Units Per Day Help

sodasuze

Hi All

I received my Electric bill last week and was horrified to see I had used 1450 units in 92 days = £200!!

The reason for my surprise is because:

I live alone!
I am STUPIDLY energy efficient...to the point that I take my habits to my parents house and switch things off at their walls
It was summer

I am now terrified to put anything on...not charged my phone, used the cooker or put the washing machine on cuz of this! I have been monitoring my daily usage, and so far its averaging at 12 units every 24 hours.

I will tell you what I run daily:

Hotpoint Fridge Freezer - 24 hours a day
Samsung 32" LCD TV - 14 hours a day
Sky+ HD Box - 14 hours a day then on standby
Laptop - 10 hours a day then switched off completely
BT Router - 24 hours a day
Motorola Cordless Phone - 24 hours a day
Fluval Edge Aquarium - 24 hours a day
Tassimo - 3 times a day
Floor lamp - 5 hours a day

Everything is turned off at the wall after use apart from the Sky+ box

Central heating/hot water is funny...i live in a shared block, and pay £30 to my housing association each month for gas (everyone does this) so I only pay for the electric to heat my hot water? well to be honest, I have no idea what I am paying for with that...but the hot water is on 3 times a day for 2 hours each.

I dont think this is alot to run compared to a family, I think there is something wrong with my meter, can someone in a similar housing position to me please shed some light or let me know what they use on a daily basis.

Thanks in advance everyone

Stompa

sodasuze wrote: »

...so I only pay for the electric to heat my hot water? well to be honest, I have no idea what I am paying for with that...but the hot water is on 3 times a day for 2 hours each.

That will be the culprit. 6 hours a day for hot water for one person seems like an enormous amount to me. Do you really need it on that much?

molerat

Water on for 3 times 2 hours a day could well be costing up to 7 - 10 units a day if a standard 3 kw unit with a poorly insulated tank.

victor2

Reduce your hot water timer - our hot water tank (albeit heated by gas) is heated for 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening. That's plenty for us, although we do have an electric shower.
Also check the your bill is using actual readings and not estimates - and verify it makes sense with what the meter currently reads.

I_luv_cats

Was your last bill estimated and this one read, if so that could account for some of it, if it was a low estimate.

It might be worth experimenting with your immersion. Try one or two days leaving it on permanently, another period switched on & off and take meter readings to compare.

sodasuze

Thanks everyone...

Its a bit of a strange one, because one engineer told me that because I pay for gas each month that having the immersion on was like boiling 2 kettles for one cup of coffee, so that was turned off instantly over 2 years ago.

The hot water has been on constantly and my bills were very low, so I assumed that because I was paying the £30 each month that it was covered in that, otherwise - what am I paying that for? the housing association seem to be making over £1000 a month from this payment from us residents, but we are still stuck with a bill?

I turned it down to 6 hours a day the other day when I got the bill...so it cant be that, when its been on 24/7 before and bills have been low.

I am totally confused, my meter readings are actual ones, only been with N-power for 4 months, first bill was £20.80 for just over a month.

Maybe the meter is faulty or someone has tapped into my supply?

notbritishgas

sodasuze wrote: »

Hi All



Central heating/hot water is funny...i live in a shared block, and pay £30 to my housing association each month for gas (everyone does this) so I only pay for the electric to heat my hot water? well to be honest, I have no idea what I am paying for with that...but the hot water is on 3 times a day for 2 hours each.


Thanks in advance everyone

sodasuze wrote: »

Thanks everyone...

Its a bit of a strange one, because one engineer told me that because I pay for gas each month that having the immersion on was like boiling 2 kettles for one cup of coffee, so that was turned off instantly over 2 years ago.

The hot water has been on constantly and my bills were very low, so I assumed that because I was paying the £30 each month that it was covered in that, otherwise - what am I paying that for? the housing association seem to be making over £1000 a month from this payment from us residents, but we are still stuck with a bill?

?

The 2 highlighted quotes seem to contradict each other, do yoiu use electric to heat your water or not, and is it on constant or not?

sodasuze

the honest answer is...I dont know.

Its GCH, I pay £30 a month towards it, but I have to turn it on by an electric wall panel in the airing cupboard, and it will only come on if the wall panel is on.

There are 2 switches on the wall in there, one says Hot Water the other says Heating, the Hot Water is the immersion (never on) and the Heating one fires up the digital wall panel and makes the water cylinder in the airing cupboard whirl up. Nothing will work unless this is on.

So I dont know, is this normal? the pipes that come into my airing cupboard and go up to the next flat above me are red hot all the time, so there must be a constant supply of how water coming into my flat, so is the digital water timer redundant? seriously weird set up.

YoYoY

Sorry, but I know nothing about keeping fish

But can I ask, is your Fluval Edge Aquarium a tropical fish tank i.e. heated?

Or is it just the water pump/filter that uses the electric?

sodasuze

its heated with a Fluval Heater, but it turns itself off once its reached 26/27 degrees. I changed the halogen light bulbs that came with it to LED's so its less than 2watts to light it, the heater is 25watts but as I said turns itself off once temperature is reached.

its only a 23 litre tank so very small and takes hardly any time to heat. Fluval aquariums are very energy efficient, which is one of the main reasons why I chose it.

macman

Please forget about your coffee maker or router, your immersion heater will cost more than al the other items put together. A properly lagged tank does not need to be on for 6 hours a day, half that should be adequate. If you are on an E7 tariff then runnng it during the peak rate hours, it will cost a lot.