Average household energy usage

Daria_alex

Hi guys,

First of all, I would like to point out that I am only living in UK (London) for a year, so please excuse my ignorance on the subject.

My problem is that in September, me and my boyfriend moved into a flat that only uses electricity from Spark Energy.
Today a new electricity bill arrived (we have a direct debit of 30 pounds per month) and I was shocked when checking the meters to see that since 30th of September until 19th of November we used 4637 units. Which from my point of view it is a lot. No heating was required in this period of time…so honestly, I am confused.

Is this normal for a 1 bed-flat, 2 persons?

Thanks in advance for all your answers.

System

Hi - welcome to the forum. Is the figure of 4637 units based on 2 actual meter readings? If it is, then the most likely culprit is the water heater.

reeac

The simple answer is that no, this is not a normal consumption. That's around 650 kWh per week with no heating being switched on. Our 3 brm detached bungalow uses 70 kWh per week for everything except heating and hot water which is supplied by an oil fired boiler. If I assume 100 kWh per week for hot water that's still only 170 versus 650. Most likely one of the two figures is an estimate rather than an actual reading.Secondly, make sure that the water heater is on a time switch.rather than being switched on all the time.

ColinFishwick

Thats 50 days usage @ 4637 which works out 92.7 kWh per day seems a bit high. Main consumption are usually heating or heating hot water but if you say "No heating was required in this period of time" then it sounds like something isnt right. I assume these are based on actual readings not estimates

matelodave

I'm all electric - heating as well and I'd struggle to get up to 90+ kwh a day. Our worst was in 2012 when we had a couple of days when it got down to -15 and our average consumption went up to around 50kwh/day.

Check your meter readings again and make sure they correspond with the bill - it sound as though you've got an estimated bill. Always check the bill against the meter and get it corrected otherwise you'll end up with big catch-up bills. Make sure that your DD is sufficient as £30 a month isn't really enough

Realistically you should be paying around £50-£60 a month for your energy so I'd suggest you put another £30 a month away for when the big bill comes in.

Daria_alex

Thank you very much for your answers.

Unfortunately the number of used units are based on the meter readings and not on their estimate. I have double checked the meters and the readings are accurate.
So I suppose I have to find out whether the meter is broken or whether something in the house is not working properly (heating hot water etc.)

I will start in the following days to take the meters everyday and see whether I have some proper Sherlock abilities to find out what the problem is. )

macman

Spark pay a commission to LL's and LA's to switch tenants to their supply, so I'd switch to a more competitive supplier and tariff. You can choose your own supplier, it is not determined by the LL, even if they tell you otherwise in your tenancy agreement.

Daria_alex

Hello guys,

I just wanted to let you know that I made a mistake when I provided the meter readings. I have added the last digit of the meter reading and that's why on the bill the number of units was outrageously high.
I have talked with Spark energy today and the reissued a new bill which is decent: approximately 34 pounds per month.

Thank you all for all your helpful answers.