Outrageously high electricity bill.

ZIgo123

Hi Cashstrapped. Thanks for the advice - we'll go ahead with that.

Underfloor heating is now turned off completely. I believe what we have is something like this off-peak F tariff (SSE has an electric heating off-peak help webpage. Sorry can't post as I'm a new user). Although we are not with SSE (so don't actually have that tariff) and I'm not sure when the heating was going on in the afternoon it actually went into the off-peak meter. This we will need to test for.

Having turned all underfloor heating off, the off-peak meter hasn't risen at all in 24 hours. This I find slightly strange as we still have fridge going and some other electronics on standby mode overnight. I'd expect at least 1KwH to come out of the off-peak meter overnight. Not sure what's happening there.

jk0

I would be cautious about laying the law down to your landlord. If I was him, I would point out that every other occupier over the last 40 years has managed. I would though let you use convectors if needed.

The reason the off peak meter has not risen overnight is that unlike Economy 7, it is only connected to off peak items. (Heating & hot water.) The other meter ticks on continuously for everything else.

Carrot007

ZIgo123 wrote: »

Having turned all underfloor heating off, the off-peak meter hasn't risen at all in 24 hours. This I find slightly strange as we still have fridge going and some other electronics on standby mode overnight. I'd expect at least 1KwH to come out of the off-peak meter overnight. Not sure what's happening there.

It's because you have seperate meters. You have:
i) A 24*7 standard meter.
ii) A RH (restricted hours) meter (Might be RHT but I forget what the T stands for if that's right!). This runs from what you have said for 12 hours.

They are seperate meters. Whatever is connected to i still runs units up on i over night and costs the same as it always does. It sounds like what is connected to ii is only connecterd to ii which is wrong as there should be some sort of switch so you can manually use it at other hours. And as said, is really not suited to an instant heat method which the underfloor heating you have sounds like.

It is what is called legacy metering and since they are linked you would generally not be able to change suppliers as there is no requirement to supprot such tarrifs.

Hope that makes sense to you.

mbmonty

ZIgo123 wrote: »

Hi MSEs,

I’m hoping you might be able to help with an electric bill issue.

My partner and I have just moved into a 2-bed flat from a previous smaller 1-bed flat. We are renters.

We’ve had our first electricity bill come in and it’s incredibly high.

Our peak usage is c. 450kwH over 3 months, and our off-peak usage is c. 4300 kph over 3 months. This has led to a bill of £230+ per month.

To put this into comparison, the new bill is over 4x higher than our previous apartment, and off-peak usage is 10x higher!!! We’re comparing same times of year (winter months) so heating was in-use over this time. Another comparison, our in-laws pay around about £100 less than us per quarter for a 3 bedroom detached bungalow house with 2 large reception rooms.

We expect our off-peak usage is attributed to our underfloor heating, which is set to come on at off-peak hours (to save money, ironically). Considering we’re sleeping all night, I don’t see what else it could realistically be.

My first point of call is to request a test of the off-peak meter, which could be faulty. Alternatively, do you think that the heating could have a fault, leading to significant loss/use of electricity?

I don’t think I’m crazy in thinking that this is much too high, and very unsustainable both financially and environmentally.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks!

The off peak on peak suggests you are on economy7, correct me if I am wrong.

One issue that can happen with these is that the time is faulty, when broken they turn the power on all day, usually this would mean the day rate goes up but some of these are wired in such a way that the night one goes up.

You cannot manage what you do not track, you have made a good start by providing your readings

450kwH over 3 months, and our off-peak usage is c. 4300 kph

These suggest 5 units a day for non heating which is average but 47.7p a day for the heating, at 15p per kWh that works out at £7 a day which I find excessive, even with the snow and it being winter etc.

The first thing I would do is call the energy company, they now have all the historic records of energy usage and share them to avoid fraud. Ask them for the readings for the last 3 quarters, for the annual figures based on previous use, I have been able to go back 5 years. This will at least give you a baseline of what can be achieved and may point to faulty kit.

Meanwhile you need to start tracking by turning off things at the main, the heating will be on a separate ring and heaters will have switches by them. Start by turning all off and measure your usage for several days, then turn one back on, check whether it has a high low setting and measure the usage next day. Then turn that first one off and turn another on for 24 hours, again recording the usage. Do this till you have checked all devices that use the nighttime rate. The day rate usually covers 17 hours and is set by the energy company timer, it is not usually adjustable by the consumer.

It is going to be a case of isolating what is using the power and turning it off to at least keep your bill down. The underfloor heating you mention should be on it's own ring in the consumer unit so cutting that should be simple.

Now to the monthly payment. Pay the bill, cancel the direct debit and move to quarterly billing, if they give you any grief change supplier, if you are not going to pay by DD then it makes sense to go with a supplier who does not charge a standing charge, e,g, Ebico or Solarplicity.

CashStrapped

mbmonty wrote: »

The off peak on peak suggests you are on economy7, correct me if I am wrong.

You are wrong, it is a non-standard duel meter set-up, also known as a "related meter".

If you had read through the thread you will have seen we had clarified that. I was not sure myself initially.

The OP cannot switch due to this as it will be a unique/legacy tariff and metering set-up.

Either by poor design or poor retrofitting by the landlord the property has underfloor heating which is activated only at specific times by the low rate meter.

The underfloor heating is not (seemingly) acting as a heat store, so the property is heating at inappropriate times which cannot be changed.

Furthermore the underfloor heating has no ancillary controls. This means it looks to be on permanently for the cheap rate hours.

----

The OP needs to clarify the pence per KWH of the cheap rate and of the day rate. Using these figures a manual comparison can be made. This will aid them in comparing the cost with a standard tariff.

---

As mentioned above, the only options are to convince the landlord something needs to be done. If the landlord has had no complaints in the past, they may be unwilling to listen. Or, they may just not want the expense.

Failing that, as I mentioned, the OP has 7 months to consider alternative accommodation before next Autumn/Winter hits.