Studio flat spending 120 on electricity please help

Royalking

Hi,
I have moved into a studio flat with my boyfriend and we are spending 120 pounds per month on electricity which is redicolouse, please help.
The flat is all electric the heating, hot water and cooker is all electric and we are on a prepaid meter. I and my boyfriend work full time and we only use the electricity off peak but we are spending too much on electricity. Sometimes we eat at my mums which is close by so we hardly use the cooker. I have storage heaters and I leave the hot water on all the time because when I switch on and off it takes about 2.50 of electricity so I leave on all the time. I have been told to switch to monthly bill but the energy company will only install new smart meters which tend to be more expensive than standard meters so I was told. Some people have told me it could be faulty wiring or faulty heater which is the cause, but I don’t know.
This is the first time I moved out and it’s all new to me.
Can you please give advise on what I should do because I like the flat but the electricity is a problem.
What actions should I take with my landlord?
Please please help am living in Harlesden london and rent is expensive 900 per month am struggling please help!

Robin9

Royalking wrote: »

............... the energy company will only install new smart meters which tend to be more expensive than standard meters so I was told. ..............

Not true - Smart meters provide you with better info so you should be able to see where your energy is being used and then you can control it.

£120 a month in winter for a storage heated flat is about the norm.

What's it got to do with your landlord.?

Others on this forum will tell you who to switch PAYG to and then you can swop to get a Smart meter.

I presume when you moved in you rang the supplier and you got a new key in your name otherwise you may be paying someone else's debt.

PennineAcute

Electricity to heat is expensive, econ 7 or not.

Leaving your water on all the time is not the best of ideas. You do need to make sure that the water tank is lagged properly.

Smart meters do not charge you more (ignore the hype you hear).

Prepay meters are (in the main) vastly more expensive than standard meters. Getting them changed would be a major step to reducing your energy costs. As an example, pre pay (Utiltia and Boost) are £250 a year more expensive than what I am paying with my standard meters.

tastyhog

Your water tank shouldn't be using anywhere close to £2.50 of electric to heat up.

Most immersion heaters are 3kw these days and a smaller tank which you probably have will only take an hour to 1.5 hours at most to heat up, my 65l tank is set to go on at 5.30am and goes off at 7am and its not on for the full time and it easily heats the water to 70 degrees in that time

Volume of tank x 4 x temperature rise / 3412 = Power required

Temperature rise being the difference between cold water temp and what you have the immersion set at.

Using the above mine takes 3.4kwh at even at my peak daytime rates that's under 60p if heating from complete cold or fully emptied.

If a similar size take is using £2.50 of electic it means its being used and reheated 5 time over or there's an issue with it overheating and purging then continuing to heat.

Modern cookers the oven tends to use <1kwh for an hour and rings 1 - 2kwh.each so probably 20 - 30p for an evening meal

The only real thing after that is heating, which is probably the cause for higher bills, I have storage heaters, the newer dimplex quantum ones and on milder days only take about £1.50 to £2 a night to recharge and they keep the flat to about 18 degrees all day, when it's colder like this week it's taken about £3 a night to charge them up, but even that can add up to £80 a month just for heating.

Although £15 a week tends to cover my usage, except this week when it's been colder than normal.

But stating prices don't help much, you need to post your figures, take readings for a few days and you'll find out where your energy is being used, and simply tweaking your storage heater settings could cut it down quite a bit.

jk0

Royalking wrote: »

I leave the hot water on all the time

There should be two immersions:


The bottom one should come on automatically from about 2am to 6am, on cheap electricity. The bulk of your water should be heated with this, and you should not be switching it on and off.


The top one should only be used if you run out of hot water. This uses full price electricity, so should be used as sparingly as possible.

macman

Basics: are you using any other kind of heating as well as the night storage heaters? When you say that you 'only use electricity off peak', you are aware that the E7 off-peak hours are normally around midnight to 7am, which is when your NSH;s should be charging up?
Are you actually on an E7 tariff (there should be two registers on the meter if so)?
Remember that you are only spending a lot on heating for the winter months. Once the NSH's go off in the warmer weather, your kWh consumption will drop by as much as 80%. You won't be spending £1440 in a year!

Royalking

Am not using any other heaters except of storage heaters, although someone told me to switch them off and use electric heater. I have tried using oil filled electric heater but it does not worm up the flat.
I don’t know if am on eco 7 or not all I do is top up the key and put it in the meter.
Should I go on smart meter will that help?.....

Robin9

A smart meter won't help.

You need to know what tariff you are on. Ring your supplier.

jk0

If your key meter is similar to mine, it will have a number of readings it cycles through when you press the button. Each has a letter of the alphabet:


Reading G is the total day & night units
Reading H is the day units
Reading J is the night units.


There will also be readings giving the cost of these. See if yours is similar.

amanda.chloe

It sounds like what you are using is relatively cheap for electric storage heaters!! We’ve just moved into a 1 bed flat (so probably slightly bigger than your studio - we have 2 electric storage heaters in it) and at the moment on a standard Electric Tarriff we’re putting about £70 a week into our PAYG meter.
We’re currently in the process of switching to a cheaper supplier (EDF) who will replace the credit meter for free and switch us to an E7 tarriff.
I wouldn’t leave your water tank on all the time - just have it on for a couple of hours in the morning and the evening if you need it. We have ours on for 2 hours a day and that’s enough water for washing up and a bath in the evening. But we do have an electric shower which is cheaper anyway.

[Deleted User]

PennineAcute wrote: »

Electricity to heat is expensive, econ 7 or not.

Leaving your water on all the time is not the best of ideas. You do need to make sure that the water tank is lagged properly.

Smart meters do not charge you more (ignore the hype you hear).

Prepay meters are (in the main) vastly more expensive than standard meters. Getting them changed would be a major step to reducing your energy costs. As an example, pre pay (Utiltia and Boost) are £250 a year more expensive than what I am paying with my standard meters.

in the main, they used to be more expensive..Not so now, in fact they re not bad due to the prepay caps in place..
Just done a comparison on UKpower.co.uk using 1500 kwh day 5000 kwh night and the prepay meter comes out at £698 a year .15.91 day 5.71p night 32p a day charge with Ebico and BG were not that much more expensive 14.97 day 6.5 night ..
on standard variable rates the 6500 kwhs went up to £882 a year..Prepays are pretty cheap at the moment and not really to be feared like they used to be
The rates are due to rise in April though