£1,400 elec bill on a 2 bed semi - HELP

cosby

We have just moved into a rented two bed semi which is all electric. The heating is run from an electric boiler and serves about nine radiators throughout the house (most of which are permenantly turned off). The hot water is from an economy 7 immersion in the hot water cistern (which we only use off peak).

Powergen initially told us to set up a direct debit of £60 per month. When we recieved our first bill after about three months it had an estimated reading which showed that we were £110 in debit.

We decided it would be best to increase the direct debit to cover the extra costs, so phoned powergen. They asked us to take a current reading which we did. The operator then told us that we weren't £110 in debt but well over £1000. We (and the operator) thought that we must be reading the meter incorrectly but we have just had the meter read by powergen and they have confirmed that it is right and we have now recieved a bill telling us that we are £1,318.10 in debit after 6 months despite increasing our monthly payments to £140.

We have turned our supply off to see if there is a leak in the meter but there isn't.

We have called an electrician out to see if our boiler is running out of control, but he says it's working fine.

We have complained/ asked for help as to why we have such a high bill to powergen but they are now just saying that this level of payment is accurate for a two bed property with electric boiler (despite advising us initially to set up a monthly direct debit of £60).

We have contected energy watch but they don't seem to want to help.

What shall we do?? Can anyone help??

Cardew

Are you sure that your radiators are run from an electrically heated boiler?

Most Electrical heating is using Storage heating on Economy 7.

If that is so I would check that your heaters are only heating up in the Economy 7(off peak) period.

What is your consumption in kWh on Daytime, and Economy 7.

If you do have the system you describe i.e. a boiler heating water(at daytime Economy 7 rates) to your radiators, then your bill is not surprising.

dc

I'm afraid if the meter readings are correct then that is what you have used. Maybe you can come to some arrangement with Powergen to ease repayment pain.

You are the victim of circumstance, long Winter baptism into heating a house,when electric heating was its most expensive. It is around 4 times the cost of gas per useful Kilowatt of heat. However Summer will mean smaller bills, and time to reflect on how you use the heating.
You should make max use of cheaper nightime tariff, look seriously at improving insulation, and watch the meter regularly to assess any savings possible. Consider changing to a cheaper supplier and try to get the landlord to change heating to gas.

Good luck.

thescouselander

A £1400 electric bill in 3 months! Seriously, I think something must be wrong even with all electric heating. I suspect the problem is the original reading that was given to the electricity company when you moved in, are you sure you got it right?

I dont know what your electricity rates are but, in big handfulls, £1400 must be in excess of 20,000 kwh. I doubt you could use all that in 3 months even if you left everything on continuously.

How many kilowatt hours does it say you used on your bill? You may be able to prove you cant possibly have used the ammount they have charged you for.

soapysponge

Not much of this will be any comfort.

I also have a system like the one described, mine is a GEC Nightstor 100. The fact your radiators are mostly turned off will not have an effect. It's the boiler that needs to be turned off. I have turned mine off for the summer, although I didn't used to have to do this.
If it's similar, mine is full of bricks which are heated up overnight, to get the heating to work it activates a fan that then circulates the hot air over pipes running inside.
Even when the thing is not heating radiators, the casing itself seems to pump out heat like you would not believe.
I've had this system ever since I moved into my house approx 6 years. It's only in the last 12, maybe 18 months that the electricity bills have gone bananas, similar to the ones you are describing, but built up over a longer period.
The system has the advantage for the landlord that he doesn't need to get a corgi certificate every year because there is no gas, and this system doesn't require any servicing. If there is no gas in the area, the next cheapest option is probably oil, but that would require regular servicing and he's currently not feeling the pain of large electricity bills.
As already stated make sure it's not heating up during the day - should be over night, make sure any "booster" buttons are not active.

thescouselander

"I also have a system like the one described, mine is a GEC Nightstor 100. The fact your radiators are mostly turned off will not have an effect."

I'm sorry but this is simply not true. If the radiators are turned off then heat will not be transferred from the heat store so it will not need to be heated up as much.

Thats not to say that the heat store will not lose heat itself but turning off the radiators will definatley reduce the bill.

astonsmummy

I spend £5 a week on my electric and thats on a pre-payment meter too.

simran_2

Did you take the meter reading when you moved into the property and gave it to power gen. We faced similar problem (not that huge amount) for gas when we moved in but we had agreed meter reading so then the gas supplier corrected the bill and we were told to ignore that bill and another bill was sent.

Cardew

thescouselander wrote: »

A £1400 electric bill in 3 months! Seriously, I think something must be wrong even with all electric heating. I suspect the problem is the original reading that was given to the electricity company when you moved in, are you sure you got it right?

I dont know what your electricity rates are but, in big handfulls, £1400 must be in excess of 20,000 kwh. I doubt you could use all that in 3 months even if you left everything on continuously.

How many kilowatt hours does it say you used on your bill? You may be able to prove you cant possibly have used the ammount they have charged you for.

I think you will find that it is a 6 month period they are talking about(they were £110 in debt after 3 months with an estimated reading)

It is not clear how much their total bill is i.e. debit balance + what they have paid)

Bear in mind that they are paying daytime rates on an Economy 7 tariff(which are higher than 'normal' rates) so before the latest price cuts I doubt if it would be much cheaper than 9-10p/kWh. So £1,400 would probably be less than 15,000kWh which is quite possible in a property with 9 radiators + hot water + normal electric.

thescouselander

Cardew wrote: »

I think you will find that it is a 6 month period they are talking about(they were £110 in debt after 3 months with an estimated reading)

It is not clear how much their total bill is i.e. debit balance + what they have paid)

Bear in mind that they are paying daytime rates on an Economy 7 tariff(which are higher than 'normal' rates) so before the latest price cuts I doubt if it would be much cheaper than 9-10p/kWh. So £1,400 would probably be less than 15,000kWh which is quite possible in a property with 9 radiators + hot water + normal electric.

No, I think the original poster is talking about a 3 month period. They recieved their first bill (estimated reading) showing they were £110 in debt. They then (immediately) decided to increase their direct debit at which point they gave an actual reading and were told they owed £1400. - May be the original poster could comfirm if this is corect.

In which case even 15,000 kwh is still a huge amount to be using over a three month period for a two bedroom house.

As a comparison I used just under 4000 kwh on heating and electriciy over the last winter quarter in my 3 bedroom house. There is definately something wrong.

peat

I use a wet electric central heating system, I've used 4924 kwh in the last quarter (92 days). Something is very wrong