Exceptionally high electric usage

Omoxey

Hi all,

I am hoping that someone might have a bit of insight as to how to go about solving a problem we have.

We are renting a property that we have figured out is a energy efficiency rating of F. We are living off of benefits as my partner is classed as unfit to work and I am classed as her carer, so we are not on a huge income. We were looking at our direct debits and we decided to move the electric date, so they canceled the direct debit and reinstated it as a new tariff. They estimated that we should be paying £51 per month, estimated as we live in a medium house (2/3 bedrooms, living room, bathroom, kitchen). The house is run off of a solid fuel back boiler, which is not very efficient and doesn't seem to maintain heat to the radiators for more than a couple hours, we have done our research on the Rayburn that powers the back boiler, and clean it regularly and use logs and coke to fuel it. We are a full electric household at the moment which I would rather run dual fuel, but unfortunately not eligible for any boiler schemes. The back boiler is far to expensive to run, mainly for the amount of fuel we need to use to keep it running long enough to keep the radiators hot, and it will not stay hot enough over night to keep the house warm. Because of this we have had to run the immersion heater to keep the house warm. Having done this we found that we were using far too much electric to keep the house warm by that method. So we turned it off again and found we were still using a high amount of energy, and after speaking to end we have found that we are actually due them around £300 for the months of September through to the current date, and they have calculated that we are spending on average around £175 per month on electricity. Now I am aware that leaving an immersion heater on is going to use a lot of electric but in a month we figured out that we used over 1200Kw/h and the average is around 4400Kw/h for a year. With the immersion off we were using around 670Kw/h over 20 days, which is still exceptionally high.

We are not running a huge amount of appliances, we have the TV on for about 10 hours a day due to not being able to go out very often, this is the same for the sky box. The internet is on 24/7, as is the fridge freezer which is brand new and as far as I can remember is A rated, an older counter top freezer, the oven is used about an hour a day, as is the hob, again brand new, we usually have the main light on in the living room, the middle room (equivalent to living room, classed as 3rd optional bedroom) and a hall light on, they are running eco halogen bulbs, a fish tank filter and led strip, which is on 24/7, and that is about it.

I can understand the usage being high for having the immersion on, but not to the extent that it is at right now.

Can anyone she'd some light on why we have such high bills? We shouldn't be using that much for what we are running and I have tested the power from the fuse box, there doesn't seem to be anything using power when it is turned off. I now have no idea where to start next.

Thank you in advance for those of you who can help and have taken the time to read this essay.

ajbell

Fish tank rings alarm bells.
Logs don't cost anything?.
Immersion heater is for water not heating?.

victor2

Find out what is using so much electricity. Start by reading your meter at about the same time every day, noting what you have been running. If you are not using the immersion heater at all, what other electrical appliances are you using? Do you have an electric shower for example? They are expensive to run but usually only on for a short period of time each day.
Presumably your 670kWh over 20 days was calculated from actual meter readings and not estimates.
Make a list of the electric items you have, see what they are rated at to get some idea of what the highest users are likely to be.
Switch everything off, including the fridge, for about an hour and check that the meter has not moved. Don't forget to switch the fridge back on afterwards though!

Omoxey

Logs do cost since I have nowhere I can get free logs for fire wood, and have no means of cutting down trees or drying them to a decent state to use them. And you are right an immersion is used for hot water, but the water for the radiators runs through a coil that is inside the immersion, so although the back boiler heats the water for the heating and hot water, if the immersion is not on before hand to get the water hot since I can't keep the back boiler running, I lose a lot of heat to the immersion while trying to hear the radiators if that makes sense as the back boiler supplies hot water to the tank for the taps which is stored in the immersion tank.

Omoxey

Yeah it was from readings, was an estimate I put up as o can't remember the exact number but was around 670. That seems like a much more reasonable way of doing things than what I planned to do. The fish tank bus just a small 80L tank, running a small water heater and filter. Never have the light on as it sits at the window so don't need it, only an led strip light that is in the water. I wouldn't have thought that the filter or heater would be using that much as they are not very big. As for electric shower we just have one connected to our bath taps so no power from that. Like I listed before the only things running most of the time is the TV, sky box, locomotion light when darker days and all time is the fridge freezer, countertop freezer and fish tank. Oven about an hour a day, washer drier on a 30 min wash cycle once or twice a week, otherwise nothing else is normally on.

ajbell

Ok but just check the wattage on the fish tank heater and multiply it by however long it runs for. It may be more than you think.

Richie-from-the-Boro

An energy rating of F means that dwelling will be illegal to rent after 2018, more immediately you are faced with heating just one room in the winter for your safety let alone comfort and your finances. An immersion will run @ 3kW per hour @ your tariff rate on a semi-permanent basis given that its on a constant cycle. Your assembled appliances will run @ about 500w per hour @ your tariff rate excluding your electric oven. The oven @ up to 3kW per hour of use [moderated by the thermostat] @ your tariff rate.

That EPC rating is going to take a lot of money to live in. Any of the cheepo energy monitors will give you a guesstimate of which individual appliance is sucking high usage, or if placed on the inbound tails from your meter of CU's will give you a global total use in any period. If you are a new tenant you will be put on the default highest tariff the leccy company can put you on [deemed supplier] so what tariff with which company in what area code ?. Did you supply the opening reads of your meter yourself and have you been supplying regular monthly meter reads. Find the cheapest direct debit tariff with any company and get an e-account and 'payment plan' to keep up to speed. BTW an open fireplace [no chimney balloon] alone means you might as well turn the heating off and open the windows. Best of luck.

ChaunceyGardiner

Some suggestions:

Replace the halogen bulbs with LEDs.
Invest in a pressure cooker.
Consider a combination microwave.
Do you need to run *two* freezers?

Naturally, the immersion heater is by far the main culprit.

zaax

Soild fuel is the second cheapest to mains gas. You need to understand what soild fuel is and find a cheap supplier of fuel. Here is a good start

http://solidfuel.co.uk/solid-fuels-guide/