Electricity bill seems very high

marcus_h

I am a little confused by the amount I am spending on electricity. We moved to our current house 2 1/2 yrs ago. I was with Atlantic Electricity before, so we moved our account with us (I did one of those switch deals, and they were cheapest).

Since then, we had to up the payments to keep up – to about £75/month (elec only). When I do one of those compassion sites, they reckon my current amount with Atlantic should be about £65, and that other companies are less again. We use about 6000 kw/hrs per year.

Our last bill, I note, was using an estimate, and it looks like they have underestimated my bill by about 2000kw/h, which is about 1/3 of a year, or £300! They seem to have been billing me on the assumption I would use 5000 or so kw/h, charging me £75 month, and if I left now, I would owe £300 (which works out at about £10/mth over 30 months). That means my effective tariff was £85 mth. That seems way in excess of what I should be paying.

We are a professional couple in a detached house, and have a 1 1/2 year old. All heating and hot water is by oil (we live in countryside) We don't drink tea much at all, so don't boil kettles, we have energy efficient light bulbs and don't leave much on standby at all. So it seems the amount of energy is way too high, but the price is also much higher than it should be. Would Atlantic send an engineer out to see if there is a problem?

keith1950

Hi, for the time being forget about the unit costs of your electricity and concentrate on your kwh useage which is nearly double the average figure.

Get an electricity monitor for around £30 or maybe your supplier has them at a discount. Switch everything off and see what your background useage is. Switch things off one by one to see what different appliances are using.

Take meter readings daily or at the very least weekly to again monitor your useage.

It is possible that the meter could be faulty and you could ask them to change it if you have proof that your useage is incorrect, thats about the limit to the help you can expect from them.

You say that hot water is provide by oil, have you checked that any immersion heater, if fitted, is switched off, how many computers/tvs do you have on and for how long? Do you have a hot tub ? They can cost a fortune. Check everything before requesting a meter change.

If you can sort out your useage and pay any arrears then move to a cheaper tariff.

You talk about a difference of £10/month between suppliers, are you entering kwh figures on the comparison sites?, if you just enter £/month you are wasting your time. Remember £10 /month is a relatively small difference compared to the lastest rises, so comparing tariffs between a supplier that hasnt yet raised prices against one that has can show a difference of £20-£30/month.

brewerdave

If you have a 1 1/2 year old suspect that you use the washing m/c a lot - probably on a hotter wash & it will be cold fill - also do you have a tumble dryer,dishwasher? What about an electric shower (either heated or pumped)?
Even tho' there are only two of us now in a 5 bedroomed detached house fitted with low energy light bulbs, and I switch things off whenever I can, I'm struggling to get usage below 6000kWH pa

jalexa

marcus_h wrote: »

Our last bill, I note, was using an estimate, and it looks like they have underestimated my bill

I don't know what to make of this post. The Atlantic bill (as most bills now), indicates very clearly whether or not the bill is based on an estimate, whether that is good (thumbs up), or not (thumbs down), provides a 0800 Meterline number, (though - note to Atlantic - doesn't *explain* what the "Meterline" is for!) and contains a large font imploration to sign-up for e-services which will result in a email asking for customer readings (which when entered (at any time) produces an immediate account balance update and (when provided during the billing window, or immediately after an estimated bill) results in an accurate bill being generated.

So the real issue is not that you are confused and have a gut feeling you are using too much electricity - something other posters have more helpfully than me explained - but why the estimated billing warnings have not been effective.

On that *I* am confused....

grahamc2003

Up to recently, 6000kwh should have cost you around £600 (i.e. average 10p/kwh, typical ballpark/average). With the current increases, you should expect that to rise to typically £700 give or take, from now on. You appear to have been paying (75*12) = £800pa for what they think you have used, which is 4000kwh, which works out at 20p/kwh which (as an average of tier one and two for your usage) is unheared of.

So your numbers are wrong somewhere.

From your bill, what are your unit rates (ii.e. tier one price per kwh, and tier two, or the standing charge plus the unit cost)?

macman

Start by checking for an immersion heater on 24/7-your annual usage is far too high.

