I really need advice on electricity usage please.

aliasojo

Just had our electricity bill. £534 for 3 months. _pale_

We have an oil boiler that provides central heating and hot water.

The boiler is old and has been working erratically so we bought 2 x 3kw oil free radiators to help heat the place when it was very cold over the winter. It has just been serviced and repaired this week so hopefully should be working better now.

Even so, I was shocked at the bill. We've used 4004 units @ 12.44p each. There's also a standing charge of 20.24p for 93 days but that's *only* £18.82 so not as if it's a big part of the bill.

We took this rental on in mid July of last year and including this bill, our electricity costs total £933.75 and our oil costs have been £1200. That's only for 7 months! That's £305 a month for fuel!

I can't do much about the leaking roof/lack of insulation/old inefficient boiler. Nor can I change electricity supplier, we're not allowed. It's a rented place and the situation is one of 'beggers can't be choosers' right now. I believe I could force the issue about supplier but we presently can't afford to rock the boat too much. All I can do is be more efficient with usage.

I didn't think we were using the electric radiators to excess but clearly we will have to cut back on those anyway.

OH leaves for work at 3.30am so needs hot water then. We get up around 7.30am for school so again need hot water then. We also need hot water around tea time ish. Baths are now banned and we will need to make do with the sprinkler that is laughingly called a shower.

We have a hot water tank. Because of the issues with the boiler, no timer settings have been in place so I'm assuming the hot water tank will have been heated then kept hot all day. I think we need to have settings in place now to avoid this?

I'm not sure how long the hot water would last for and we have an issue in that the boiler and pipes are incredibly noisy so we can't have anything switched on at night otherwise no-one would get any sleep. If the boiler was set to heat hot water at maybe 8pm ish would it still be hot enough for OH at 3.30am?

Putting the hot water on a timer will only affect our oil usage though, not the electricity usage. I have no idea how the heck that is so high, unless it's pretty much all down to the plug in rads? I'm a bit :shocked: and :undecided tbh. We really need to move to somewhere more fuel efficient but that's not going to happen overnight.

I've already done the bubble wrap / draught excluders / fleeces everywhere (including some electric ones which supposedly cost 2p per night to run).

mardatha

Just general tips here AJ, because my heating & water is from a coal fired stove, but our elect usage has been halved (to £5 a week) since we started doing this -
read the meter weekly and check what's going on..
I wouldn't put hot water on for the hubby, he could heat a kettle and have a quick wash and a shower at bedtime.
I wouldn't heat the landings/bedrooms but have electric blankets on all beds.
And we found the tv was the biggest culprit in this house and now only watch it when we want to see something, instead of leaving it on as background noise.
But somebody else will know more I am sure x.

macman

Why can you not change suppliers-you are using a very expensive tariff (presumably Standard)? Your LL cannot prevent you changing tariff or supplier, it's none of their concern.
Unfortunately you've been using expensive electricity rather than oil through the coldest part of the winter, hence the big bill. Could you not have got the boiler fixed before the cold spell?
Those 2 electric rads cost about 75p per hour if full on (6kwh). So you've used a typical years electricity consumption (for a house with gas or oil CH and DHW) in 3 months-and on an expensive tariff.
Can you not do something about the insulation (loft maybe) if inadequate?
Based on my own region, you could have paid almost 13% less on Ovo's Fixed tariff for that usage.

Wickedkitten

If you are paying for your utilities, then the landlord can't stop you from switching suppliers. Your biggest problem by far though is the 6kw oil radiators if you are running them all day long to keep the house warm

aliasojo

We initially reported the boiler issues last August and have raised them since, along with drain / roof / light problems too. The house isn't in great repair generally, it's just kept ticking over and no more. My suspicion is that nothing was done whilst we were in the initial contract but now our 6 months are up and we are on a rolling contract and thus able to leave, then a little more effort is being made to deal with all the issues which is why the boiler was seen to now along with the collapsed drains.

The LL originally told me he was having difficulty contacting the required tradesmen but the boiler chap told me he had only been contacted the night before he came out, so it looks like we may have been fobbed off more than we realised.

The roof is leaking along it's length and the rain runs down the chimney stacks and rafters, into the walls. We have damp and mould coming through from behind the wallpaper in the rooms underneath. No point in putting insulation in a wet loft. LL knows and is supposed to be dealing with it but nothing has been done as of yet.

We've been looking for somewhere else but reasonably priced family rentals in this area are scarce, I checked again this morning and the only family sized homes that are available are £1300+ per month. Too rich for us I'm afraid. So as I said, beggars can't be choosers.

LL has specifically said we can't change supplier. I accept we probably are able to but it's not worth the risk of us being asked to leave as a result.

aliasojo

Wickedkitten wrote: »

Your biggest problem by far though is the 6kw oil radiators if you are running them all day long to keep the house warm

The best of it is though, they aren't even on all day.

Daughter has one in her bedroom and it's on for maybe half an hour in the morning when she gets up and gets ready for school. Also at night between maybe 7pm - 9pm. Granted it's on a bit more at the weekend.

The other one is in the living room and is on for an hour in the morning and maybe 2-3 hours at night depending on how late we're up.

I didn't think that kind of usage was overly heavy cost wise but it now looks like it is.

macman

Your LL appears to be happy to take rent but do nothing by way of maintenance in return. You need to be more confrontational with all those issues outstanding.
Do you have an STA? If so, on what grounds can he ask you to leave just because you change supplier? It's not enforceable.
Just do it-he won't even be aware of it.

aliasojo

Sorry macman, I don't know what an STA is?

WestonDave

What sort of shower is it - this may be a daft/insulting question but if its an instant heat electric shower (these are usually a dribble hence asking because of your comment about it being weak) then you might be paying to heat up a tank of water only to heat more water via the shower. Even allowing for the radiators you are using a lot of electricity so you need to work out where it is going - if necessary by switching everything off, and then putting things back on gradually and watching the meter speed. - or by borrowing one of those clip on electric meters from a local library.

aliasojo

Yes it's an electric shower.

I do feel we seem to be using a heck of a lot of electricity but I genuinely don't know how. Apart from the extra electric rads, we live in exactly the same way we did in our own house previous to moving here and yet the usage/costs seem to have pretty much doubled give or take a few quid. Our own home was well insulated but even so, I'm very surprised at the difference. We're not doing anything any more here than we did there iyswim. And at home we had a pre payment meter with the same energy company we are with now so not as if we were on a good discount or anything.

macman

aliasojo wrote: »

Sorry macman, I don't know what an STA is?

Sorry, typo, meant AST (Assured Shorthold Tenancy).