First electricity bill blues

Nicola86

Hello everyone :money:

Firstly a big hi 5 to the MSE Forum family. My name is Nicola & I'm a new home owner of a 1 bedroom flat (new build)

I moved in on the 18/01/2013 & took a reading of my meter that day which was 1219.

I received a bill yesterday from Southern Electric stating my estimated bill from 18/01/2013 to the 04/02/2013 is £29.10, when updated my meter reading on-line yesterday 1542 it's bumped up the bill to £48.00. I have no gas just electricity.

I live on my own; For heating I have Dimplex Monterey panel heaters, which I use after work & maybe for half hour in the morning. All electric switches are turned off when not in use. If I need to use hot water I turn on the instant hot water (emersion tank that's under the sink) for 5 minutes then turn it off. My shower is again instant which is turned on then off straight after use. I have short hair so hair dryer is on for 5mins max.

I work 9-5 Mon-Fri so the only thing on electric wise is the fridge. So I don't get why the bill is that amount for 3 weeks of electricity. It's got me so upset that I refuse to put the panels on (SE said that's the reason why it's so expensive) & I now use a Halogen and blankets. As a first time home owner I'm so worried about bills etc that I've given up smoking and drinking, and rarely go out because I want to be able to know rough bill amounts so I can budget.

There are builders in the building working on the flat next door to me... could it be that they are using my electricity, should I get my meter looked at?

Any help would be really appreciated as this has left me very upset

Nicola x

ValHaller

As a new householder, well done for having an opening reading and for expressing your problem in meter readings rather than in DD monthly payments.

As you live in a flat, you need to sort out whether the meter you think is yours is actually recording your electricity use. It is unlikely that builders are using your electricity unless they have access to your flat - although temporary lash ups to get supply from anywhere are not unknown.

misterbarlow

The joys of electric heating...

you could turn off the main switch at your meter to confirm its def yours as it does happen now and then with new builds, but tbh it seems about normal to me really for somewhere with no gas and during the winter..

You don't say how many heaters you have, I assume 2 to 3 (lounge, bedroom, and maybe hall), but even using them for short periods it will soon add up quickly if they are on together...
do you use the oven or hob daily too??

From your readings you have used 323 units in approx 22-23 days, that's an average of around 100 a week/14 a day, which isn't overly massive even for a single person in a one bedder, considering electric heating and water is in that also..
The heaters alone could easily be adding 5-10 units a day of that depending how long they are on...

just take heart from the fact your bills will drop once the weather gets milder...
Also if you work every day and have electric heating, you may be better off on evening/weekend tariff...??

Richie-from-the-Boro

Nicola86 wrote: »

Hello everyone :money:

Firstly a big hi 5 to the MSE Forum family. My name is Nicola & I'm a new home owner of a 1 bedroom flat (new build)

I moved in on the 18/01/2013 & took a reading of my meter that day which was 1219.

I received a bill yesterday from Southern Electric stating my estimated bill from 18/01/2013 to the 04/02/2013 is £29.10, when updated my meter reading on-line yesterday 1542 it's bumped up the bill to £48.00. I have no gas just electricity.

I live on my own; For heating I have Dimplex Monterey panel heaters, which I use after work & maybe for half hour in the morning. All electric switches are turned off when not in use. If I need to use hot water I turn on the instant hot water (emersion tank that's under the sink) for 5 minutes then turn it off. My shower is again instant which is turned on then off straight after use. I have short hair so hair dryer is on for 5mins max.

I work 9-5 Mon-Fri so the only thing on electric wise is the fridge. So I don't get why the bill is that amount for 3 weeks of electricity. It's got me so upset that I refuse to put the panels on (SE said that's the reason why it's so expensive) & I now use a Halogen and blankets. As a first time home owner I'm so worried about bills etc that I've given up smoking and drinking, and rarely go out because I want to be able to know rough bill amounts so I can budget.

There are builders in the building working on the flat next door to me... could it be that they are using my electricity, should I get my meter looked at?

Any help would be really appreciated as this has left me very upset

Nicola x

- builders - anything is possible,unless they are actually in your flat 99.99% unlikely - panel, Halogen, your grannies two bar, or electric blanket its the same cost per unit of heat - use whichever you like

Those Monterey's can be anything from 0.05 to 2,0 kW, if you give me the MFP number off the panel I'll tell you what they actually cost per hour.

MFP - the last three numbers tell you what power it uses when full on and not yet using its thermostat. 050 is half a kilowatt for example, the biggest will be a 2 kilowatt and will have a last three of 200

macman

Heaters used 'after work'? So how many hours, how many heaters and what rating are they? Assuming say 2 heaters at 2kW for 5 hours a night, that's 20kWh or approx £2.40 per night, plus your other electric usage (of which hot water and your electric shower will be the other big users, you also presumably have an electric cooker). So So I don't think that £50 in 2 weeks is excessive during the coldest weeks of the year.
Unfortunately you have the most expensive form of heating possible (electric single rate heating). Have you looked at the possibility of installing E7 and storage heaters, since you already have an immersion heater? However, your usage will fall sharply once the heating goes off in the spring. What did you actually budget for? Anything less than about £75 per month for such a system is not feasible.
PS: your panel heaters cost exactly the same to run as your halogen one, for the same rated output, so SSE are talking compete nonsense. All electric heaters are the same efficiency: 100%.

Richie-from-the-Boro

New home, no doubt the highest default 'assumed tenancy start' Southern Electric tariff. First port of call would be to find a better supplier, all other adjustments come after that comparison. The O/P does not give a region code so I put the House of Commons [SW1A 0AA ] in as a region. The pricing was 13.08p Standard Energy (per kWh and 16.45p Standing Charge (per day).