Renting and just recieved my first electricity bill...

[Deleted User]

Hi,

OP, doesn't sound as though you are on E7 as you are paying 0.1117p for all units, E7 would be dual rate, something like 15p day, 6p night, and as you'll be using much more at night thus the high bill, and as already said vat on a domestic supply should only be 5%.

Edit: take a regular reading and keep a note of them, then you will at least know how many units used.

dogshome

Hmmm - 11.17 pence a unit + 20% VAT = 13.404 pence a unit
The whole arrangement seems a bit Heath Robinson, but not unfair

The Upside
The farm is on a Business Tariff and not a bad one at that, and the fact you get Hot water for a seperate charge which you think is reasonable, is a BIG plus for you
The Down
Storage heaters are specifically designed to be run off an ECO7 meter on cheap power overnight - They use a lot of power, are slow in heating up and slow in releasing heat - To use them for sparodic heating makes no sense.

From the Home/Away lifestyle the OP descibes, it would be far better to buy a couple of cheap fan heaters with 1 and 2 Kwh settings that will push out heat quickly on demand, and be turned off completely

macman

Having NSH's is completely pointless unless they're on an E7 meter and tariff. Are you sure they are NSH's?
As above, switch 'em off and use a cheap convector or fan heater.
You should only be paying 5% VAT, 20% is the commercial rate.

Naf

If the OP doesn't actually have E7, could it be hat the storage heaters aren't actually working to any sort of timer? So switched on means they're just charging 24/7?

Andy_WSM

Naf wrote: »

If the OP doesn't actually have E7, could it be hat the storage heaters aren't actually working to any sort of timer? So switched on means they're just charging 24/7?

It's already occurred to me that the op might not even have storage heaters and instead has some sort of convector panel heater.

Norman_Castle

You're only there two nights per week but heating the flat for seven nights. As above, switch off the storage heaters and use another form of heating.

Fred56

You need to know if anything else is connected to your metered supply too. No Joke. I was renting a farm house about 10 years back. The meters were in the adjacent farm buildings that were part of the working farm. We had no access to the meters. I got a bill of £508 for a quarter (late summer, early autumn). Naturally I kicked off pretty fiercely and demanded access to the meters. When I started getting really stroppy the farm finally admitted that their grain driers were connected to my meters. Farmers are really forgetful when it comes to paying their own bills.
On a more constructive note. You have to model what you might use realistically. To give you a measure we live in an four bedroom house. There are always two of us at home at any time. Our heating and hot water is gas fired. In December we used 381 kWhr of electric but 1364 kWh of gas. I never switch the heating off, programmable thermostats set at 18 degrees at night and 21 during the day and evening. December is unusually high as we tend to have people staying with us for about half the time so energy consumption is about 30% higher than November.
I log energy consumption in a spreadsheet most weeks because it is an important item in our budget.

Hodge123

Thanks for replies,
I took down the meter reading when I first moved in, and the numbers do seem to be correct. The meter is in my flat so I can see it going.

The heaters are storage, it's. a sunhouse brand, I had no clue what they were when I moved in so googled. Good to know about input and output, I'll set to 0 on the days when I'm away. I just assumed that last nights stored heat gets released during the day, so turning them back on when I arrived in morning would be useless as they have no heat stored. I think changing to electric heaters may be worth it. Hopefully the cold weather has passed. Just drying washing is a nightmare.

The flat is part of the Farm's barn, the rest of the barn is used as a motorcycle repair workshop. I'm guessing my submeter comes from the workshop hence the business VAT. Should I still be paying the 20% or query that?

The comment about making sure there is nothing else on my meter is what I was worried about. Looking at where the meter is there are two timer switches, connected up and I don't know where they go. They are running and set to turn something on twice a day.... Also there is a sticker on one box which just says loft. I don't have a loft, above me if the office for the repair shop. I mean if the storage heaters are likely to have cost me £150 a month on constantly then that's ok, but if its not going to be that much then I would get suspicious about what is being used.

And yes I am paying in cash as in notes and coins, he did say transfer was ok but I don't have access to Internet banking ATM. January's bill is going to be horrendous!

Forgot to add, I am paying council tax as the property is listed as rental

macman

Your assumption about the heat storage is quite correct. But if you are on a single rate tariff (no E7) then it's pointless to heat them up overnight, as you pay exactly the same as heating by day anyway. You need to speak to your LL and ask him why he has connected an NSH to a non-E7 circuit.

Norman_Castle

If you can unplug your fridge and anything else using power. Try taking meter readings when you leave and return.