1 Bedroom Flat Electric Bills

kat2908

Hi all,

We are supplied by Bulb and were quoted at £34 when we joined, but they have just asked us to put our monthly payments up to £104, which seems quite expensive. We are a couple in a ground floor, one bed flat. It has no central heating, so we use a halogen heater for a few hours every day (usually on the 400w setting). I know this is probably the biggest contributor to the bill, but in my last property we were only using about £50 a month with a oil filled radiator and a fan heater running daily.

Other than this, the appliances we use daily are- dishwasher, kettle, shower, playstation, TV, lights, oven and phone/laptop chargers. We use our washing machine and bread maker 2-3 times each week.

From our metre readings, it appears we used 470 kWh daytime and 145 kWh nighttime.

I feel like I'm being really stupid here as I'm clueless about it- is this about right or too expensive? Am I missing something really obvious and expensive?

Any advice is appreciated!

matelodave

Yes I think you are missing something. Firstly £34 a month is ridiculously low so you've probably managed to ramp up some arrears. which they are trying to get back. You are also moving into winter when your monthly energy use could be 2-4 times your summer consumption.

Are you reading your meters regularly at least once a month and sending in the the readings to your supplier to make sure that your bills and statements are based on actual consumption rather than estimates.

If you read your meter more often, say weekly then you'll get a much better idea of how much energy you are using and when you are using it. When you monitor it yourself you can control it.

If you are on a 2-rate tariff then you are using nearly all of your energy at the most expensive peak rate.

On demand heating like oil radiators, halogen or convector heaters dont take advantage of the lower off-peak energy but use it when energy is most expensive. You need to do something about your consumption and get yourself on a cheaper single rate tariff.

There are lots of ways to save energy - put on a woolly jumper and wear socks indoors to help reduce your heating requirements.

Do you really need to run your dishwasher every day. Only run it when it's full, the same with the washing machine. Turn lights off when they aren't in use. Replace bulbs with LEDs in rooms where you use most lights.

Turn stuff off at the wall when it's not in use - including the playstation, TV and anything else. Only boil the kettle with as much water as you need - most people half fill it just for one cup.

Dont waste hot water by letting it run down the sink when washing or rinsing stuff. Bathing and showering can use vast quantities of hot water so dont stand in there for ages and dont fill the bath right up.

Robin9

kat2908 wrote: »

............................

From our metre readings, it appears we used 470 kWh daytime and 145 kWh nighttime. ................................)

What time period are you talking about ?

These are your consumption rather than METER readings. From your bill please post the readings and dates and whether they are ACTUAL or ESTIMATED readings.

Your night-time use at 24% is quite low for E7 and if the heating is and these are recent consumptions then overall for a year will be far lower. A careful search on a comparison site would probably give you a better supplier but you need 12 consumption in kwh not £ to get a good result.

How did the £34 get estimated ?

kat2908

matelodave, thanks for your reply. I’m not in any arrears- I’m actually £46 in credit. The problem is is that our metre isn’t in our flat and we therefore rely on building management to take the readings- so we can’t keep checking it unfortunately to see what we’re using.

We do only run the dishwasher and washing machine when it’s full and do try and turn everything off when it’s not in use. I think the main expense is the heating- but with no central heating in a high ceiling old flat, it is very very cold without anything on so I’m struggling.

Would a single rate tariff be cheaper because the day time price isn’t as expensive?

Thanks again.

kat2908

Robin9 wrote: »

What time period are you talking about ?

These are your consumption rather than METER readings. From your bill please post the readings and dates and whether they are ACTUAL or ESTIMATED readings.

Your night-time use at 24% is quite low for E7 and if the heating is and these are recent consumptions then overall for a year will be far lower. A careful search on a comparison site would probably give you a better supplier but you need 12 consumption in kwh not £ to get a good result.

How did the £34 get estimated ?

Sorry I should have said- that was in a month. 22nd September our reading was 13502 day, 13349 night. 22nd October was 13972 day, 13494 night. Are the readings in kWh and so my monthly usage is just the difference? As when times by 12 and put into a comparison site every other supplier is £100+ more expensive.

The £34 was based on an estimate when we told them our living habits, number of bedrooms etc. so I didn’t expect it to stay like that forever, but also didn’t anticipate such a significant hike.

Thanks for the reply

matelodave

You either need to try an use more energy during the off-pesk period (usually midnight to 7am) to get benefit from the lower cost or get yourself on a tariff that give you the cheapest leccy at the time you use it.

You'll find that most people use about 70% of their energy in the five months between November and March and only 30% in the summer so your consumption will increase rapidly and you could end up in arrears very quickly.

You should insist that your meter gets read as frequently as you want. Certainly at least once a month and make sure that you dont accept estimated bills.

Robin9

Bedrooms and lifestyle are possibly the worst way of estimating consumption - best is 12 months kwh.


When do you take over the supply ? What were the readings then.?

If you haven't already got into the habit - read your meters at least every month, keep your own records and check your bills.

When you do your comparison are your restricting yourself to E7 tariffs ? As an alternative combine the on peak and off peak consumption and look for other tariffs.

kat2908

Thank you for the replies.

So the September reading is for when we took over the supply- there is a delay on when we request the meter readings and when we get them which is really frustrating. I wish I could read my own meter but it’s behind a locked door that only building management can access!

When I searched on the comparison websites I just multiplied the kWh of the month we have, by combining day and night, by twelve, and it said it would be £100+ more a month.

Is an E7 tarrif one that has the day/night readings? I wasn’t aware that this was what I was on.

Robin9

kat2908 wrote: »

Is an E7 tariff one that has the day/night readings? I wasn’t aware that this was what I was on.

It's a presumption of mine based on you giving day and night time readings.

What does your bill say about the tariff ?

matelodave

Looking at the Bulb website a single rate tariff is approx 13.6p/kwh whereas a dual rate is 7.6p/kwh over night (Midnight to 7am) and 16p/during the day

so based on your figures of 470 day and 145night your cost would be about 75.20+ 11.02 = £86.22 plus the daily standing charge of around £7/mo - £93.

A single rate tariff of 13.6p would be (470+145 = 615)x 13.6p = £83.64 plus £7/mo which is nearly £60 more than your £34 a month so I find it difficult to work out how you reckon you are £46 in credit.I'd guess it's more like £46 in debit

You definitely need to get hold of actual meter readings from the day you moved in and opened your account (you did send actual readings to Bulb when you moved in) and subtract them from the readings today and work out how much you've used and how much it should have cost and then get your direct debit sorted out so that it covers your consumption. Otherwise you'll get a very nasty shock next April when a bill comes in.

As I said above, September/October are fairly low consumption months, November through to March/April will be far higher - by my estimation you should be paying at least £85-£90 a month but not on an E7 tariff if you don't do something about your day/night split

TBH I reckon that over 600kwh during Oct for a one bedroom flat is too high - we live in a 3 bed detached bungalow, we are at home all day and used more heating than usual because this October was colder than last year and still only managed to use 450kwh. You need to work out whats using it all. A big TV and playstation can use a surpising amount of energy, so turn them off when not in use, dont leave them on standby.

kat2908

The bill says we’re on a vari-fair tariff. It also says that we’re apparently on the cheapest overall and the cheapest similar tarrif.