Electric bills out of control - advice needed

ajbell

Yes your Base load is about 1kw per hour, that is a lot.
Can you isolate the marine tank for an hour?.

silfe

ajbell wrote: »

Is the tank heated as that could be quite a power sapper.
Not got a bulb in my house over 9w.

The tank is heated to 25.5C by 2 heaters (250w each) but they are controlled by a thermostat so only come on for short bursts to maintain the temp.

I know the tank will probably add about £30 a month and if we can't get this sorted I will sell it on rather than create more debt. But this HIGH energy bills have been ongoing for 3 years now so it's not the cause of the initial figures listed as I didn't have it in October.

silfe

ajbell wrote: »

Yes your Base load is about 1kw per hour, that is a lot.
Can you isolate the marine tank for an hour?.

I could but hesitant to as it could cause issues for the fish and corals.

Having a late dinner tonight as I've been on the phone to the hydro for ages so about to use the hob/oven which is A rated but states it uses 0.94 Kwh for the oven cavity. Hobs say: 1.2 to 2.2 KWh

silfe

silfe wrote: »

Did another 1 hour reading, same things on (tv, living room light, fish tank and pc - nothing else)

£61.88 in the meter
Domestic: 27061.62
Heating: 31395.1

The next hours readings, oven and 2 hobs on for about 40 minutes and the tumble dryer 15 min:

£61.25
27065.34
31395.10

So we used 3.72kW cooking dinner and 15min of the tumble dryer.

ajbell

Using my oven for 1 hour uses only 0.85 kWh.

silfe

ajbell wrote: »

Using my oven for 1 hour uses only 0.85 kWh.

The actual oven is rated at 0.82kW but the hobs are between 1.1 and 2.2 kW. I assume most electric hobs are similar?

Robin9

silfe wrote: »

wow this sucks..

This is exactly what was on in that hour: TV (108w), Living room ceiling light (3 x 42w bulbs = 126w). Then I had the kitchen light on for a few minutes here and there (similar to living room light wattage). My marine tank (not sure what it used really, heaters come on as and when needed, all equipment is low wattage, lights draw about 80w, they are leds), desktop pc (again not sure the wattage use)

The PC is not on 24/hrs a day, maybe 3-4.
Lights on marine tank on 12 hours a day but only full wattage for 7 hours)

? No fridge, freezer (on a different thread there was a energy hugry American freezer,), water heater, lights left on in the hall,kitchen, other rooms, playstations etc ?

matelodave

A 2kw tumble dryer for 15 minutes = 500watts plus the motor, and as others have said, what about Sky boxes, routers, fridges, freezers, playstations, printers, lighting - you could save a bit with LEDs.

My 3x42watt bulbs in the lounge have been replaced with 3 x3watt LEDs, saving 30w. The kitchen was more spectacular, 10x50watts is now 10 x4watts, saving 460watts.

You need to see a dramatic drop overnight when everything is off (or should be).

I'd be inclined to get a plug-in energy monitor just to see how much the fish tank consumes, heaters, pumps, filters, lights etc. It may not sound a lot but 100w for 24hours = 2.4kw = 42p, not a lot I grant you but it adds over £150 a year to your energy bill.

House_Martin

silfe wrote: »

It is a key meter but we are north of Scotland on THTC. I can get the key meter removed in favour of monthly direct debit for free by the hydro but the tariff will remain the same they said. There is no other companies that take on the THTC tariff. And as said we cannot afford to have the THTC system removed because of the cost of work required / new heater costs.

