£162 for El month, £2-300 for oil...is this too much?

DarnIt_3

Hi there,

I am in a four bed, three/four reception farmhouse. I am paying £162 a month.
Since the end of March I have used 4500 units. I have four children.
Heating is oil/coal and costs between £200-£300 per month. Looking at other peoples SoA this seems high, or am I imagining it??

macman

4,500 kWh of electrcity over 3 months in a property heated by oil/coal is incredibly high.That's the average annual consumptrion for non-electric heating.
How do you produce your hot water? Do you have an immersion heater left on 24/7? What other high consumption items are you running?
What you really need to check is your annual consumption-go back over your last year's bills and calcuate it from that, or phone your supplier for the figure.
Are your bills based on actual usage or estimated usage?

DarnIt_3

macman wrote: »

4,500 kWh of electrcity over 3 months in a property heated by oil/coal is incredibly high.That's the average annual consumptrion for non-electric heating.
How do you produce your hot water? Do you have an immersion heater left on 24/7? What other high consumption items are you running?
What you really need to check is your annual consumption-go back over your last year's bills and calcuate it from that, or phone your supplier for the figure.
Are your bills based on actual usage or estimated usage?

They are estimating lower! The reason I can be so sure is because we had a new meter fitted at the end of march and its on 4500 already!

Heating is on oil also!

I have just been paying it thinking that it was high but within normal ranges, then I read someone in a 3bed detached was paying 40£ a month I thought I should maybe look into it!

I am thinking about getting Eon to come out and have a look at the meter!

macman

You didn't confirmif you have an immersion heater and if it has been left on 24/7?
If not, then start by isolating each ring main circuit in turn and try and pin down where the power is going by reading your meter every hour or so.

DarnIt_3

I do have immersion but its unplugged.
I just called E.on they said that it was not an excessive usage....it equates to around 40 per day, which is within range!
I said I disagree and she said I could get a device fitted to make sure it is working but it would cost me in excess of £100 and I would not get it refunded if there was something wrong with it!

So I guess they are saying TOUGH!

Carry on paying the bill or get cut off!

Phil_GT

is that 40 units of electric a day

i live in a 3 bed semi with my gf and i think we use 7-8 units a day....

macman

Well, if you have used 4,500 kWh's in 3 months, then that is 1,500 a month, or 50 kWh's a day, not 40, so maths is not their strong point?
But even if your usage is 'only' 40 kWh's per day, that's still 1,200 per month, or 14,400 per year-3 to 4 times what one would expect in a property not using electricity for heating or hot water. Eon cannot seriously say that an electricity bill of £1,440pa is not excessive!
Something is seriously wrong, so you need to do as suggested and work your way around isolating each circuit in turn to find out where all that power is going. Your bill should be more like £50 per month or less.
Given that you are wasting well over £100 a month at present, an investment of £100 would seem like a bargain? But if this high consumption only began with the new meter, then that is clear evidence, so get your old bills out and compare them.
PS: was your meter on zero when installed? It may not have been, in which case the installer would have left a note of the reading and the date.
Immersion circuits are normally hard-wired in and not plugged, are you sure it's not permanently wired in and on?

DarnIt_3

It was the adviser on the phone who calculated from the day it was installed to today that it worked at around 40units per day. She asked me to hold the line whilst she recalculated the bill! I was like.....instead of recalculating FIX THE BL00DY meter!
It was on zero when it was installed. I seriously begrudge paying an extra £100+ because there is a issue with their meter.

I am not sure about the immersion. I am going to isolate circuits tomorrow whilst the children are at school, as I don't think they will appreciate sitting in the dark

macman

It's the power circuits (ring mains) that you need to check. The lighting circuits are not the issue-they couldn't possibly account for that that usage unless you have banks of halogen lights burning in every room. So nobody has to sit in the dark.

DarnIt_3

Do you want to hear the funniest thing..............we have had police helicopters flying over recently I am sure they think we are a cannabis farm......lol.....wouldn't mind if I was it could pay for my electric!