Unexplained Electricity usage increase

mitt

Hi All,

Thanks in advance for any help / advice I get here, am having a bit of a worried morning!

I'm on EDF energy for electricity (landlord pays for gas separately) and submitted a meter reading yesterday, to my shock, it appears we've used the same number of units in the last 2 months that we did in the previous 6!

I live in a small, fairly well insulated 2 bed flat, with 2 other housemates (I'm one half of a couple).

So here's the breakdown:
From Jul 2012 to 7th Jan 2013, we used an average of about 500 units a month, a total of about 2600 for that period.

The last time I gave an accurate meter reading was 7th Jan, and between then and the reading I gave yesterday, it stated we used about 2500 just for that period. (7th Jan - 12th March).

I was expecting a higher bill for winter, but we've gone from paying about £60-120 every 2 months to a bill of £350! The only thing I can think to explain this is heater usage due to the cold weather, but I'm quite sceptical, because it was cold in November and December too, I don't remember using the heater any more after Christmas than before, or at least not enough to justify such a big jump in energy. We haven't bought any new appliances or started being wasteful in any way. In fact, in November we switched from using an electric kettle to a gas one, so I thought that would have some impact to offset the cost of the heating.

I'm going to get in touch with EDF to see if they can double check the meter for us (their estimated bill for us, plus their usual overestimation, was only £150).

Other than that I'm out of ideas, but wanted to check here first before I just admit defeat and that we have to pay such a high bill

One thing that did occur to me is that we had the names changed on the bill on the 7th of January - it was previously in the name of my old housemate, who had long since moved out by that point - is it possible that something like that could have had an effect on the electricity meter itself? I understand about EDF possibly changing our tarriff, but it's the actual meter reading that's unusual.

I hope someone can help!

Thanks in advance.

macman

How is the property heated and hot watered? This accounts for the vast majority of energy usage, not boiling a kettle.
Post your actual kWh consumption figures for the period in question.
If you have a 'free' gas supply, then use it-gas is about one third of the cost of standard rate electricity per kWh.

Fire_Fox

Double check your own reading and that you submitted it correctly, it's easy to misread or transpose numbers. Then check the meter yourself, turn EVERYTHING off at the socket except one heater of known wattage and see how much the meter moves.

A kettle won't make any significant difference due to the amount it is in use and will not offset use of a heater. Your big energby guzzlers are: heating, hot water/ power showers, washing machine if higher temps, tumble dryer.

Are you SURE the incoming housemate is not using a lot more energy than the outgoing housemate? Long showers, electric heater on secretly when you are not home?

[Deleted User]

Is your meter a "dial " meter, ( 6 little rotating dials ).they are misread all the time

Robboseven

A dodgy immersion heater thermostat can have a huge impact on bills if you have one. Does the hot water seem hotter than usual?