Huge electricity bill!!

-chapperz-

I'm basically just looking for some advice on the following situation. My partner moved into a rented 1 bedroom maisonette last June. The house has an electric cooker, fridge and freezer, electric immersion heater (only on overnight) and 3 electric storage heaters - they're the main electrical items. Since maybe November, the heaters have been on for 3 hours in the evening, and maybe 2 hours in the morning. The meter is in a separate building that only the landlord can access. She submitted her meter readings to British Gas when she moved in, which were..

Rate 1: 00041
Rate 2: 00096

British Gas then estimated her meter readings up until she moved out on Monday.

Her first bill (21st June - 7th October) was £96.70 and estimated as follows:
Day: 00061
Night: 01339
Estimated use: 1263kWh

Her second bill (8th October - 6th Jan) was £66.35 and estimated as follows:
Day: 00094
Night: 02013
Estimated use: 707kWh

Her final bill (7th Jan - 16th Jan) was £455.46 with accurate meter readings taken on moving out day, as follows:
Rate 1: 01044
Rate 2: 05080
Usage: 4017kWh

My question is, how are these figures possible for a single occupancy maisonette (£618.51 over 7 months just for electricity)? The landlord read the meter readings alongside my partner when she moved out so I'm not doubting the figures, I'm just unsure how it could possibly be this much!! I'm guessing night hours are something like midnight - 8am?? If so then the night rate should be nearer to 0 as there is only the fridge,freezer and immersion heater on at night - the heating is never on overnight. Any ideas?

Nada666

£618 is not expensive including heating. I have no idea why you are wanting the night hours to be zero - you want them to be high as they are cheaper.

If the occupant was warm and was using heating and cooking then £618 seems fair enough. It's a good job the heaters knew better than the tenant and ignored the attempted three and two = five hours peak usage manual override and just used stored energy instead - otherwise the bill would have another 100 or 170% added!

You should be breathing a very happy sigh of relief that only an extra 950 day units were used and the other 3,000 managed to be charged at the cheap night rate despite the two of you not seeming to understand how storage heating works!

peachyprice

Storage heater use the overnight economy tariff for storing heat. When you turn them 'on' during the day/evening they are releasing the stored head. That's why they are called storage heaters.


http://www.southern-electric.co.uk/GasAndElectricity/YourMeter/StorageHeaters/

molerat

What you have said above does not add up

and 3 electric storage heaters

but

Since maybe November, the heaters have been on for 3 hours in the evening, and maybe 2 hours in the morning

and

I'm guessing night hours are something like midnight - 8am?? If so then the night rate should be nearer to 0 as there is only the fridge and freezer on at night - the heating is never on overnight.

Storage heaters, and the hot water tank, work by charging up overnight on cheap rate and releasing that heat during the day and evening. What heaters are on "3 hours in the evening, and maybe 2 hours in the morning" ? If it is the fans on the storage heaters then they will be using the stored heat. If the storage heaters are not being used and it is wall heaters or storage heater boost then maybe the readings are reversed and the higher figure is the day use. In any event £600 over 7 months is not that unreasonable for an all electric property.

sk240

Storage heaters heat up at night, and release the heat during the day.
The bulk of it looks to be the storage heaters heating overnight, the day readings are low (aprox £120 for 7 months, so only £17 per month so very good)
The rest is all heating and hot water which is easily beleivable.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

The second bill, for 3 months, was £66. With all the brouhaha in the news about energy being expensive, did it not occur to you that your invoice was a little on the low side?!

-chapperz-

So around £88 per month is normal for a single occupancy, small maisonette using storage heaters?

Don't fully understand the storage heaters....

The one in the bedroom you could simply set on a dial to come on/off at a certain time - it definitely didn't release heat throughout the day.

The one in the living room had a digital display on the wall - again where you could select when the heating would come on and off. This one did release a small amount of heat throughout the day.

The one in the kitchen was simply a on/off switch on the wall - no settings, no adjustments. This on also released heat throughout the day.

sk240

Yes that kind of money for a property heated by electricity is very believable

peachyprice

When people are saying the release heat 'though the day' they mean when you have them timed to come on or when you switch them on, not a constant trickle.

Some heaters do feel warmish all day, but this does not mean they are turned on, once they are turned on the heat they release will increase.

Did you read the link that explains how they work?

Lube

Electric heating is expensive even on economy 7 compared with GCH. You also pay more for electric during day than on a normal tariff its only at off peak periods you get cheaper electric. Even using gas and electric more people pay £100 a month and that's being economical

-chapperz-

peachyprice wrote: »

Did you read the link that explains how they work?

I did, I get that they come on over night and store that heat. Still a bit confused though. So when the control unit on the wall was set for the heating to come on between 7am-9am, it was simply using the heat it had stored?