Why is our electric so high?

caela_2

Hey all,

I was just wondering if anyone can help. We're with British Gas for both our gas and elec, but have found that since Feb this year we have used approx. 1000units of elec! Our gas is pretty low and seems normal, but this is just craziness! It's a 1 bed flat with only the 2 of us here. We only have a laptop and computer running, no stereos or TV, DVD player, games or anything else! We do have our pcs on quite a bit, obviously, but apart from that, only energy saving light bulbs, fridge, freezer, washing machine on maybe once every other day, microwave occasionally throughout the day for a few minutes at a time, hoover maybe once every 2 weeks (we're lazy!), hair drier every few days for a bit. Nothing extreme and we can't work out where it's all going.

Have done the usual tests- turned EVERYTHING off and as expected, the meter does stop. Then turn everything back on, one at a time and it doesn't appear to fly round. Does anyone know if this is a normal consumption? Our gas covers the heating and hot water, cooker and stove.... so that's separate.

We have one of these new combi heaters which means we never have to pre-heat our water. This concerned me as I simply can't believe it can instantly heat for our showers (using gas not elec). Literally, when you turn a hot tap on, hot water comes out. I may be very old fashioned, but back at home we had a boiler where you had to turn the hot water on 10 mins before a shower just to warm it up. I wonder if these new style boilers use up a million times the electric just to run (hard to explain- the elec doesn't heat the water, but the boiler is plugged in and switched on by elec). We have since turned the boiler switch off and only turn it back on when we plan to use the shower or do the washing up. I am probably making it very confusing, but you can guess I don't really know how these things work. I just imagine it must take a lot of energy to instantly heat water. I mean a kettle runs fora few minutes before it's hot! OK, I'm probably being an idiot lol but if someone could explain I'd appreciate it! Even if I am from the dark ages haha!

Can you guys tell me what you expect to be a normal usage? I don't leave lights on and it's only a tiny flat, so we're mainly just in the one room with one light on (at night, obviously) for a few hours, with 2 computers on all day pretty much and the fridge/ freezer running in the background (as you do).

Cheers!

caela_2

Oh yeah and another thing, British Gas seem to completely invent their price per unit as and when they feel like it, with 2 'tiers' of pricing which they can't seem to explain to me at all (she said it was something about it running under a 30-day month or over?!? Wft?) I can't work out my bills without a set price per unit, and are they allowed to make it up as they please? Sure this isn't right- is someone else with them who can explain their strange tiered pricing system?

HappyMJ

1,000kWh from Feb to July doesn't seem too bad.

spiro

2-tier pricing means you pay £x per uniut for the first y units you use in a quarter and then £z per unit for every unit ablove that. £x is always more expensive than £z as it is designed to cover 'standing charges'. As an example it could be 24p/unit for the 1st 180 units in a quarter and then 11p/unit for all units over 180 in the quarter. Hope that helps.

caela_2

spiro wrote: »

2-tier pricing means you pay £x per uniut for the first y units you use in a quarter and then £z per unit for every unit ablove that. £x is always more expensive than £z as it is designed to cover 'standing charges'. As an example it could be 24p/unit for the 1st 180 units in a quarter and then 11p/unit for all units over 180 in the quarter. Hope that helps.

Cheers! That makes more sense that what the lady on the phone was saying!

caela_2

HappyMJ wrote: »

1,000kWh from Feb to July doesn't seem too bad.

Are you sure? Our bill was like over £300 for gas/ elec for like 4 months; nearly £100 a month! I think that's a bit high, for just 2 people who are sharing most of the time (lighting, appliances, etc.) x

HappyMJ

caela wrote: »

Are you sure? Our bill was like over £300 for gas/ elec for like 4 months; nearly £100 a month! I think that's a bit high, for just 2 people who are sharing most of the time (lighting, appliances, etc.) x

What exactly were the meter readings and the exact dates?

It still doesn't seem too bad. What did you think it would be?

It doesn't cost that much less having a 1 bedroom flat as opposed to a 4 bedroom house with only one occupant. There are still the same number of appliances in use and the same length of shower and the washing machine is used the same number of times.

Joyful

The national average use for electric is 3300KWH per year so your figures give no cause for concern. If you are confused re the pricing structure you can check whether the new clear and simple tariff may suit you better. This has a daily charge and 1 rate.

Check how much each utility is separately and make sure there is no outstanding balance on it. You are averaging £75 for the quarter which included a cold period which is not bad. Check out how much of both you are using annually and put it into a comparison site.

dogshome

As others have posted, your 1000Kwh used from Feb to July isn't high and projects foreward to an Annual consumption of appx. 2400 Kwh

Again as already posted, BG's 2 tier pricing is their way of collecting your yearly service charge.
On their Standard Tariff, in each Qtr BG charge for 180 of these high cost 'Prime' units at 23.6p + VAT, which means that over 33% of all the power you use is supplied as high price units.

It really would be worth you while looking at the Switch sites for other supppliers prices - Ebico can be good for low use customers as whilst the price per unit is high, they don't have any Service Charges

ian103

Our approximate use (and we are in all day (heating by oil)) is 8-9kw / per day

notbritishgas

As others have said 1000kwh in that time period is not too bad.

However if you are concerned that it is above your normal quarterly amount are the meter readings in past bills estimated, especially the Feb one.
If that is the case then it is possible that they have been estimated on the low side and now you may have an actual reading which means this bill is much higher than the past ones.