Average electrcity bill - huge

sween555

Hi all, new to the forum

I joined as I want to know why my electricuty bills are absolutely huge. I live in a 2 bedroom aparatment in Leeds City Centre with only electricity. My electrcity provider is Spark Energy and it's PAYG. I have kept it PAYG as I'm planning on renting the flat out on the near future, so this makes it easier for renters - and me.

I'm now £170 in payments for the year and it's only January 28th.

My total payments for last year were £1700!!

What is going on? I have read the average per year should be £490!!

I dont even have the radiators on when I'm out of the flat and at work!

Any advce appreciated.

ajbell

That's an average for people who heat with gas and then use electricity for everything else but you heat your flat and water with electricity so it's probably about right.

matelodave

It depends on what sort of heating system you've got, what you have on and what you leave on. What your tariff costs are.

You need to compare consumption in kwh not just money. In the end if you use it you have to pay for it, so the best way is to use less and get onto a cheaper tariff. Use a comparison site to see whats available. Spark Energy is definitely not one of the cheaper ones

If you dont monitor your consumption then you dont know whats using it and what you can do to to minimise it.

Al_Ross

sween555 wrote: »

Hi all, new to the forum

I joined as I want to know why my electricuty bills are absolutely huge. I live in a 2 bedroom aparatment in Leeds City Centre with only electricity. My electrcity provider is Spark Energy and it's PAYG. I have kept it PAYG as I'm planning on renting the flat out on the near future, so this makes it easier for renters - and me.

I'm now £170 in payments for the year and it's only January 28th.

My total payments for last year were £1700!!

What is going on? I have read the average per year should be £490!!

I dont even have the radiators on when I'm out of the flat and at work!

Any advce appreciated.

We have a 5 bedroom bungalow.We pay Bulb, £110 per month combined for our gas and electricity and the missus likes to be toasty.

gt94sss2

sween555 wrote: »

I have kept it PAYG as I'm planning on renting the flat out on the near future, so this makes it easier for renters - and me.

A tangent but you may want to revisit this. By keeping it as PAYG, you are a) missing out on the cheapest tariffs and b) may find most renters also want 'normal' credit meters

sween555

gt94sss2 wrote: »

A tangent but you may want to revisit this. By keeping it as PAYG, you are a) missing out on the cheapest tariffs and b) may find most renters also want 'normal' credit meters

Yeah, I think I will change it just in case it puts off any renters!

Thanks for all the replies!

jbuchanangb

I saw Martin Lewis on TV the other day dealing with the process of changing from a PAYG meter to a credit meter. He said that some providers charge to make the change and others don't. He advised that if your supplier charges for this, you should change provider first to one that won't make such a charge; i.e. change provider while staying on PAYG, and then have that new supplier change the meter. Later on, if you want to change supplier to get better tariff, you can do that easily.

mmmmikey

Something else to check - do you have electric storage heaters or electric instant heaters? If you have storage heaters you need to make sure you're on an economy 7 tarriff so you get a cheaper rate overnight. If you have instant heaters, you may well save a bit by finding a better tarriff but for this kind of heating your bill is a bit high but not too far from what I'd expect.



I am on target to save well over £500 this year by ripping out the Fisher Future heaters the previous owner had installed and going back to goo old-fashioned storage heaters. This is simply because night-rate electricity is so much cheaper than day-rate on an E7 tarriff.

Robin9

sween555 wrote: »

I dont even have the radiators on when I'm out of the flat and at work!

Any advce appreciated.

From your description these sound like panel heaters which only give out heat when you switch them on - as opposed to storage heaters which heat up overnight and release the heat during the day.

How many of these panel heaters have you got ?

mac.d

mmmmikey wrote: »

I am on target to save well over £500 this year by ripping out the Fisher Future heaters the previous owner had installed and going back to goo old-fashioned storage heaters. This is simply because night-rate electricity is so much cheaper than day-rate on an E7 tarriff.

But the old-fashioned storage heaters are so big & ugly whereas the Fischer Future heaters are modern and, well almost magic?!?

Aren't they?

matelodave

mac.d wrote: »

But the old-fashioned storage heaters are so big & ugly whereas the Fischer Future heaters are modern and, well almost magic?!?

Aren't they?

Nah - the only magic thing about them is the impossible claims, ridiculous prices and the ingredients inside them.

The real magic is the speed and efficiency with which they drain your bank account