6 years of elecricity bill confusion!

starbug86

When we moved into our 1st home 6 yrs ago, not having had a bill yet, it was estimated that we would pay £30 a month. (No gas supply until very recently, no heating at all!) This rapidly increased. and I have been with 4 different suppliers. At one point the bill had risen to £110 a month. (Bear in mind we have a 3 bed house, 2 people living there who both work full time.) Am now with Eon, and after our ancient boiler had been replaced, we finally thought we had solved the problem. BUT... Got a bill for 5 weeks worth of electricity which was £75. According to EON, we use 88% more electricity than similar homes nearby. We just can't figure out why!! We are getting a smart meter fitted in August, but will this help? Over the years we have joked that we might be paying for someone elses electricity... now I'm seriously wondering if this is possible! Does anyone have any suggestions as to why this might be happening? Many thanks in advance.

Torry_Quine

If you are all electric what is the boiler for?

Sky_

What sort of boiler do you have? We have brand new electric boiler (fitted by previous owners) and it costs a lot more than a gas boiler to run. Electricity costs roughly 3x as much as gas to produce the same amount of heat/hot water.

Our boiler will be replaced with a gas one as soon as we can afford it.

starbug86

Just re-read and I wasn't clear! We had an electric immersion tank for hot water which has now been replaced with a gas boiler for water and central heating.

Cardew

Some people refer to the Hot water tank/immersion heater as a 'boiler'.

However not sure what this means:

(No gas supply until very recently, no heating at all!)

Does 'until very recently' refer to 'gas supply' or 'no heating'?

starbug86

Electric water tank and no gas supply until Dec 2015 when the tank was replaced with a combi boiler and gas connected :-)

Torry_Quine

Cardew wrote: »

Some people refer to the Hot water tank/immersion heater as a 'boiler'.

However not sure what this means:



Does 'until very recently' refer to 'gas supply' or 'no heating'?

I have never heard an immersion heater called boiler which is why I asked.

I do wonder how the home was heated

starbug86

Only heat source was a wood burner - and yes - it was cold!

CashStrapped

Hello and welcome...

What you need to do, is go through your bill history and look for actual/confirmed meter readings, ignore estimated ones.

Type all the actual readings out and the dates they were taken (post them here too so we can have a look too).

Then look for the readings which are nearly a year apart.

Do this as far back as possible both pre and post gas being fitted.

This will give you and us an accurate picture of your annual KWH use for gas and electric.

There are many reasons why your use may be high. One initial reason is that you have been relying on estimated readings.

Working out your correct annual use figures will enable us to see how much you actually use.

matelodave

Rather than try to pick the bones out of random gas and electricty bills, I keep my own spread sheet of meter readings as well as senindg monthly readings to the energy companies. That way, I've got an ongoing record of my usage and I can check that all my bills and statements are correct and get them adjusted if they aren't.

It also helps me monitor my consumption and alerts me to any problems.

Get into the habit of sending monthly readings to your suppliers and recording it yourself and you know, rather than guessing what you are using and can do something about it if it goes wrong.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

starbug86 wrote: »

When we moved into our 1st home 6 yrs ago, not having had a bill yet, it was estimated that we would pay £30 a month. (No gas supply until very recently, no heating at all!) This rapidly increased. and I have been with 4 different suppliers. At one point the bill had risen to £110 a month. (Bear in mind we have a 3 bed house, 2 people living there who both work full time.) Am now with Eon, and after our ancient boiler had been replaced, we finally thought we had solved the problem. BUT... Got a bill for 5 weeks worth of electricity which was £75. According to EON, we use 88% more electricity than similar homes nearby. We just can't figure out why!! We are getting a smart meter fitted in August, but will this help? Over the years we have joked that we might be paying for someone elses electricity... now I'm seriously wondering if this is possible! Does anyone have any suggestions as to why this might be happening? Many thanks in advance.

starbug86 wrote: »

Just re-read and I wasn't clear! We had an electric immersion tank for hot water which has now been replaced with a gas boiler for water and central heating.

starbug86 wrote: »

Electric water tank and no gas supply until Dec 2015 when the tank was replaced with a combi boiler and gas connected :-)

Hello starbug86

As CashStrapped asks, does the £75 bill for 5 weeks include any estimated meter readings? If it does, we'll be happy to rebill if you're able to let us have actual readings. If previous readings have been estimated and we've now billed to an accurate reading, this may well be a catch up bill following a period of under-estimated bills. Guessing though. How long have you been with us?

The similar homes comparison you mention is only an estimate to give you an idea of how you're doing in terms of being energy efficient. There are so many variables involved when comparing different properties, even those of similar size and age, that the forecast can only be a rough guide. The number of estimated readings on accounts will also influence the accuracy of any comparison. It's designed to raise awareness and to offer advice to help customers save money by saving energy. There are lots of other energy saving tips on our website too.

Similarly with Smart Meters. They won't directly save energy but the Energy Display that comes with them will help keep track of usage and highlight potential difficulties. Smart Meters are a different way of measuring what you use. They send us readings via electronic messages so you won't have to. This means less estimated bills and this will eventually have an effect on the accuracy of comparisons with similar properties.

Hope this is of interest starbug86. Let me know if I can help further as happy to do so.

Malc