Astronomical Electricity Bill

jyan85

Hi Everyone,


I just received a bill from EDF saying I owe them £1300 for 6 months (sept to mar), but I feel like that is not possible since I live in a one bed flat (standard size)


My situations:
Flat: one bed normal sized flat
Utility: Electricity only with Smart Meter
Appliances: Typical household, electric heating (Heatsae Sadia Electromax)
Estimated consumption annually: 12,000kWh by day, ~1000kWh by night


I checked the meter readings when I moved in (sept) and today (march) and they do match what is being quoted by the bill.:(


No idea how that is possible as we are fairly energy conscious. We don't keep the water heater on all day typically and heating is controlled with a thermostat with reasonable settings.


My questions is:

• Could this be a problem with the meter? (Multirate meter series S) I say this since I feel like the rate 2 (night) consumption is fairly reasonable, but rate 1 (day) consumption is 12 times more than my night. I just cannot believe that I am using this much energy.
• Am I obligated to pay for this while investigating this problem? (did not really expect a bill this high so not really prepared for it financially)

Anyways, thanks in advance for your help.
J

Robin9

Is your meter showing Rate 1 or rate 2 NOW ?

On face value Rate 1 and Rate 2 hare the wrong way around.

footyguy

jyan85 wrote: »

Hi Everyone,


I just received a bill from EDF saying I owe them £1300 for 6 months (sept to mar), but I feel like that is not possible since I live in a one bed flat (standard size)


My situations:
Flat: one bed normal sized flat
Utility: Electricity only with Smart Meter
Appliances: Typical household, electric heating (Heatsae Sadia Electromax)
Estimated consumption annually: 12,000kWh by day, ~1000kWh by night


I checked the meter readings when I moved in (sept) and today (march) and they do match what is being quoted by the bill.:(


No idea how that is possible as we are fairly energy conscious. We don't keep the water heater on all day typically and heating is controlled with a thermostat with reasonable settings.


My questions is:

• Could this be a problem with the meter? (Multirate meter series S) I say this since I feel like the rate 2 (night) consumption is fairly reasonable, but rate 1 (day) consumption is 12 times more than my night. I just cannot believe that I am using this much energy.
• Am I obligated to pay for this while investigating this problem? (did not really expect a bill this high so not really prepared for it financially)

Anyways, thanks in advance for your help.
J

a) your annual consumption figure is only an estimate
What was the actual consumption over the 6 month period you have actual meter readings for?

b) You appear to have an electric powered wet central heating system. I'm not sure what size boiler you have but they come in either 6kW or 9kW - both is extrememly large.

A typical household uses 12500 kWh og gas & 3100kWh of electricity (= total of 15600kWh energy)

You are using an estimated 13000kWh of energy, which whilst less than average, is still quite high for a 1 bed flat. But it depends on the building, and how often you run the heating.

What type of tariff are you actually on? E7? Or a supplier's legacy tariff? (E8/E10/E18 etc?)
You suggest 1000kWh of low rate electricity is probably about right per year?

We have E7, and use about 500kWh per year low rate ... and that does not include any heating or hot water (for which we use gas)

Your water cylinder is 180 litres, which is suitable for heating using low rate for domestic hot water in most cases, but it won't last long if you use it for space heating too.

According to the user guide, you will probably use almost 3000kWh p.a just on domestic hot water.

As you use the boiler also for space heating, the user guide indicates a typical consumption of almost 13000kWh for the 6KW version or almost 19500kWh for the 9kW version
(Obviously your actual consumption will vary based on circumstances)
It gives efficiency as less than 40%

If you are using the estimated 13000kWh per year (estimated by both your supplier and the estimate by the boiler manufacturer just for the boiler), of which only 1000kWh per year is used at low rate, you are probably not best suited to a multirate tariff - or are not making the most of it.

matelodave

As Footguy suggests, you probably aren't on the best tariff for an electric wet central heating system as most of your heating will be done during the peak (most expensive) rate times.
E7 only kicks in the low rate between around midnight and 7am and that's not when most people heat their houses.

E7 rates are also usually much more expensive during the peak times than a single rate tariff so you need to be using significantly more leccy overnight at the lower rate rather than during the day at the peak rate. Your consumption profile is wrong.

