Brand new home Energy bills seem to be extortionate

Carrot007

Jasond wrote: »

compared to this months bill

28th Dec. 2018 9th Feb. 2019 Energy Used Standing Charge
1311.0 Customer reading
1680.0 Customer reading
369.0 kWh @ 13.80p/kWh
43 days @ 24.85p/day

So 44 days. 369 units = 8.4 kWh a day. Looks like what I would call average/low useage.


Since you have a smart meter why not use it and see where is is going. Get HH data and see when things are being used if you are concerned. I would not be I use around 15 units a day. OK I work from home a lot, but that really does not add a lot to electric and even heating the house constantly for an extra 8 hours I still pay less for the electric/gas than if i drove into work (say 16 miles each way).


Does the house have (waqter) pressure and a combi boiler? Move the shower to a thermostatic mixer. I had an electric shower in my last place and I was more 19 units a day there.

Carrot007

Jasond wrote: »

im out the house 6-8 hours a day... I sleep for 8 hours a night... that leaving 8 hours of the house idling doing absolutely nothing other than keeping the fridgefreezer on.

You really actually switch everything else off? And that means at the plug socket or unpluging if not switched. Most modern items do not have off switches. Here's you you can tell. It's and off switch if it is a switch (it clunks like the plug sockets). If it is a button it is standby. Not that it uses much and you seem to me to have low useage anyway (I will admit I am high(ish, there are those that use a lot more), but I like my stuff).

matelodave

Have a look at the stuff that you do have on or even on standby. Stuff on standby uses power, it may not be a lot but a phone charger can use a couple of watts.

The fridge freezer could be using between 100-200watts when it's running. even if it only clicks on and off it could easily get through 1kwh a day.

What about a washing machine, cooker, microwave, kettle etc

As said the computer can take anywhere between 10 - 100watts, depending on whether its a lap top or a PC with a decent sized monitor.

Look at the consumption of your TV - some can be as high as 150 watts. Have you got a SKY box, video recorder, X-box etc. if so are they left on standby.

Even your router will take around 10watts (thats 240watts a day)

The gas central heating will have electronics which are on all day plus the circulating pump when it's running.

A 10kwh shower for 5 minutes will consume over 0.8kwh, try reducing your shower time to three minutes and save 0.3kwh a day. You could also shower every other day or even once a week and save even more

Do as Robin suggest - read your meter daily and record your consumption in kwh - dont look at the costs on the IHD as they are frequently wrong and more than likely will be if they were installed by BG and you are now with Octopus. Octopus need to send data back to the meter and it's unlikely that they can do this.
Some IHDs will do their own calculations based on the info programmed into them (check if yours does actually have the correct tariff and standing charge info).

Others (like mine from SSE) just stop calculating whenyou change supplier and give a zero value for costs so you dont get misled.

Mine had the wrong standing charge info even when I was with SSE and it never got corrected so it was always overestimating my costs.

Daily monitoring of the actual meter will give you a much better idea of your consumption, what uses it and when rather than just looking at a months worth of leccy bill and wondering where it all went.Make sure that the IHD does actually show the meter reading by checking it against the meter

comeandgo

Your use seems fine, your mums seems very low. She must be on a very good tariff. You are comparing yours with hers. Are her figures correct?

Jasond

im 100 % sure what's in use at any one point. and yes I use a maximum of 2 lights at any one time and both are LED.


more to the point family and friends who are in their houses using a lot more devices and watching more tv than I do (I average about 30 mins a day of TV) and its a £2500 TV from LG

ive been in all day with only my PC on and im now on 80p used and its held at 0.06kWa all day long 3.21kWa so far.

between yesterday and todays meter readings it recorded 5kWa use

I use my oven maybe 3x a week for around 20 mins a pop.


my next door friend has a household of 3,

they all shower /bath 1x a day
they have the tv on all day
they have attest 1 light on in the day and over 3 on an evening
and they run the washing machine every other day.

and they pay £59.14 combined for gas and electric in a 4 bed house....

Robin9

Jasond wrote: »

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

ive been in all day with only my PC on and im now on 80p used and its held at 0.06kWa all day long 3.21kWa so far.

between yesterday and todays meter readings it recorded 5kWa use .........................

STOP using the In House Display ! Read your actual meter !


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

and they pay £59.14 combined for gas and electric in a 4 bed house....

Have you read their meter - they may pay £59.14 but be in debt.

PS I'm in a 4 bed house - my January bill for Elec was £77 and gas £64

nigelbb

Jasond wrote: »

between yesterday and todays meter readings it recorded 5kWa use

You have used 5kW in 24 hours at a cost of about 75p plus 25p standing charge therefore if that is typical of your average daily use then your total monthly bill will be about £30. That is very low electricity consumption.

Jasond

This is from my meter yes, yesterday I submitted a reading and I did again today.

today ive averaged 3.6kWa for the day according to the smart meter but...

meter reading this morning was 01685
meter reading now is 01687

correct me if im wrong but thats 2kWa used...

ive not changed how im living while ive done this recording either its genuinely how I live and use my home im very much a minimalist.

I currently have the tv on and two lights and im drawing. 0.04kWa at 257watts.

this is what im getting at I use very little in the house on a daily basis to the point my bills shouldn't be £70pm.

matelodave

Your bills are not £70/mo, thats your direct debit which is what you pay towards your bills.

Do not confuse your DD with your bill.

Your bill is based on actual meter readings and is the cost of how much energy that you've used. Your Direct Debit is an amount that the energy compnay or someone else has guessed that you might end up using and is therefore a payment on account.

If you pay 12x£70 then you wil have paid £840 but if you on;y used £500 worth of energy then you would be £340 in credit at the end of the year, however if you'd used £1000 of energy then you'd owe the energy company £160.

You are trying to compare a guesstimate direct debit with someone elses possibly more accurate or equally guestimated direct debit. You need to compare actual consumption in kwh, not in £'ss especially if you are on a different tariff.

To do it properly you should read your meter daily and then go and read theirs daily as well, anything else will be wrong. Going round the neighbours and asking them what they pay as a direct debit is irrelevent as they might be underpaying or their estimates might be different to yours or they might be on a cheaper tariff than you.

If you feel that your direct debit is too high then ask the energy company to reduce it especially if you got several months worth of actual meter readings to support your argument.

Robin9

Jasond - can you go back to your bills again please and let us know how much you were in credit/debit when the bills were produced.

What sort of meter do you have in the outdoor meter box. Is it a type with a small keypad where you need to press button 9 or when you press a single button to give the display in kwh ?