High electric cost in 1 bed flat

[Deleted User]

sniggings wrote: »

how can you say that when it's within the average, and you have all but no idea of what the OP uses.

The OP says he lives in a one bed flat, which about the smallest type of home there is. However, his usage is in the top 25% of the population, along with all the people who live in the largest houses. His usage is more than half as much again as the median, so that's anything but average.

If you mean I have no idea what appliances he's using your right, but if I were living in a one bed flat using that much juice I'd be expecting to be nearer the bottom quartile, and looking to see what I'm doing that's so different from the rest of the population.

My mother lives in a one bed all electric flat in Essex, and as far as I recall her usage is around 4-5MWh pa.

[Deleted User]

If you are on eco 7, and you should be on an all electric property, you will be paying a horrendous day rate of approx 18.75 p /kwhr and probably something like 7.69 p/kwhr for the 7 hours night rate ( British Gas prepay rates for eco7 ) Check your prepay meter at screens "H" and "J" for the reading and kwhr rates to establish exactly what your prepay is set to. also a weekly standing charge will be on there , anything from £1.20 to £2.0 weekly

[Deleted User]

sacsquacco wrote: »

If you are on eco 7, and you should be on an all electric property, you will be paying a horrendous day rate of approx 18.75 p /kwhr and probably something like 7.69 p/kwhr for the 7 hours night rate ( British Gas prepay rates for eco7 ) Check your prepay meter at screens "H" and "J" for the reading and kwhr rates to establish exactly what your prepay is set to. also a weekly standing charge will be on there , anything from £1.20 to £2.0 weekly

The point at issue us the amount of electricity he's using, not the price he pays for it. He's averaging 14.6p/kWh, which is as near as dammit the same as the 14.9p that I average on my quarterly tariff.

[Deleted User]

jack_pott wrote: »

The point at issue us the amount of electricity he's using, not the price he pays for it. He's averaging 14.6p/kWh, which is as near as dammit the same as the 14.9p that I average on my quarterly tariff.

Well the OP mentions the insane amount of £1485 a year and this is his primary concern, hard cash. If he gets his prepay altered to eco 7 he can potentially lower this figure which is slightly over the average price for a 3 bed house. He spending far too much for a one bed flat. If he is retired it may be a more acceptable yearly price. There will be savings to be made if he gets off a prepay meter and on to direct debit eco 7
a quick search on a comp site(UKPower ) reveals a fixed price 2015 with First Utility of 11.5 p/kwhr and 18 p a day standing charge for his yearly usage, so maybe you and the OP better get switching meters and suppliers

[Deleted User]

sacsquacco wrote: »

Well the OP mentions the insane amount of £1485 a year and this is his primary concern, hard cash. If he gets his prepay altered to eco 7 he can potentially lower this figure which is slightly over the average price for a 3 bed house. He spending far too much for a one bed flat. If he is retired it may be a more acceptable yearly price. There will be savings to be made if he gets off a prepay meter and on to direct debit eco 7
a quick search on a comp site(UKPower ) reveals a fixed price 2015 with First Utility of 11.5 p/kwhr and 18 p a day standing charge for his yearly usage, so maybe you and the OP better get switching meters and suppliers

The main reason his bill is expensive is because he's using about twice as much electricity as he should be, and not because his tariff is particularly expensive!! Nobody's going to offer him a tariff that's half the price everyone else is paying. Your tariff will give him about a third of the saving that he ought to be able to get if he can match an average user. (I wouldn't be on my tariff if it wasn't the cheapest available at the time. The cheapest dual fuel tariff on UK Power this afternoon is Green Star, and it's only 1.4% cheaper than I'm already paying, not enough to cover the penalties.) Why don't you read the Ofgem stats I linked to, instead of assuming you're the only one who can use a switching site.

sniggings

jack_pott wrote: »

The OP says he lives in a one bed flat, which about the smallest type of home there is. However, his usage is in the top 25% of the population, along with all the people who live in the largest houses. His usage is more than half as much again as the median, so that's anything but average.

If you mean I have no idea what appliances he's using your right, but if I were living in a one bed flat using that much juice I'd be expecting to be nearer the bottom quartile, and looking to see what I'm doing that's so different from the rest of the population.

My mother lives in a one bed all electric flat in Essex, and as far as I recall her usage is around 4-5MWh pa.

you are making a lot of assumptions, he says a one bedroom, so to you that is small? it could well be but it could also have high ceilings, be a massive open plan penthouse with all glass walls etc etc, basically a one bed tells you very little, apart from the fact it has one bedroom.

My point is, he either has a very large flat, or he is using a lot of power on other stuff he has failed to tell us about, as clearly he is using quite a bit on something he is yet to mention, or his heater is on 24/7.

Hard to say whether it's a lot until we know more about his usage.

I can not afford to use heating atm but my gas usage is still £10 a week, what with the standing charge and pilot light being nearly £4 a week alone, the rest is for cooking and hot water.

My electric is on the bare minimum as well, another £10 a week, again standing charge of nearly £2, £8 on the rest, again no heating, so sorry but I do not agree with these figures we keep hearing of the average bill being £1400 or what ever it is, mine is £1000 for very little use at all.

This is why I say the OP's bill is not overly big, as he does use heating so a bill of £1485 is not so bad, and again we still do not know what else he uses, he could have a room full of reptiles, with heating lights or a sea water fish tank etc

[Deleted User]

In my experience of visiting hundreds of thousands of homes , when someone is exceeding the average usage by such an amount its because one of the couple needs heating on constantly because of some disability or other and lowering the usage is nt an option. If this is the case then the next best option is to somehow or other make it an imperative to get off the expensive prepay tariff and on to the cheapest possible supplier. He certainly is nt at the moment when I can see a 20% reduction in getting his tariff changed

rogerblack

While not appropriate for everyone.

I'm in the process of installing http://www.orionairsales.co.uk/mitsubishi-heavy-industries-air-conditioning-srk20zjx-s-28-kw--9000-btu-hyper-inverter-heat-pump-220-p.asp

This will cost me around 800 to install, and then result in heating considerably cheaper than even gas.

Way cheaper than night-rate electricity.

Assuming it lasts 5 years, and would cost 380 to be installed professionally (in an easy location), this would mean it would cost about 200 pounds a year, which it would very easily pay for itself with energy savings.

On the above property - if half the usage is heating - to produce 5000 units of heat would cost around 1000 units of power, saving 400 pounds.
200 pounds a year better off, paying back in a little over two years.
I find it dissapointing that this sort of technology is not available under the green deal. It could slash carbon outputs.

victor2

rogerblack wrote: »

I'm in the process of installing http://www.orionairsales.co.uk/mitsubishi-heavy-industries-air-conditioning-srk20zjx-s-28-kw--9000-btu-hyper-inverter-heat-pump-220-p.asp

This will cost me around 800 to install, and then result in heating considerably cheaper than even gas.

Will be interested to hear how it works out once installed. Also how noisy the outside unit could be for neighbours. Thinking of them sitting in the garden or with their windows open in the summer and you're using it for cooling...
We're looking at building an extension and adding a couple more radiators to the central heating system (which it should be able to cope with), or going for air conditioning. A/C will be less intrusive inside, but I felt it would work out more expensive to run than a couple of extra radiators. Obviously it would have the advantage of cooling in the summer though.

lstar337

Where is the OP?

I can't see anywhere near enough information in this thread for anybody to give any sound advice.

Come on OP, help us to help you.

We need real informationabout the property, and some daily reads of the meter, some info on lifestyle, and some feedback on what you are willing to try.

Then we can move forward.