are and take a meter reading. Wait 30 mins and take another. Multply the difference by 48 and that should give you an idea of daily usage (and therefore cost) if things were left as they are. If it looks a bit excessive, try again after switching a few things off. If it looks realistic, take readings at different times of the day until you get one indicating high usage.
Get a few drinks in, it can take a while!

penrhyn

Are you submitting your monthly meter readings correctly?

What are the readings for the last few months?

Have you had a look at the usage graph on your Energy Smart Account.

What sort of £/hour/day/week readings are you getting on your home electricity monitor.

amcluesent

>So now I am on Energy Smart with British Gas<

How have the tariffs changed? Why did you switch?

Only 1kW+ devices that heat the air/water will make a big difference. Devices up to a few 100W used once in a while are trifles in comparison.

greenfeld69

17/08/2009 I submitted a reading and my meter was at 21763.
20/09/2010 I submitted a reading and my meter was at 27445.

Since then it has gone up by 1615 - it's currently at 29070, averaging 538 units a month. That seems high to me when, as I say, I don't have electric central heating. Re: my gas central heating, it's crap and ineffective and I run off Calor bottles, so I am not into using it too much.

One thing I don't get is that I have two readings - day and night. Despite sometimes using the washing machine and the electric blanket all night, the night rating has gone up by only three units since February 2009!

If I'm honest, I don't know how much the tariff has changed. I can't even remember why I changed, however foolish that might be. I don't even use the monitor

penrhyn

I suspect you are underestimating the time you have your electric radiators on, especially in the cold weather, they take a while to warm up from cold and would be running aon full power. What power are they?
Do you have an immersion heater?
If you are not on Economy 7 then the night and day readings are combined.

If I were you I'd set up the electricity monitor PDQ.

greenfeld69

I've got the meter running!

It's currently ticking along at around .24p an hour, with the dehumidifier on, my Mac, a host of lights, and a stereo.

Sound about right?

penrhyn

How many watts is that? At a guess 400 ish.

Edit: This is of course rubbish.

@15p/ unit it should be about 1.6 Kwh.

HappyMJ

penrhyn wrote: »

How many watts is that? At a guess 400 ish.

More like about 2000 at 12p/kw = 24p