Electricity bill . Please help!

courtneyanaman1

Hi 
I am looking for some advice or help here. Me and my partner are living in a 3 bed house electric only so heating is electric too. Our bill has massively increased the past few months to over £200 per month. We are working out to use on average 22,000 kWh A year!!! We work full time, we are never at home, we use the tv 3-4 hours per night. 1 washing machine use per week, oven most nights and all lights off when not used. This amount of usage seems to be very very excessive but we can’t work out why?! 

Daily we are using 50 kWh per day!! How is this possible?? 

Robin9

Forget the TV/ PC/ phone chargers - its heating and water heating that use electricity in large numbers

Tell us about your heating - storage rads, underfloor, hot water system and radiators, panel heaters, super fancy radiators filled with magic dust, -- 
What were the meter readings when you moved in (did you take them  or landlord/caretaker/agent - what are they now?  Do you read your meters at least monthly and keep your own records ?

Tariff E7 or standard of a fix ?

JGB1955

How is your water heated? Do you have an immersion heater? Is it on 24/7? Do you have Economy 7?

courtneyanaman1

We are doing our metre readings every 12 hours currently and we are using 25kwh every 12 hours! We have a wet system and a heat only boiler and our hot water is heated up by a hot water cylinder. 

We are on a fixed tariff but variable direct debit fixed rate of 0.14p kWh 

courtneyanaman1

JGB1955 said:

How is your water heated? Do you have an immersion heater? Is it on 24/7? Do you have Economy 7?

Our hot water is heated on an emersion cylinder which we have switched off as it’s not on an economy 7 we found out it was heating every ten mins. We turn it on manually as and when we need it. 

courtneyanaman1

Robin9 said:

Forget the TV/ PC/ phone chargers - its heating and water heating that use electricity in large numbers

Tell us about your heating - storage rads, underfloor, hot water system and radiators, panel heaters, super fancy radiators filled with magic dust, -- 
What were the meter readings when you moved in (did you take them  or landlord/caretaker/agent - what are they now?  Do you read your meters at least monthly and keep your own records ?

Tariff E7 or standard of a fix ?

We are doing our metre readings every 12 hours currently and we are using 25kwh every 12 hours! We have a wet system and a heat only boiler and our hot water is heated up by a hot water cylinder. 

We are on a fixed tariff but variable direct debit fixed rate of 0.14p kWh 

jbuchanangb

You need need to find and understand your heating and hot water controls. There should be ways to control the time that heating and hot water go on and off. Make sure you set the controls to the times you need

Robin9

courtneyanaman1 said:

Robin9 said:

Forget the TV/ PC/ phone chargers - its heating and water heating that use electricity in large numbers

Tell us about your heating - storage rads, underfloor, hot water system and radiators, panel heaters, super fancy radiators filled with magic dust, -- 
What were the meter readings when you moved in (did you take them  or landlord/caretaker/agent - what are they now?  Do you read your meters at least monthly and keep your own records ?

Tariff E7 or standard of a fix ?

We are doing our metre readings every 12 hours currently and we are using 25kwh every 12 hours! We have a wet system and a heat only boiler and our hot water is heated up by a hot water cylinder. 

We are on a fixed tariff but variable direct debit fixed rate of 0.14p kWh 

  

We have a wet system and a heat only boiler and our hot water is heated up by a hot water cylinder. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That explains it - the worst form of electric heating known to man

Please  - its "meter" and 14p / kWh

Gerry1

Unfortunately you have the worst possible set up, everything on full price electricity, so it will always be mega expensive.  Assuming you are renting and can't get gas, your only realistic options are to get a cheaper p/kWh rate, or to move.

I assume you've done the blackout test (unplug everything, ensure the red light on the meter never flashes) followed by plugging in a known high power item (e.g. 3kW kettle or 3kW fan heater) and working out the consumption from the flashing light.  The rate will be shown on the meter, typically 1000 flashes per kWh.

JohnB47

courtneyanaman1 said:

 Our bill has massively increased the past few months to over £200 per month.

It's this bit that interests me. Are you saying that your consumption used to be much lower than this - even at an equivalent time of year? If so, something has changed - either your consumption pattern or your system settings. Perhaps you haven't been in your house long enough to experience the increased running costs involved at this time of year.