Massive Electricity Bill PLEASE HELP

HorseyGirl111

Can anyone help me with this massive bill i received the other day.

I moved into my 2 bed house on 1st December 2012, i kept the electricity with Eon until recentley. I have just received my first and final bill from Eon and it is much bigger than expected. Below are the figures on my bill.

1 Dec 12 to 18 Jan 13
Day 153 kilowatt hours (kWh) used
Day first 118kWh at 26.39p each £31.14
Day next 35kWh at 15.71p each £5.50
Night 2,634 kilowatt hours (kWh) used at 6.08p each £160.15
TOTAL £196.79

18 Jan 13 to 11 Feb 13
Day 76 kilowatt hours (kWh) used at 16.48p each £12.52
Standing Charge 24 days at 26.09p per day £6.26
Night 1,317 kilowatt hours (kWh) used at 6.98p each £91.93
TOTAL £110.71

I work full time plus 2/3 evening a week, so im out of the house most of the time. I only heat the water tank for 1hr per day (over night). I have an electric shower but dont use it (so to reduce costs). I do have three heaters on Economy 7, although i dont turn these up every night. I have the normal appliences and these are all turned off when not in use. The TV is not left on standby. I do not use a dryer and only use the washing machine approx once per week. I also live on my own and am careful about lights/plugs etc.

I have recently changed suppliers to British Gas and they have estimated my bill at approx £39 per month, so why is this Eon bill £100+????

Thanks
Jo

HappyMJ

HorseyGirl111 wrote: »

Can anyone help me with this massive bill i received the other day.

I moved into my 2 bed house on 1st December 2012, i kept the electricity with Eon until recentley. I have just received my first and final bill from Eon and it is much bigger than expected. Below are the figures on my bill.

1 Dec 12 to 18 Jan 13
Day 153 kilowatt hours (kWh) used
Day first 118kWh at 26.39p each £31.14
Day next 35kWh at 15.71p each £5.50
Night 2,634 kilowatt hours (kWh) used at 6.08p each £160.15
TOTAL £196.79

18 Jan 13 to 11 Feb 13
Day 76 kilowatt hours (kWh) used at 16.48p each £12.52
Standing Charge 24 days at 26.09p per day £6.26
Night 1,317 kilowatt hours (kWh) used at 6.98p each £91.93
TOTAL £110.71

I work full time plus 2/3 evening a week, so im out of the house most of the time. I only heat the water tank for 1hr per day (over night). I have an electric shower but dont use it (so to reduce costs). I do have three heaters on Economy 7, although i dont turn these up every night. I have the normal appliences and these are all turned off when not in use. The TV is not left on standby. I do not use a dryer and only use the washing machine approx once per week. I also live on my own and am careful about lights/plugs etc.

I have recently changed suppliers to British Gas and they have estimated my bill at approx £39 per month, so why is this Eon bill £100+????

Thanks
Jo

It is winter. The bills will always be higher in winter. This represents a third of your annual usage... So take the totals multiply by 3 then divide by 12 and you get £76 a month which for a property heated by electricity is reasonable....as your unit rate for heating and hot water of 6.98p/kWh is twice the cost of gas.

molerat

£39 with electric heating is way too low, you will be in for a nasty shock later on. £100 is quite reasonable(ish). Are the opening readings correct for when you moved in ? Is the closing reading correct ? House or flat, if flat is the meter actually yours ?

Your day readings are quite low, the big user is the overnight heating.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi HorseyGirl111,

The first thing to double check is the meter readings, are these correct on the final bill? Are they the same as the ones used by your new supplier to open your account with them from?

Have previous bills been estimates? Could this be a catch up bill now we have accurate reads?

I must say though that electric heating can be expensive and with it being winter most of your usage will be now, so bills higher.

If you need to go through the bill in more details, we are happy to help.

Helena

victor2

You are using almost all of your electricity at the cheaper "night" rate, which is what Economy 7 is intended for. Your daytime use is very low, so you're clearly saving well there.
A bulk of your night usage is probably the storage heaters charging themselves up. As HappyMJ says, it's winter so you expect higher bills. Come summer, and with your heaters off, you'll probably have very low usage.
As it's a final bill, the cost is not distributed over the year and you are paying for the peak winter use.

Wywth

HorseyGirl111 wrote: »

Can anyone help me with this massive bill i received the other day.

I moved into my 2 bed house on 1st December 2012, i kept the electricity with Eon until recentley. I have just received my first and final bill from Eon and it is much bigger than expected. Below are the figures on my bill.

1 Dec 12 to 18 Jan 13
Day 153 kilowatt hours (kWh) used
Day first 118kWh at 26.39p each £31.14
Day next 35kWh at 15.71p each £5.50
Night 2,634 kilowatt hours (kWh) used at 6.08p each £160.15
TOTAL £196.79

18 Jan 13 to 11 Feb 13
Day 76 kilowatt hours (kWh) used at 16.48p each £12.52
Standing Charge 24 days at 26.09p per day £6.26
Night 1,317 kilowatt hours (kWh) used at 6.98p each £91.93
TOTAL £110.71

I work full time plus 2/3 evening a week, so im out of the house most of the time. I only heat the water tank for 1hr per day (over night). I have an electric shower but dont use it (so to reduce costs). I do have three heaters on Economy 7, although i dont turn these up every night. I have the normal appliences and these are all turned off when not in use. The TV is not left on standby. I do not use a dryer and only use the washing machine approx once per week. I also live on my own and am careful about lights/plugs etc.

I have recently changed suppliers to British Gas and they have estimated my bill at approx £39 per month, so why is this Eon bill £100+????

Thanks
Jo

4000kWh of low rate electricity in 10 weeks? :eek:

Now not all this will be down to the night storage heaters (as all electricity consumed at the low rate times is charged at low rate) but the vast majority will be.

You say you have 3 NSHs. Sizes do vary, but typically they are not more than 3kW each.
So 3 heaters x 3kW each x 7 hours x 7 days x 10 weeks = 4410kWh.

Now that assumes each heater is big, each heater is on full power for all 7 hours per day (which they usually are not as once they are fully loaded they thermostatically cut out) and they are all on every day
You say you don't turn them up every night. I'm not sure whether by this you mean you don't turn the input dial up (in which case they certainly will load much quicker than 7 hours) or you don't turn the output dial up in the evening (in which case there should still be lots & lots of retained heat when it nexts comes to top up the heat load at night, so again will definitely not need 7 hours.
The numbers don't really stack up do they?
Your day usage does suggest you are quite a low user otherwise.
So this does beg the question, is this bill based on actual, accurate meter readings?

What annual consumption figures in kWh did you give to British Gas to suggest £39 a month would pay for your annual consumption???
How does this compare to what Eon suggest you will consume in a year?
As already mentioned by others, I can't see £39 a month ever being enough to cover your all electric home no matter which supplier or tariff you are with.

zoominatorone

I was quite astounded today to find that my energy company have put my direct debit payment down to £52 from £64. All those days sitting freezing with no fire or heating on 'til everyone comes in must have worked.