You'd be better off looking for the cheapest single rate tariff unless you can really get most of your consumption overnight by heating your hotwater, using the washing machine, dryer, dish washer and even vaccy cleaner or ironing after midnight.

Even though you've got a smart meter it would be well worth your while monitoring your consumption a bit more often than once every three months or so when the bill comes in. At least you'll be able to anticipate a big one and do something about it.

Unless you know what you are using and when there's not much you can do to try and change your consumption profile or even evaluate whether you are on the right tariff.

jyan85

Hi Everyone for the response,

I have calculated the usage and here are the results:
From 14th of Sept, I used 7651kWh in 202 days (Rate 1: Day)
Over the same period, the Night Rate is 651kWh.

I am on E7 rate from EDF as well.

I've compared my usage with our landlord who lived here before us and it was less (~650kWh/year for both day and evening). They do switch off their heating and water during the day, but i am not sure if that could be the cause for an increase of 20 fold in consumption.

We do keep the heating and water on during the day some times. Thermostat is set to turn to 15 degrees during the day (08:30 to 16:30). During the evenings, it is set to 23.

Hope you all can shed a light on what is happening?

BR
J

matelodave

I reckon your landlord was telling fibs, it's nigh on impossible to get away with 650kwh in a year, that less than 2kwh a day - my fridge & TV use more than that.

As pointed out you are using vastly more energy at the peak rate which is a lot more expensive than even a single rate tariff.

What are the peak and off peak tariff rates. You can use a comparison site to see if you could save money on a single tariff.

Having your thermostats cranked up to 23 degrees, wont help much either - electric wet central heating is a very expensive way to heat the place, equivalent to using fan, convector or panel heaters

jyan85

If I leave the heater on all day, the only thing that is different is the temperature during the day compared to the night (i.e. a few hours at 23 degrees and evenings at 23 degrees). It still doesn't explain the fact that my consumption in kWh is 10 times more than night (tariffs are more expensive, but the kWh is not affected by the tariff)

Could it be possible that heating the home to 23 degree rather than 15 degrees account for 10 times increase in energy use? Just can't wrap my head around it...

matelodave

What do you have switched on overnight? If it's not a lot and everything else is switched on during the day then that should give you some idea why you are using more during the day than overnight.

What do you use during the day (ie from 7am to 11.59pm)

Dont forget that you'll use about 70% of your energy between November and March so your consumption will go down quite a bit now that spring is sprung and summer is approaching.

You need to evaluate what you are using and when so start reading your meter a bit more often and work out how you use your energy and see what you can do to reduce your consumption and how to shift your usage towards the off peak times.

baldelectrician

Where are you?
Scottish Power do a 'domestic and economy 2000' tariff that is specifically for wet heating systems. This gives 18 hours of off peak heating supply


This tariff is intended for medium capacity storage boilers providing space heating or both space and water heating. Electricity for all other purposes must be taken on Domestic Tariff.
The Economy 2000 supply is made available for periods at ScottishPower's discretion totalling 18 hours per day, but with the proviso that no interruption will exceed 2 hours. Typical off times are 08.00-10.00, 16.30-18.30 & 00.00-02.00. It is important, therefore, that the boiler has a sufficient thermal store to supply space (and possibly water) heating requirements for 2 hours.
Direct acting boilers without storage capacity are not permitted to make use of Economy 2000.
Rate 1 records daytime domestic use, Rate 2 records night time domestic use and Rate 3 is Economy 2000 and records boiler usage only.
Some installations may have 2 X single rate meters i.e. 1 for domestic and 1 for Economy 2000.

https://www.scottishpower.co.uk/pdf/2015.01_FixedPricev3.pdf

matelodave

I think the electromax is a "flow boiler" rather than a thermal store so I'd doubt that the E2000 tariff would be suitable and there'd need to be some rewiring required.

Think of an electric shower rated at either 6kwh or 9kwh flogging away all the time the thermostat calls for heating. It could easily be running for four or five hours a day = 30kwh or more.

System

Are you sure the meter is a smart meter ? In my area EDF have not installed much in the way of smart meters.What make of meter is it ? Liberty Secure meters do not show the eco 7 readings on button 9 if that is the make of the meter, button 6 is the one for eco 7 day/night readings.