Why is my electricity bill so high?

Puddylove

Hi all
I live in a small 2 bed terraced newish house, with gas central heating. Last quarter my gas bill was about £90 but electric £200.
Any tips on reducing my consumption?
Thanks in advance.

Knalchemist

Are you giving your supplier regular meter readings? If not, then these would be estimated bills, so they don't know exactly how much you're using.

Are you on the cheapest tariff, or one of those standard tariffs? You can check your consumption in kWh using your bill, and use something like USwitch to see if you can get your tariff cheaper elsewhere.

As always, switch to energy efficient bulbs. Turn off lights when not in use. Don't leave things on standby - turn the plugs off. Using the kettle uses the same amount of electricity as watching TV for an hour, so drink less coffee etc lol. Don't use a tumble dryer.

Do you have an economy 7 meter? On my economy 7 tariff, the night time rate was less than half the day time rate. So, put the washing machine on timed, so that it comes on during the off peak times. Charge phones etc at night. That will cost less.

If it seems way off, do daily meter readings, and see if you can work out what is costing you the most. You can also take a few meter readings per day to be more precise if you wanted to. This is what I did and worked out it was the having the hot water on that was costing us the most (we were new to the flat).

good_advice

The only way to reduce consumption is to switch things off. We are in the winter months and are using more heat up things.

Hang clothes up to dry instead of using the tumble dryer.
let your hair air dry instead of the hair dryer.
Have a cooler home.
One freezer is enough! some people have 3!

glassy2010

not sure what you use thats electric eg. dryer heaters cooker lots of tv's
also who lives in house and how much time they spend in the house

first of all id turn all your sockets off and check your meter isnt running as there may be a fault
check your loft insulation should be 270mm
an end terrace sould cost slightly more as you have an open end

i pay £90 gas £90 electric im only home from 6pm till 9am and sleep 10pm till 8am

i have a gas cooker and no tumble dryer

Puddylove

Thank you for the suggestions.
The last two were from meter readings.
I'm on the standard tariff because I rent, and I'm just not sure I can cope with doing comparisons.
I have a few extension plugs - would these use electricity if the things plugged into them are off?
Also, my landlord festooned the house with spotlights which use GU10 bulbs so I don't think I can get energy efficient versions?

matelodave

The only way to reduce your consumption is to turn stuff off, down or alternatively use lower consumption items.


Make sure you use the washing machine, tumble dryer or dishwasher when they are full or use a half load setting. Turn TVs, Sky boxes, DVD recorders, X-boxes, computers, printers and other stuff off when it's not being used (don't leave it on standby).


Turn lights off when the room is empty you can also replace them with low energy lamps. You can change GU10 halogen bulbs for LED versions - our kitchen has 10 x 4 watt LEDs instead of 10 x 50 watt halogens, saving us 6p an hour.
Take showers instead of baths and only for 4-5 minutes at a time. Don't let taps run, especially the hot one.
Read your electricity meter regularly so you can see when you are using power and you can monitor your consumption and reduce it. It takes a bit of effort but you can make a difference

Puddylove

You are all so helpful!
I'm going to read your posts carefully and try to action each point if it applies.
I realise I have no idea what the approximate hourly costs of running a TV or a computer, or a hair dryer are - is there anywhere I can find this out?

(Please don't make me do the calculations! )

matelodave

Depending on the sort of TV it can be any where between 100watts (1.2p an hour) to 250 watts (3p an hour) a computer can be anywhere between 50watts for a laptop (0.6p an hour) to possibly 200watts for a gaming machine (2.5p an hour).
A 2kw hairdryer would be about 24p an hour. A washing machine is about 25-30p a wash, a dishwasher a bit less. Boiling a kettle is about 0.6p a go. An electric heater would be about 12p a kw for every hour that they are on. Even going around with a vacuum cleaner could cost 6-8p for half an hours cleaning


All the above is based on approx. 12p a kwh, it will be more if you pay more than that

good_advice

Puddy. it is the heat up things that cost the most. heating, oven and tumble dryer. The smaller stuff just unplug when not using.

I do not think £100 a month in winter is over high. that is what we pay for our well insulated 3 bed semi. It would be higher if we had the heating on more.

Every time we have to change tariffs at the end of contract the price goes up.

Remember only half the bill is for fuel used. The other half is for green issues, transporting the fuel, manning he switch boards, training and profit.

Yorkie1

I appreciate you don't want the hassle of doing comparison sites, but it might be worth trying it - you're almost certainly paying more for your energy than you need to, and being in rented accommodation isn't a bar to getting a good deal.

matelodave

It really is worth the effort of trying to get a decent tariff using a comparison site. Without much effort I am saving over £250 a year by not being on my previous supplier's standard tariff.
I've been changing suppliers & tariffs for the past 5-6 years (it's become a sport) and by so doing I'm still managing to keep my bill below £1000 a year (it going to be very close next year though)


I'm not saying that you could save as much as that (we are all electric with no gas) but a bit of effort on a couple of comparison sites could save more and be a lot easier than running round turning off lights & stuff