high electric usage

DisneyB

I've just had my latest bill from E-on and even more shocked than normal, I'm a single person living in a 1 bedroom flat which only uses electric. Usually my quarterly usage is around 900 kWh but this quarter it was 1200 roughly, this doesn't include heating as that is communal so paid separately. Surely this is a huge amount for just one person in a small flat?
They're increasing my direct debit from £45 to £70 because it's not currently enough to cover the bills, my flat previous to this, although gas & electric probably used half of what I am now.

Is it likely a case of because I'm only using electric now the usage is much more, I just feel like something must be wrong because surely that's a LOT of electric for one person

matelodave

AS most will ask - have you read the meter, do you read it regularly, is the bill an estimate or an actual reading - if so who read it.

You really can't judge your consumption from a single random bill especially if any previous bills were estimates - you need to be able to compare two actual reads. The readings on the bill usually have A = actual, C = customer or E = estimate against them

Did you give the leccy company your meter readings when you moved in or did you just hope or rely on your landlord/previous tenants reading - if so you might be paying some of theirs. How long have you been there.

Robin9

Wise words from matelowdave.

Is there something else going on here as well ? Is E.on playing catchup on underbilling ?

Even if the 1200 units per quarter is correct then your monthly DD at £70 sounds high.

DisneyB

Should have said, all meter readings are actual ones and. no estimates. My past 3 quarter bills have been around 900 kWh but this past quarters was an extra 300 kWh on top of that but nothing is being used differently..

It's nothing to do with previous tentants as when I moved it it was with a different company and pre payment meter, I switched to E-on then about 2 months later the meter was changed

Smodlet

Hi. I've had a think and I cannot come up with any explanation for this other than, did you forget to turn the oven off on several occasions? Have you been taking in ironing? Have you bought any power-hungry appliances since your last bill? Might you have forgotten to turn things off rather than leave them on standby over a period of time?

Beyond that, I believe there are devices you can buy at fairly low cost which measure how much leccy you are using at any given time. Have you tried turning off everything, and I mean everything, including the electric doorbell if you have one, then checking your meter is not moving? It is rare but energy theft does happen.

Have you had anyone to stay who might have used a lot of electricity? Who pays for the supply to communal areas like hallways and landings, if you are in a flat which has those? There have been threads on here where one flat was paying for all of the communal usage; another where the landlady was allegedly stealing juice from one of the flats she let out. Beggars belief but it happens, apparently.

Good luck and HTH.

macman

The two biggest users of domestic energy are heating and hot water. You can exclude the former, but how is your hot water provided?

Robin9

How does this quarter compare with 2015 ?

How many days does it cover ?

DisneyB

Smodlet wrote: »

Hi. I've had a think and I cannot come up with any explanation for this other than, did you forget to turn the oven off on several occasions? Have you been taking in ironing? Have you bought any power-hungry appliances since your last bill? Might you have forgotten to turn things off rather than leave them on standby over a period of time?

Beyond that, I believe there are devices you can buy at fairly low cost which measure how much leccy you are using at any given time. Have you tried turning off everything, and I mean everything, including the electric doorbell if you have one, then checking your meter is not moving? It is rare but energy theft does happen.

Have you had anyone to stay who might have used a lot of electricity? Who pays for the supply to communal areas like hallways and landings, if you are in a flat which has those? There have been threads on here where one flat was paying for all of the communal usage; another where the landlady was allegedly stealing juice from one of the flats she let out. Beggars belief but it happens, apparently.

Good luck and HTH.

There's been absolutely nothing new, no reason for the difference which is why I can't understand how I've managed to use an extra 3 kWh average per day, not to mention my latest bill says I use on average 12 kWh per day and in comparison to this time last year I used average 6.1 kWh per day, the only difference, I had my meter changed from pre payment to one that would give me bills instead.
To be honest though, as annoying as this is, it isn't my biggest worry right now, that is still the confusion of how I can possibly be using so much full stop. I've read up and it says the average 1 bedroom flat uses just under 2000, I've used 4200 or there abouts in the past year, over double.

I live in a council flat so pretty sure they cover all communal lighting etc, so nothing weird happening with me being charged for that.

I've switched off everything this afternoon expect the fridge, TV, and router and watching how much is used. Is there anywhere that tells you the rough usage of each appliance?
All I have that is using electric is fridge, cooker, washing machine, TV, Virgin tiro box & router, immersion heater for water and usual lights, few chargers for phone & laptop, boiling kettle couple of times per day.

macman wrote: »

The two biggest users of domestic energy are heating and hot water. You can exclude the former, but how is your hot water provided?

hot water is running from an immersion heater, I understand these are costly which would explain the difference in usage slight from my previous flat but surely not to the degree it is?

DisneyB

Robin9 wrote: »

How does this quarter compare with 2015 ?

How many days does it cover ?

unfortunately I don't know because I only had the meter fitted 3rd December 2015, before then I had a pre payment which I apparently used average 6.1 kWh per day in comparison to 12 kWh average per day this month, don't know how true that is though as not sure how accurate the pre payment reading are on my account

DisneyB

Just to compare, my usage each quarter for the past year has been -

21st Dec 2015 - 23rd March 2016 1142 kwh used
23rd Match - 27th June 926 kwh used
27th June - 22nd September 886 kWh used
22nd September - 31st December 1202 kwh used

matelodave

Are they all based on actual readings - you should be able to work out how much you've used since the new meter was fitted assuming it was zero when it was installed

My suggestion would be to read the meter daily or weekly to gauge how much you are using every day. If you dont measure and record it you wont see where its all going and you can't see what effect turning stuff on and off has. Getting a bill or reading once a quarter doesn't really give you enough information to control your consumption.

A poorly insulated hot water tank and the immersion turned on all the time will use quite a lot of leccy so get some more insulation over the tank and only turn the immersion on for an hour or so a day.

You can turn stuff off or on a nd see how much you can save by being a bit more frugal. Be careful with your use of hot water - every time you run off the cold until hot comes through you'll waste the same amount sitting in the pipes, so use cold water when possible.

Have you got a power shower or high volume shower - spend less time in the shower, fit a flow restrictor or have shallower baths. Only use the dishwasher, dryer, washing machine etc with full loads - they cost the same to run whether they are empty or full.