OMG am I lighting up a town?

easygoing

We are having a nightmare with our electricity bills. We are a normal 3 bedroom detached bungalow. Heated by oil (just changing). we use Electricity for all the normal things and for cooking. Our electricity bills over the last 2 years have been rising steeply. We now have quarterly bills of 2.5k per quarter. Yes, you read that right.... 2.5k per quarter. We have lived here for 10years and had normal bills of about £400 per year, tops!
6 months ago, we had an energy efficient electric water heater, but that was only 6 months ago.
Two years ago, our neighbours.. its a smallholding, no house, had electric fitted, running off the transformer which is on our land.
We have fitted at the moment, a check meter. An engineer called out before it was fitted and checked our supply. He said, that out of 4 readings of calibrated testing, 2 read false. Hence the test meter. Today, we have had a phone call, asking for the readings and they appear to be reading correctly.
It works out that our electricity bills will be amounting to 8 - 10k a year!
Now I am no expert of average use of electricity in a house, but it cant be that much... can it?
To be fair SSE have been very supportive and have treated us with the up most respect and understanding.
But seriously, where do we go now ?
We live in a detached bungalow, no neighbours to speak of, there are 4 adults that live here. Two disabled, one of 83 myself and my husband. So there is someone in all day.
We use lights, tv, computers, cooker, dishwasher and washing machines with dryer. We also now have a eco water heater, (only because our boiler wouldn't send the hot water to the end of the house for my mums shower. )
Mum has eco heaters two of them in her part of the house but obviously they only run in cold weather. We also have air conditioning in her part for the summer, if we need it, but its rarely on.
that's it!! nothing more.
Where do we go next, anyone been in this situation themselves?

Cardew

You need to wait until SSE have finished their investigations. It is only in the unlikely event they reach an unsatisfactory conclusion that you need to take action.

ProDave

I am suspicious of what you call "Eco" heaters. "Eco" is a very miss used term.

I have a suspicion they are nothing more than electric panel heaters and an electric immersion water heater. IF that is right, they are just about the most expensive way to heat a house and your water, and if turned on all the time can use a frightening amount of electricity.

Do some self research. Start by reading and recording your electricity meter readings every day at the same time. Tell us how many units of electricity you are actually "using" each day.

Then turn these "eco" room heaters off for a day., How much does it go down? Then the same, turn the "eco" water heater off for a day, How much does it go down.

There is a lot of snake oil when it comes to electric heaters. It is a fact that every 1KW of electricity you use, puts 1KW of heat into the room. No more, no less. Yet some manufacturers of electric panel heaters sell their products as being "more efficient" than others, something that is nigh on impossible.

matelodave

The only way to get a grip on your energy bills is to read and record your meters regularly, every day for a few weeks to see what's using it and when.

See what happens when you turn stuff off or on. If you dont monitor it you can't control it. An energy monitor can help you see what's happening in real time.

As Dave above says there really is no such thing as an Eco Heater. An electric heater is 100% efficient so for every kwh you put in you get 1kwh out and that's true whether it cost £1000 and is filled with magic dust, snake oil or gold or £10 from Argos. Using any of them will cost exactly the same within a penny or two.

The same with hot water heating - the only Eco aspect of a hot water heater is the amount of insulation around it.

Suff like tumble dryers, washing machines and dishwashers should only be used when full as they use the same amount of energy whether empty or full.

Using hot water wisely can also save money. Dont let it run down the sink when washing. Use cold water for rinsing stuff, including your hands - everytime you run off the hot tap you leave the pipework full of hot water to get cold.

Showers and baths are high users of hot water so dont use them as often, dont fill the bath so full, fit flow restrictors on the shower heads to reduce their consumption and spend less time in there, no more than five minutes.

Turn stuff off when it's not in use, not just to standby but off. Fit LED lights, they wont save a fortune but every little helps especially if they are left on for a long time.

The worst offenders are halogen spotlights, at 50watts each. Change them for 4-5watt LEDs and save 45 watts for each one you swap.

brewerdave

Altho' the energy saving tips in post #4 are admirable - the OP obviously has a major issue somewhere - £10k pa on leccy?? Something has to be wired incorrectly or the heaters are on 24/7/

ProDave

brewerdave wrote: »

Altho' the energy saving tips in post #4 are admirable - the OP obviously has a major issue somewhere - £10k pa on leccy?? Something has to be wired incorrectly or the heaters are on 24/7/

That was my concern. Electric heating on to keep part of the house very warm for an elderly person can add up a lot.

I recall investigating a high usage issue. It was an uninsulated hot water tank with the immersion heater on 24/7. It really did use a lot of electricity, and the airing cupboard was like a sauna.

All I was suggesting is monitor usage in parallel to the checks that are ongoing.

lstar337

brewerdave wrote: »

Altho' the energy saving tips in post #4 are admirable - the OP obviously has a major issue somewhere - £10k pa on leccy?? Something has to be wired incorrectly or the heaters are on 24/7/

Yeah, we need some usage figures though really. £10k is fairly useless as they could be on a disastrous tariff too.

Robin9

I think we need to know the results of SSE's check meter.
.

easygoing

They say we are using 33,068.09 kWh. In 2016 it was 10,863.56 kWh
In 2014, it didn't say KWh but said our annual cost was £1377.11.
The heater is one heater which is only on in the winter to give an extra boost to my mums room, the rest of the house is oil central heating. The water heater was only put in 6 months ago as the boiler could not manage to push hot water from one end of the house to the other.
We are now looking at air source heating and water heating. Nothing has changed in our home over the last 10 years except the one heater a future eco space saver. Its a worry.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

It’s your mums 1kw electric bar heater in the winter and air conditioning in the summer. 10 hours a day is 33,000kwH a year?

Knit your mum a cardie for winter and a ... for summer!

trickytree1963

90 kWh a day can't just be a portable heater can it?