£70 a month electricity?

Elle7

Is this normal?!

We've just moved into a new house. It's a terraced house, in the middle, and it has two bedrooms. The heater is unplugged in one, there is no heating in the bathroom, there is two storage heaters in the big living room - nothing in the kitchen.

We have an electric hob and I believe the boiler is also electric, although that has been broken for the past 3 weeks. We do have an oil-filled heater on low downstairs most of the time because it's freezing and I've got bad medical conditions that flare up hugely when it's cold.

The boiler is on economy 7 - comes on at 8pm I believe, and heats up all the water for the day at night. Storage heaters do the same. We use the washing machine around three times a week, the dishwasher once a day/once every two days.

Our first eon bill has just come. There was some trouble setting it up because we took 2 readings, as instructed over the phone, when we moved in. The letting agent took a photo but that only shows one reading. An electric man did read the meter after we'd been here for three days. They phoned last week to say that they really needed the third reading to calculate costs, but couldn't say what we could do if we don't have it. The old tenant didn't supply it - she left here with huge debts, including to eon, and we still get lots of debt letters for her.

Anyway, first bill came today. 10th Oct to 8th Nov. It's estimated at £70.15, with £3.02 credit for prompt payment.

It says we've used 185 'day' rate kilowatt hours, 25 'night' rate kilowatt hours and 4333 'RHT normal' kilowatt hours.

We've also got a standing charge - 29 days at 6.84p each - only making up £1.98.

I'm baffled. We had expected it to be lower than this - the estate agent had estimated costs at around £29 a month. We were apprehensive about going somewhere with storage heaters but combined with all the other (sky high) bills for this place, we can't afford £70 a month! It's not even warm...I'm wearing three or four jumpers most days, and everyone who comes in comments on how cold it is.

Any advice? It'd be much appreciated!

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi Elle7

Thought I would just pop on with a bit of info about your particular metering set up.

Restricted Hour Tariff ( RHT) meters provide electricity at a cheaper rate at certain times during every 24 hour period. They tend to be specifically designed for all electric properties with things like storage heaters or under floor heating.

As such, they're usually wired directly into the heating/water heating circuits at properties.

Customers on these systems usually have two meters using a time switch to switch between the two.

One meter records normal usage (lights, TV etc) whilst the second is for off peak usage for the heating and water heating.

They can be replaced with a more conventional meter but doing this may have implications for the heating/water heating. A certain amount of remedial electrical work may also be required within a property before the metering can be successfully changed.

For this reason, I always advise customers contemplating such a change to arrange for an independent approved electrician to check over the set up before going ahead.

You say the bill is estimated, this means it's probably not a completely accurate picture of the usage.

There are different sorts of RHT meter, so the amount of readings may vary.

But we need all the accurate readings from your meter to bill you accurately. The off peak times will also vary depending on the exact meter type.

I can check your specific metering set up for you if you would like me to, just email your details to the email address in my profile page.

Helena

Andy_WSM

Elle7 wrote: »

I'm baffled. We had expected it to be lower than this - the estate agent had estimated costs at around £29 a month. We were apprehensive about going somewhere with storage heaters but combined with all the other (sky high) bills for this place, we can't afford £70 a month! It's not even warm...I'm wearing three or four jumpers most days, and everyone who comes in comments on how cold it is.

Any advice? It'd be much appreciated!

Oh dear! I'm afraid that £29 a month is completely unrealistic for an all electric property and £100 a month would be considered more the "norm".

good_advice

Hiya, all electric with old storage heaters for £29 a month?
With Andy here. More like £100 a month.
One good thing is being sandwiched between 2 other houses as you may get some of their heat through the walls.
Any insulation? cavity walls and loft? Every one is giving the stuff away.

ic

Another here to agree that £29 is unrealistic (well perhaps not for ten years ago). I live in a two bed end terrace and spend £95 on gas and electric. That's well insulated, new central heating, double glazed, etc - for all electric I'd expect it to cost a lot more.

Antispam

Have to agree with others £29 for electric including some heating is extremely low, more like £80 and thats being tight but more likely well over £100. I pay for gas/electric and gas is cheaper to use for heating than electric over £110 and thats not including fuel increase prices next week

Your estate agent has almost certainly lied to you maybe to hook you in

meg72

Antispam wrote: »

Have to agree with others £29 for electric including some heating is extremely low, more like £80 and thats being tight but more likely well over £100. I pay for gas/electric and gas is cheaper to use for heating than electric over £110 and thats not including fuel increase prices next week

Your estate agent has almost certainly lied to you maybe to hook you in

Sorry have to agree with all the others, there is no way it could be 29.00 a month I live in a small one bed bungalow,double glazed, insulated and new boiler heating system, during the winter months my gas and elec cost 60-70.

LEJC

my elderly mother has recently moved out of an economy 7 property where her only gas was a cooker and the total bill would be minimal for that....

The electricity however was usually around the £100 per month mark,admittedly she did try to keep the house warm and the figure would be less during the summer months but realistically anyone who told you £29 for monthly usage was way off....

albionrovers

Estate agents eh? Gotta love 'em ...

Herongull

I have to agree with all the responses here. I don't even think you would get away with £30 even in the summer.

We have gas for hotwater, central heating and stove, but our electricity cost is around £30 per month (for low energy lights, TV and washing machine - no dishwasher or tumble drier). Our gas bill varies from around £15 minumum in the summer to £70 to £80 (max) in the coldest winter months, and our electricity bill varies between £25 to £35 per month.

Electric heating, cooking and hotwater is around twice (?) as much as gas, so you will probably be looking at well over £100 per month in the coldest Winter months (it is only Autumn now), but much less in Summer.

macman

Are you sure that your are on E7, which is typically available for 7 hours between midnight to 8am (not at 8pm, which is a peak demand time)? E7 is no good at all for a wet electric CH system, except for heating some stored hot water. But I think what you actually have is an immersion heater for your hot water-not an 'electric boiler'.
How could you possibly expect to heat, power and hot water an all-electric property for £29 a month? That's about a third of the average. Just not realistic I'm afraid.