500orbust

I have 2 sons who have built their own computers for gaming. They can be using 0.3-0.4kW hr when online. The meter goes down rapidly when they are out!!

marcus_h

keith1950 wrote: »

Hi, for the time being forget about the unit costs of your electricity and concentrate on your kwh useage which is nearly double the average figure.

Get an electricity monitor for around £30 or maybe your supplier has them at a discount. Switch everything off and see what your background useage is. Switch things off one by one to see what different appliances are using.

Take meter readings daily or at the very least weekly to again monitor your useage.

It is possible that the meter could be faulty and you could ask them to change it if you have proof that your useage is incorrect, thats about the limit to the help you can expect from them.

You say that hot water is provide by oil, have you checked that any immersion heater, if fitted, is switched off, how many computers/tvs do you have on and for how long? Do you have a hot tub ? They can cost a fortune. Check everything before requesting a meter change.

If you can sort out your useage and pay any arrears then move to a cheaper tariff.

You talk about a difference of £10/month between suppliers, are you entering kwh figures on the comparison sites?, if you just enter £/month you are wasting your time. Remember £10 /month is a relatively small difference compared to the lastest rises, so comparing tariffs between a supplier that hasnt yet raised prices against one that has can show a difference of £20-£30/month.

Thanks for the ideas. I do use the kw/h figure in my comparisons. It seems that the reasonable price for our usage is £650-700/yr, and we are paying £1000 ish (when the under-estimates are included).

No hot-tub, we do our washes on 40 degrees (though the wee one increases the frequency!). Two lap-tops, not always plugged in. The only thing that is on that shouldn't be is the wi-fi and router. We have a big fridge also.

The idea about an immersion heater being on without us knowing, despite the oil heating, is a good thought - I will investigate.

I will also get a monitor, I think.

I guess it would be better to sort this out, then move supplier, as if there is a problem with the meter for instance, I would have greater leverage as an existing customer, rather than one who has moved on.

macman

Your DD is higher because you have not submitted regular meter readings, therefore your DD amount reflects your usage (say £60pm), plus an extra amount to cover the arrears. If you owe £300, the that would represent an extra £25pm to clear it over a year.
I suggest you go and look at your tank/immersion heater right now, it will take you 2 minutes to check this out. If not on, then you need to start taking regular (daily) readings to work out why andwhere you are using so much power.
If you owe more than £200, you can't switch suppliers anyway, the existing supplier will refuse it until you have cleared the debt.

jalexa

marcus_h wrote: »

I guess it would be better to sort this out, then move supplier, as if there is a problem with the meter for instance, I would have greater leverage as an existing customer, rather than one who has moved on.

No it wouldn't. The meter is owned by a "third party".

If you suspect the meter is not accurate (not "impossible" but *extremely unlikely*)...

(1) there is a formal industry procedure to challenge accuracy and

(2) it should be the *last* explanation you look at after having taken account of all the excellent posts about consumption.

chris1973

I have 2 sons who have built their own computers for gaming. They can be using 0.3-0.4kW hr when online. The meter goes down rapidly when they are out!!

Very true and a fact that a lot of people miss. its easy to suspect obvious high current items like Tumble Dryers, Heaters, Immersion Heaters, Electric Ovens etc, yet forget just how long medium draw appliances may be running for.

Xboxes and Playstations are another area too, probably more so than a standard PC. An X-box with the minimum of extras will draw around 180w - 200w itself, even before taking into consideration the size and current draw of the TV which its plugged into. 200W will use 1 KW/H of electricity for every 5 hours it is switched on. Holidays and Weekends could turn out expensive if your teenagers (or OH) are on them from Dawn to Midnight.

This is even more applicable during long school holidays and winter months, I can imagine at the moment, all of the teens stuck at home bored whilst their parents are at work, every PC, TV and X-Box in the house switched on all day / night racking up their electricity bills and at an average increase of 15% higher KW/H rates than before!, and this is even more applicable in larger families with more than one of these things, or one for the kids and one for Dad, LOL

A football and Bike may work out cheaper in the long run