£600 Elec Bill - Help

sandollar

Sorry this is a bit long winded but here goes……

My husband works away and rents a flat. It’s about 6 yrs old, well insulated and all electric. He’s out at work from 8am until around 7pm and comes home every other weekend.

When he moved in, in January, we called Southern Elec and gave them a meter reading. His bill for the first quarter (Jan –March) was £500. He queried it and gave them some more meter readings. His next bill (Apr-June) came this week for £600! He’s since given them another reading and was told that this second bill was re-calculated to £80.89 and the first bill to £600!! All the bills have been actual readings as the meter is by his front door in the communal hall.

Southern Elec has agreed that the first bill is rather large and said they can come and check his appliances and meter. He has Economy 7 with a Day Energy Rate of 11.2p per unit and Night Energy Rate of 4.53p per unit. He used the night storage a bit during the first few weeks and the normal heater on a few early chilly evenings. The only mistake he made was to leave the immersion heater on for about 8 weeks, thinking it was on a timer. He uses the shower daily and the bath 3 or 3 times a week, the washing machine twice a week and dishwasher every 2-3 days. He also has a TV, fridge/freezer and elec cooker.

I would like to know you think the immersion heater could have caused this enormous bill – it’s now off! What do we do next if we cannot reach an agreement with Southern Elec about the amount and would we have to pay it all back straight away? At the moment he’s going to pay the second bill plus the standing charge from the first bill.

Any help gratefully received. Thanks J

SwanJon

Not sure if this will help.
If the immersion was on 24hrs a day, 7 days a week for 8 weeks, that's 1344 hrs.
If the immersion was 1kW, that would be about £150 at 11.2p/kWh.
If it has a higher wattage multiply accordingly.
If the second bill was £80 for three months, and all three reads are accurate, it looks like everything else is ok and it's mostly down to the immersion, but it's always worth getting things checked.

The heating was on for the first bill too, so that would push it up a bit.
Just in case, check the day and night reads are the right way round, and check they change at thr right times of day.

sandollar

Thanks Swanjon, have forwarded your reply to husband so he can check the immersion size. The bill still seems very large even if the immersion was left on. We wondered if we'd somehow got lumbered with an unpaid bill from the last tennant. Hope this is not the case!

Cardew

SwanJon wrote: »

Not sure if this will help.
If the immersion was on 24hrs a day, 7 days a week for 8 weeks, that's 1344 hrs.
If the immersion was 1kW, that would be about £150 at 11.2p/kWh.
If it has a higher wattage multiply accordingly.
If the second bill was £80 for three months, and all three reads are accurate, it looks like everything else is ok and it's mostly down to the immersion, but it's always worth getting things checked.

I am afraid this post couldn't be more inaccurate if it tried.

Have you not heard of thermostats?

In case you haven't! - a thermostat turns off the power to a device when the water(in the case of an immersion tank heater) reaches a set temperature and then switches it on again when the temperature of the water drops a few degrees. - If it didn't do this the immersion tank would simply boil.

Most immersion heaters(which are usually 3kW not 1kW) even if left switched on 24/7 will only be drawing power for a small percentage of the time. That percentage will depend principally on 2 factors; the amount of water used and the type of tank insulation.

mprice1988

sandollar wrote: »

Sorry this is a bit long winded but here goes……

My husband works away and rents a flat. It’s about 6 yrs old, well insulated and all electric. He’s out at work from 8am until around 7pm and comes home every other weekend.

When he moved in, in January, we called Southern Elec and gave them a meter reading. His bill for the first quarter (Jan –March) was £500. He queried it and gave them some more meter readings. His next bill (Apr-June) came this week for £600! He’s since given them another reading and was told that this second bill was re-calculated to £80.89 and the first bill to £600!! All the bills have been actual readings as the meter is by his front door in the communal hall.

