Empty House - High Electricity Bill

drunknmunky

Hi all,

I bought a 3 bed semi 6 months ago. For the first 3 months the house was empty & no gas /electricity was being used. For the past 3 months we've had builders in renovating the property (We've not yet moved in).

I've submitted our meter reads to British Gas & the bill has come through for £585 over 6 months.

£108 is for Gas
£477 is for Electricity

The meter readings from the start to the end of the billing period are correct. We're on the Temporary July 2019 tariff.

The electricity used over the 6 month period equates to 13kWh per day, which is what you would expect from a normal, lived in house.

I'm worried how the daily usage can be so high considering the house is empty. The builders have been using the electricity for their power tools & fan heaters etc.. however it still shouldn't be this high.

The builders have now finished but we haven't moved in yet so I'm thinking of purchasing an energy monitor but can't see how this will help me locate where the energy is actually being used. Nothing is plugged in to any of the plug sockets.

Does anyone have any advice?

mmmmikey

drunknmunky wrote: »

The builders have been using the electricity for their power tools & fan heaters etc.. however it still shouldn't be this high.

If the builders are using fan heaters it could very easily be this high, especially if the builders are constantly in and out the house or doing the kind of work that means leaving the windows open. In normal use in an occupied house the fan heaters' thermostats would be switching them on and off but it is quite possible that with building work going on in a cold house the heaters are running continuosly. Asuuming an 8 hour working day and a 2kW fan heater, even a single heater could be using 16kWh per day - and of course there may be more than one of them. And this is on top of any other load for power tools, lighting, etc.

matelodave

Knowing builders, they've had fan heaters flogging away all day with the windows and doors open, especially if the work has been carried out through the heating season - October through to now. You should have been more vigilant.

You cannot assess your consumption properly if you only check the meters after six months as you haven't a clue whats been going on or even whether the immersion has been left on all that time.

You need to read them weekly or even daily to try and find out what is going on - only then can you assess what is using it and do something about it.

wavelets

drunknmunky wrote: »

Hi all,

I bought a 3 bed semi 6 months ago. For the first 3 months the house was empty & no gas /electricity was being used. For the past 3 months we've had builders in renovating the property (We've not yet moved in).

I've submitted our meter reads to British Gas & the bill has come through for £585 over 6 months.

£108 is for Gas
£477 is for Electricity

The meter readings from the start to the end of the billing period are correct. We're on the Temporary July 2019 tariff.

The electricity used over the 6 month period equates to 13kWh per day, which is what you would expect from a normal, lived in house.

I'm worried how the daily usage can be so high considering the house is empty. The builders have been using the electricity for their power tools & fan heaters etc.. however it still shouldn't be this high.

The builders have now finished but we haven't moved in yet so I'm thinking of purchasing an energy monitor but can't see how this will help me locate where the energy is actually being used. Nothing is plugged in to any of the plug sockets.

Does anyone have any advice?

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2018/04/british-gas-scraps-its-standard-tariff-for-new-customers-/

Consult a comparison site to find the best deal for you :money:

mmmmikey

drunknmunky wrote: »

I'm thinking of purchasing an energy monitor but can't see how this will help me locate where the energy is actually being used. Nothing is plugged in to any of the plug sockets.

In practice this is quite easy. The energy monitor will give you an instaneous reading of what's being used which will tell you when to look. What you can then do is switch individual circuits on and off at the consumer unit (aka fuse box) to find out where the load is. For example, if you turn off the immersion heater at the fuse box and the load suddenly goes down, and goes back up when you swicth it on, you'll know that it's the immersion heater causing the load.

If this testing shows the load to be from one of the sockets, it won't tell you which one, but at least you will have narrowed down the search.

Worth remembering that you don't need to buy and energy monitor - with most suppliers you can get a smart meter for free which will include an energy monitor.

Also, I agree with the previous post about your tarriff - this is something you can quickly and easily look at and is likely to lead to big savings.

Robin9

Are you sure you've read the meters correctly ? Some of the modern ones can be difficult to read - there may be decimal points and numbers in red.

macman

Big power tools, fan heaters (and open windows and doors to dry out plaster)? I think you've answered your own question. And remember that standing charges still apply to the 90 days before work commenced, which is probably why the gas is so high.

D_M_E

You're lucky the bill is so low.

Builders using heaters all day long - what kw rating were they and how many - easily accounts for your big electric bill, not to mention the power tools.

The bill could easily have been double what you got.

When you do finally move in that's the time to look at what you use but for now turn off any electric immersion heaters and set the heating to say 5c to keep the frost off and for a little background heating until you move in.