HUGE electricity bill

recovering_spendaholic

I have my gas and electric supplied by Scottish power on their online saver fixed price until 2014 tariff, which includes boiler cover. I paid £105 per year this time last year (on old online tariff) and then in June it went up to £145 a month and last month it went up again to £194 a month.

I have just done my meter readings and my bill for the last quarter's electricity is £274 and gas £50. I have gas central heating, double glazing, cavity wall insulation and my house is a 3 bed semi built in 1930.

I do not have tumble dryer, but do run a dishwasher and washing machine daily, plus I have an electric oven. I have two teenagers who leave every door open and every light on but I keep on top of that as much as I can and I was always told that lights don't actually use that much electricity anyway.

The only things I can think of are:

Computer is never turned off
electric oven is on at least once a day
kettle is boiled several times a day.
Washing machine does at least 2 loads a day
Dishwasher is run once a day

Does anyone know, or can anyone point me in the right direction to find out, how much these things cost. I am REALLY struggling to pay these charges now and am starting to panic.

Cardew

Is the £274 elect bill based on an actual start reading - as opposed to an estimated reading.

Usually very high bills are 'catch up' bills. i.e. the previous bill was based on an under-estimated meter reading.

recovering_spendaholic

Cardew wrote: »

Is the £274 elect bill based on an actual start reading - as opposed to an estimated reading.

Usually very high bills are 'catch up' bills. i.e. the previous bill was based on an under-estimated meter reading.

No - its an actual bill unfortunately!

prettypaula

how is your water heated?

try turning off EVERYTHING and unplugging the lot and go and look at your meter, is it ticking through still?

HappyMJ

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

No - its an actual bill unfortunately!

So what is the opening meter reading and date and what is the closing meter reading and date. How much have they charged you for the boiler cover? Any other charges? How much VAT?

Do the kids have games consoles that they never turn off.

rogerblack

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

I have just done my meter readings and my bill for the last quarter's electricity is £274 and gas £50. I have gas central heating, double glazing, cavity wall insulation and my house is a 3 bed semi built in 1930.
<snip>

Ballpark assumptions - your electricity is around 10p/unit.
This is about 2.70/day, or 27 units.

Computer is never turned off - depending on the computer, this can easily be 5 units.
electric oven is on at least once a day 3 units.

kettle is boiled several times a day. .5 unit

Washing machine does at least 2 loads a day, 3 units. (more if drier)
Dishwasher is run once a day .5 units

This is a rough guess - and could easily hit half your bill.
Lights - if not energy saving - use quite a lot!

I would recommend getting one of these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Energenie-Energy-Saving-Power-Meter-/320503970289?pt=UK_ConsumerElectronics_PowerAdaptors_SM&hash=item4a9f8679f1 and one of these:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Efergy-Elite-Wireless-Energy-Saving-Monitor-Smart-Meter-/130579798291?pt=UK_Gadgets&hash=item1e67299913

(I haven't dealt with either seller).
The first lets you go through _all_ your appliances, one by one, and answer the question 'how much does this use'.

So, for example - you plug the washing machine into it, and it says it's using '10W' when idle. This means that it will use 10W*24h = 240watt-hours = .24 kilowatt-hours, or .24 units - 2.4p/day idle.
And you then try your normal program, and find that it uses 3 units, so you know that it uses 2.4p/day, and 30p every time you run it.
(don't forget to add in the cost of detergent and water).

Plug it into the freezer for a day, and the fridge, and every appliance you own.

This lets you know which you want to unplug, what you want to reduce uses of, and what to replace ASAP.

The second is a moment-by-moment energy meter, it is useful for monitoring ongoing usage, but is clumsy for working out exactly what appliances are using small amounts of power constantly.

tylerlongtw

In my opinion forgetting to turn the heat down or off for just a few days can have a big impact on your bill. If you leave an 8- foot baseboard heater on for 24 hours, the extra extra energy will cost about $3 a day or an additional $180.00 on your bi monthly bill.

macman

Post your actual kWh annual consumpttion. Posting £ spend does not really assist with trying to see where the problem lies.

dogshome

I'm not familiar with SP's Pice Fix 2014 tariff, but if it also includes Boiler cover it ain't going to be cheap.
Whilst the price of your Gas & Elec are fixed, has there been a serious increase in the cost of the Boiler Cover? All the big Co's offer boiler cover so ask around for for prices and compare.

The BIG problem is the Elec consumption - working from this bill of £274 for one Summer Qtr and adding a 20% increase for the Winter, it roughly equates to £1,205 a year !

