First Bill....HOW MUCH!!!?!? E.on

Merekat

I've recently moved into a 3bed end terace house, which is electric only. Our previous home was a 3bed semi bungalow with GCH/Water.

On average, we would put around £20 per week on a pre-payment meter for electric, but some of that would pay an outstanding debt, which is now fully cleared. Bearing that in mind, £80 a month would have been my base for budgeting when considering moving house. The gas was usually around the same, but the insulation was useless and the bungalow was very inefficient. So even then, £160 a month would seem to be pretty excessive...

So, we move our account over to the new house. The house is Electric only with Storage heaters and immersion, and 2nd consumer unit for Economy7 supply controlled by radio meter.

We moved in on 3rd March, and gave a reading to Eon of 20223 day units and 16172 night. We received a bill a couple of days ago for £158.39p. This is calculated as follows
Day 1st: 74kWh @ 26.64ppu - £19.71
Day 2nd: 914kWh @ 14.68ppu - £134.18
Night: 55kWh @ 5.89ppu - £3.24

Now, would it seem that the night units are a little low, considering i have 1x 0.9kw, 2x 1.8kw and 2x 2.4 kw storage heaters in the house? All being on for the full 7hrs @ night rate every night on max input and very low output? Thats 9.3kw on full power for 7hrs per night, for 36 nights?

So, i thought id have a look and see what my current readings are...oh dear....

Eon had estimated my bill, as above. My actual readings are saying that i've used:

1627 day rates
291 night rates

Am i right in saying that would still be 74 @ Day first, and the rest at Day 2nd?

Now, considering that i have exactly the same appliances on for the same amount of time during the day as in the old property, i would say something is wrong...

The night rates are for the heating and immersion, that are from a second fuseboard controlled by a second live out from the meter.

Is there any way that it is possible for an average house to seriously use 43.97 units during the day!?!? Theres an A rated upright freezer and A or B rated fridge, LCD TV, sky box, couple of iphone chargers, laptop, microwave, kettle and a few table lamps that are always plugged in, but the lamps and laptop arent used that often. All the ceiling lighting is of old incandescent lamps, but even so, having every lamp on, even all day and night, couldn't cost that....

There is no loft, the ceiling is full height upstairs, and had radiant ceiling heating, with the thermostat set to its lowest point. Although that would have no bearing on the use as i dont have heating on demand!

Surely there must be a problem somewhere???.......If not, looks like i'll be switching the electric off and living by candle light! No way i can afford to pay that kind of money!

LuckyAK

That is steep but the heating and water use seems quite low as these use a lot of power are you sure which meter is which ?
a quick search says storage heating uses about 50 units ave per night so that would work out about 1500 per month if not I would get the meters checked or get one of the meters that monitor usage by cliping around the meter tails and try switching some things on and off to monitor/check usage.

molerat

Looks to me that the day night readings are reversed. That would mean 8 units day and 45 night per day. Add the immersion at 3kW and the rest of the appliances then that is around 13kW load overnight, the heaters will not be drawing current all 7 hours, so easy to rack up 45kWh daily.

You get 2.5 kWh daily (900 per year) at the higher rate so for 36 days that would work out at
89 at 26.64p = £23.07
202 at 14.68p = £29.65
1627 at 5.89p = £95.83 = £148.55 = £4.12 per day which to be honest is not too bad for storage heating.

Merekat

Its a single meter with a single input and dual live output with 2 readings, switched by E.On at night. I would imagine around 13-14kw is whats being used on the night rate every night. As the weather has been milder, we've now switched of the upstairs heaters, so thats 1x 2.4 and 1x 1.8kw heater no in use. And just noticed that the immersion ISN'T running from the 2nd fuseboard.....

Now i'm wondering if thats the problem...but then that has an E7 timer on it...but then if its not off the 2nd board, would it be using night rate electric, or would the night rate only run down the 2nd live feed to the 2nd fuseboard?...

EDIT: Just had another look at the meter....R2 is flashing....would i now be right to assume that would be because it is currently being used?...

jalexa

Merekat wrote: »

Is there any way that it is possible for an average house to seriously use 43.97 units during the day!?!?

Probably molerat has hit the nail on the head.

Only dealing with the quoted question, whenever a billing discrepancy arises take daily readings for a few days, something you should have done anyway when you moved in to get a handle on your consumption in a new house.

You should be able to see which register is updating during the day and which overnight.

[Deleted User]

Have a careful look at your meter,most digital eco 7 meters have some way of seeing as to which rate equals which time of day such as blinking cursers," rate now" or they default to show the rate they are on when you look at the meter,some dont however and it will just be a matter of checking which rate clocks up a digit between the hours of approx 1.30 am and 8.30 am, ( the times in my area).Usually rate 1 equals day,rate 2 equals night,but could just as well be other way round."T" for total is not needed for readings if you are billed eco 7. the rate which is flashing is the rate the meter is on now

Merekat

sacsquacco wrote: »

the rate which is flashing is the rate the meter is on now

So, now i feel a bit of an idiot! But hey, never lived in an all elec house before.....learnt something new today!

molerat

All your night use is at cheap rate. The immersion is on the normal board and is controlled by the timer to only be on at night rate but you can give it a day boost if you need it, should have a switch marked "Boost" or similar.

Merekat

It does have the 2hr boost on it.

Worked out now my bill should be about £80-90, which is good!

E.on should be fine with changing the readings over shouldn't they? Hope so!

macman

How did you 'move the account over'? This is not possible, you are in a deemed account with the existing supplier when you moved in and can only switch once you've registered with them.
Even if both suppliers outgoing and incoming suppliers were Eon, you still have to open a new account at the new property.

Terrylw1

E7 means your normal circuit will work all day triggered by you but at off peak times it will continue this service, but charged at off peak rate.

Anything wired to the off peak circuit will be triggered by the meter switching over to the off peak time.

If you can add a 2hr boost, how? The heating or the meter? If its the meter there could be another issue to deal with as 2hr boost meters are not for E7, they are for more complex heating 3 rate tariffs (3 rate as in 3 seperate recorded rates for Day, Night and Heat)

Is this the case?