why are my electric bill so high????

beckmel12

Hi

I am really starting to worry about how high my electric bills are, it has got to the point where i am stopping putting my heating on.

I live in a new build flat all electric no gas, i have the usual household appliances so im not running anything out of the ordinary, i am out at work all day on average my home is unoccupied for at least 8 hours a day.

My current supplier is EDF i have contacted them and they worked out that my usage is 16kws per day and the say that the average is usually about 9 kws what should i do ?, should i suggest they come and check my meter could there be a fault ?

thanks to anyone who can suggest what i should do

jcubie

We used to live in a studio flat (2 of us) with no gas but we used a convector heater for warmth and were in a similar situation to you.

Look at your appliances and how much power they use. A TV for example uses 80% of it's maximum power on standby so turn that off at the wall if you're not using it.

Keep in mind all your hot water for washing up, showers, washing machine (if it has hot water input) will all use electric instead of gas so they'll be naturally high anyway.

Hope that helps.

HappyMJ

beckmel12 wrote: »

Hi

I am really starting to worry about how high my electric bills are, it has got to the point where i am stopping putting my heating on.

I live in a new build flat all electric no gas, i have the usual household appliances so im not running anything out of the ordinary, i am out at work all day on average my home is unoccupied for at least 8 hours a day.

My current supplier is EDF i have contacted them and they worked out that my usage is 16kws per day and the say that the average is usually about 9 kws what should i do ?, should i suggest they come and check my meter could there be a fault ?

thanks to anyone who can suggest what i should do

The average of 9kWh's per day is for a house with other forms of space and water heating such as gas,oil,solar...etc. That average does not apply to your usage.

16kWh per day sounds more than reasonable for a property with electric space and water heating. That's only 5,840kWh per year. Is that accurate? What is your usage last year? What is the per unit charges on your bill? Any standing charges? Is it competitive?

HappyMJ

jcubie wrote: »

We used to live in a studio flat (2 of us) with no gas but we used a convector heater for warmth and were in a similar situation to you.

Look at your appliances and how much power they use. A TV for example uses 80% of it's maximum power on standby so turn that off at the wall if you're not using it.

Keep in mind all your hot water for washing up, showers, washing machine (if it has hot water input) will all use electric instead of gas so they'll be naturally high anyway.

Hope that helps.

A TV does not use 80% of it's maximum rated power on standby. If it does it is faulty. On standby most appliances use 1 or 2 watts each maybe a maximum of 5 watts for the worst offenders. The maximum rating of a TV is much higher than that.

I believe the figure you have heard is that when over the year a TV is only used on average for 4 hours per day and is on standby for the other 20 hours along with the Sky/Freeview unit and the DVD player then 80% of the total usage over the year is wasted which isn't even true.. It doesn't add up.

4 hours times 50W TV+20W Sky/DVD is 280Wh
20 hours time 5W TV+20W Sky/DVD is 500Wh
64% wasted and that's using unrealistic figures. TV's usually use more than 50W unless they are the more recent LCD versions.

daveyjp

4 no.1kwh electric heaters on for four hours a day is 16 kwh. Add in cooking, shower, water heating and lower electrical use items and 16kwh per day doesn't seem excessive to me.

misterbarlow

i work for a supplier and visit homes all day long and get asked this...

people with all electric always think they pay a lot, but forget they are not paying for any gas...
people moan to me about paying £100 per month for electric, but I pay £50 for gas and £50 for electric, so they are no worse off than me!!
I average about 10 a day but if do lots of washing and have to use dryer if its raining some days use up to 20...

I also second whats been said about things on standby...
the actual manual of my TV says in the specs at the rear
in use 200w, in standby 22w... just over 10%

do you have a single rate mtr? Does your supplier offer any off peak tariffs that may benefit you??

Terrylw1

The 9 kwh per day is an average, its never very relevant unless you have your house set up to those with the average quoted. Forget and stick with working out what you are using and why. Then you can work on it. Aside from advice on appliances o here, Google your appliances to get any kwh's if its not mentioned onn here. Also consider an energy monitor.

Try taking readings off the meter across the day so you can see your peak periods and work out what is contributing to it.