OK
Get onto SP and ask them how many Gas & Elec kwh you are consuming a year, then post them here

Meanwhile check that the Meter No listed on your Bill, is the same as that on the meter - If not report it SP

Switch off and unplug absolutely eveything in the house and read the meter - wait 1/2 an hour and check the meter to see it hasn't moved - If it has, check again that everything is off, if it is then there is a possibility you have a wiring/appliance fault and should call in a local Sparks

If the meter hasn't moved, with all else still off, plug in a Fan Heater with a 1 or 2 Kwh consumption, run it for hour and check that the meter has only recorded exactly 1 or 2 units - If it's recorded more get onto SP and report it with the readings.

COMPUTER - My set-up burns 23W an hour on stand-by with the biggest user being the BT box at 15W - For 3 years I've switched it all off at the mains everynight and it ain't broken yet.
WASHING MACHINE If yours is like mine with 2 main settings, one of which is for Delicates, I use this program for everything except tea towels. It's much faster and uses a lot less power

Get yourself a Wattmeter for around a tenner - This plugs into the socket and the appliance plugs into it - The screen shows a continual readout of the watts the m/c is using - Older freezers & Fridges can be very, very power hungry

recovering_spendaholic

Thank you all for taking the time to reply. I have just been on to SP and my last four bills show KWh as follows:

2135, 1428,1952,2250. So that makes a total for the year of 7765.

I am startled by how much an idling computer uses, and my fridge freezers (I have two small ones) are both 10 years old. WM is only 12 months old as is dishwasher. I must admit that TV's are left on standby, although that will change from tonight. Oven is an electric fan oven and is used at least once, if not twice a day, as I don't have a microwave - it broke a few weeks ago and I haven't replaced it. Hob is gas.

Shows how ignorant I am - I thought that when it was on standby it was almost the same as being off in terms of usage! Do you need to unplug the appliances or is it enough just to switch them off?

In the hall I have a five light (each 40w) chandelier and my kids tend to leave it on all night, particularly if they go to bed after me (they're teenagers). Bathroom has a three (each 30w) light fixture, and kitchen has two three light spots, but I use halogen bulbs in that one. Kids also leave everything like Wii, phone chargers etc plugged in and turned on even when not in use - I have told and told them but they don't listen, however I realise now I am going to have to be tougher with them.

I currently don't have draft excluders but am going to make/get some before the winter sets in, but I honestly don't think that my problem is with my heating - I think it's all the electric appliances.

Thank you all once again for the advice - I really appreciate you taking the time to answer and for your comments.

Cardew

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

Thank you all for taking the time to reply. I have just been on to SP and my last four bills show KWh as follows:

2135, 1428,1952,2250. So that makes a total for the year of 7765.

I am startled by how much an idling computer uses, and my fridge freezers (I have two small ones) are both 10 years old. WM is only 12 months old as is dishwasher. I must admit that TV's are left on standby, although that will change from tonight. Oven is an electric fan oven and is used at least once, if not twice a day, as I don't have a microwave - it broke a few weeks ago and I haven't replaced it. Hob is gas.

Shows how ignorant I am - I thought that when it was on standby it was almost the same as being off in terms of usage! Do you need to unplug the appliances or is it enough just to switch them off?

In the hall I have a five light (each 40w) chandelier and my kids tend to leave it on all night, particularly if they go to bed after me (they're teenagers). Bathroom has a three (each 30w) light fixture, and kitchen has two three light spots, but I use halogen bulbs in that one. Kids also leave everything like Wii, phone chargers etc plugged in and turned on even when not in use - I have told and told them but they don't listen, however I realise now I am going to have to be tougher with them.

I currently don't have draft excluders but am going to make/get some before the winter sets in, but I honestly don't think that my problem is with my heating - I think it's all the electric appliances.

Thank you all once again for the advice - I really appreciate you taking the time to answer and for your comments.

Firstly, standby on TV's etc does not use much electricity - it is almost the same as being off. Nearly all TVs produced it the last few years will use less than £1 a year if left on standby 24/7. I an not saying that don't switch them off, but that is not the cause of your high consumption.

Secondly new washing machines and dishwasher use lowish amounts of electricity. A dryer can be a killer!

Have you investigated why your Jan to April quarter consumption was so much lower than the other quarters(assuming based on actual readings)

A computer should be set so it hibernates or goes to standby if not used for xx minutes and it then uses very little power - depending on your Operating system(XP/Vista etc) will be a power management facility in Control Panel - it really is very easy to set.

Your lights, especially if left on all night, will use a lot of electricity