Southern Elec has agreed that the first bill is rather large and said they can come and check his appliances and meter. He has Economy 7 with a Day Energy Rate of 11.2p per unit and Night Energy Rate of 4.53p per unit. He used the night storage a bit during the first few weeks and the normal heater on a few early chilly evenings. The only mistake he made was to leave the immersion heater on for about 8 weeks, thinking it was on a timer. He uses the shower daily and the bath 3 or 3 times a week, the washing machine twice a week and dishwasher every 2-3 days. He also has a TV, fridge/freezer and elec cooker.

I would like to know you think the immersion heater could have caused this enormous bill – it’s now off! What do we do next if we cannot reach an agreement with Southern Elec about the amount and would we have to pay it all back straight away? At the moment he’s going to pay the second bill plus the standing charge from the first bill.

Any help gratefully received. Thanks J

Hello,

I worked for Southern Electric, have you confirm the change of tenancy reading with us and cross referenced it with what is was when it moved in? Your account may have started on the wrong reading.

sandollar

Thanks Cardew, I did wonder about the thermostat in the immersion. Another reason to make me think there is something wrong with the meter or we're subsidising the whole complex!

Thanks mprice, We did say we'd taken over the tenancy when we called to give them a reading in January, but maybe we need to double check that with them.

Hubby is home tomorrow so I'll find out what the latest news is then.

thescouselander

Cardew wrote: »

I am afraid this post couldn't be more inaccurate if it tried.

Have you not heard of thermostats?

In case you haven't! - a thermostat turns off the power to a device when the water(in the case of an immersion tank heater) reaches a set temperature and then switches it on again when the temperature of the water drops a few degrees. - If it didn't do this the immersion tank would simply boil.

Most immersion heaters(which are usually 3kW not 1kW) even if left switched on 24/7 will only be drawing power for a small percentage of the time. That percentage will depend principally on 2 factors; the amount of water used and the type of tank insulation.

Cardew, your right about thermostats buy its possible the thermostat could be faulty and it may indeed by sitting there boiling water all day.

If this is the case then the amount used by the immersion heater would be about £450. Maybe its worth checking that its working properly.

Cardew

thescouselander wrote: »

Cardew, your right about thermostats buy its possible the thermostat could be faulty and it may indeed by sitting there boiling water all day.

If this is the case then the amount used by the immersion heater would be about £450. Maybe its worth checking that its working properly.

I don't know if you have ever heard a hot water tank boiling, but the 'bubbling' sound is unmistakeable - everything shakes.

Also he just might notice water(or indeed steam!) coming out of his taps at 100C;)

No - it ain't boiling!

thescouselander

Cardew wrote: »

I don't know if you have ever heard a hot water tank boiling, but the 'bubbling' sound is unmistakeable - everything shakes.

Also he just might notice water(or indeed steam!) coming out of his taps at 100C;)

No - it ain't boiling!

I wouldn't be so sure about that. I have seen 3 thermostats/immersion heaters fail in this way. One at my parents house many years ago, one in my student flat (also a while back) and I currently have this problem on the immersion heater in my current house. I never use the one in my house so I havent bothered to fix it.

What seems to happen is the immersion heater will boil the water for 5-10 mins than then shut off only to start again a little while later. Yes, the water out of the tap is very hot but people expect water out of the hot tap to be hot so they maght not notice whats happening. In the case of my parents it was quite a while before they realised what was happening.

SwanJon

Sorry, was just putting the maths in to give a general idea, not commenting on how things actually worked.
Used 1kW as the maths was easier to multiply up if needed.

While it wouldn't be the whole bill, it would be a significant factor.

As Cardew says the insulation can make a huge difference - if its not there get it done before next winter.

Long shot (still trying to keep some face) would be a dripping hot tap....

(sneaks away again :embarasse)

missile

Cardew wrote: »

I don't know if you have ever heard a hot water tank boiling, but the 'bubbling' sound is unmistakeable - everything shakes.

Also he just might notice water(or indeed steam!) coming out of his taps at 100C;)

No - it ain't boiling!

I am not so sure either. I own a top floor flat and there are six floors below. I have a problem which has been ongoing for several months. Steam coming out the top of the communal vent pipe and boling water rushing out the bottom. So much water that it has killed the grass. It is a new property and i have asked builder to rectify and put a note through all 6 flats bellow mine.