What is transpose meter readings? Also again it's not so much the heating at 9.5p / kwhr thats costing it's the domestic. I cannot understand why its £330 a month for our lights/tv/fridge etc etc.. that's ludicrous

Transposed readings are when they bill the night rate units with the day rate tariff and vice versa.So if you use a lot of cheap night rate units and they bill it at the day rate price, you pay a lot more than you should.
Prepayment meters will not have that happen with their accurate built in clocks and tariffs.
Key meters can have a weekly debt set on them on screens "S " with the weekly amount deducted on screen "T ", so watch out for that
All fixed monthly credit meter tariffs are drastically lower than prepayment meters as far as know but I cant speak for those tariffs up in Scotland.
My friend near Aberdeen has the same problem with his SSE tariff on a "white meter " and to get out of it he would need a meter change to a standard Eco 7 meter where he could use all the suppliers in the UK not just a few who can cope with that set up used in Scotland.
Have a look at Iresa Energys Eco 7 rates and daily standing charges to see the difference

mbmonty

Glad to see that you have started to track it, here are my thoughts, no particular order

£30 a month for a fish tank when you are losing so much is just extravagant, it is well over £100 more than my entire electricity usage per annum. Turning off for an hour is not going to kill anything. Put it on for an hour then off for an hour and measure over 4 hours.

I once lived in a place where the clock on the meter that controlled the switch to night time was broken, as a result the storage heaters were on 24/7 so 17 hours a day too much! If this is your problem you want to chase supplier not only for extra heat but also for standing charge as they have failed in their duty to check kit.

So turn them all off in day and see if your reading over an hour changes.

In energy you can't manage what you don't track, that is why the so called Smart Meters are nothing more than a vanity project to bring in monthly billing and WE are paying £10bn+ for the privilege, they are not going to tell you which appliance is bad, just what you already know and could check as you are now.

You need to plug things into one of these

ebay.co.uk/itm/282004398040

ebay.co.uk/itm/282011339692

Start with the tumble dryer, to be honest these are next to useless, I have always found they either can't dry their rated load or they just burn fuel. A clothes horse is a good investment, it uses no electricity. The Mrs may not like it but she is the one paying for it.

Next is the fridge, a fridge with a dodgy thermostat can cost you hundreds of pounds extra per year. I got a new fridge freezer recently, it uses £26 a year, cost me £300, old one was £86 a year, one before that over £200.

If the PC is old type quad core it could be burning a lot, I found my computer "stuff" used a lot so I got rid of most of it. Things like multiple routers, NAS drives and other kit that does not need to be on all the time.

Some TV's use a lot, it all adds up.

You say you can't afford to change the heating but you could have paid for one with the extra you have been spending over the last 3 years. Based on your figures you are spending £5400 a year on energy that is £16k over 3 years. So easy to see the ROI on finding a way to change it, you may be entitled to a grant, I seem to remember hearing something about Scots getting some loans and other schemes:
citizensadvice.org.uk/scotland/consumer/energy/energy-supply/get-help-paying-your-bills/grants-and-schemes-to-help-you-save-money-on-energy-bills-s/#h-energy-efficiency-schemes-funded-by-the-scottish-government

You need to get into the habit of reducing usage, start by reducing the temp of the storage heaters, just a bit at a time but each week until they get used to it.

Check your hot water setting, how hot is the water, how often is it being reheated, turn down the temp and learn to manage on a limited amout,

Do what you need to do to open yourself up for tariffs, maybe ask the HA if they with match fund you, it is their property you are investing in after all, otherwise right to buy may be an option to scare them with (if applicable).

I have been slack at changing, I do not spend a fortune as I am very thrifty (would rather put extra clothes on than heating). I spend around £580 a year for Gas and Electricity including standing and VAT, I changed today to Solarplicity who estimate they will cut me down to £310 plus they are going to give me LED lights for free. £200 of that saving is from Standing charge of 26.1p a day per fuel. Solarplicity charge me no standing charge and slightly less on energy plus of course less VAT if less used.
You should be using LED’s 3x 42w is just too much, I stuck some LED’s from ALDI above my kitchen cupboards, I do not put on the main light, they are brighter anyway.

You need to make it your mission to get this as low as you can, it will not happen overnight, but get rid of things you do not NEED and make small slight adjustments.

Even though I got new Fridge Freezer recently I am measuring it 4 or 5 times a day, the recent cold spell made me put heating on, this in turn made the fridge come on more often and use more power. If your timer switch in meter is broken you may have similar issue.