Billed £280 per month for electricity!

aleksandramcr

Hi all, 
Just to let you know, I think you're absolutely right about underloor heating and the immersion heater being the core reason of excessive electricity use. 
We've not had the heating on at all yesterday our total usage of electricity amounted to 12.5 kWh, I only went to bed a midnight and at that point it was freezing so I thought "Ok, I will turn the heating mat on and have it on Comfort mode (20 C) for 4 hours" to see what happens with the reading. We already used 9.72 kWh since midnight. 
In the meantime, the kind Simone's got back to me too: 

Still waiting for the landlord to get back to me on a couple of questions I've raised, I've not heard back since Tuesday and he's usually quick to respond, so I guess he's getting second opinion and I'll soon find out it's all 100 % my fault. 

Gerry1

It's probably a bit academic now that you're planning to move, but E7 probably wouldn't save you any money.  With a heat mat there's likely to be very little heat storage, so there's little benefit in leaving it on all night when you're asleep: it would be as pointless as leaving an electric blanket on all day when you're out.  But the daytime E7 will be higher than the single rate, and the standing charge will probably also be higher.  There will be some savings available by using the immersion heater only overnight, but E7 is unlikely to be worthwhile for a heat mat system as almost all your underfloor heating will be at peak rate.

If you were staying, the best solution might be to find a cheap supplier that allowed you to switch between single rate and E7 with no exit fees: you could use E7 in the summer to get cheap hot water and switch to single rate in the winter.

Of course, the best solution would be to instal gas central heating (or clever fan assisted storage heaters if gas is not available) but the landlord proably won't be interested unless he can't find a replacement punter, and the rent would be higher.

Takmon

aleksandramcr said:

Hi all, 
Just to let you know, I think you're absolutely right about underloor heating and the immersion heater being the core reason of excessive electricity use. 
We've not had the heating on at all yesterday our total usage of electricity amounted to 12.5 kWh, I only went to bed a midnight and at that point it was freezing so I thought "Ok, I will turn the heating mat on and have it on Comfort mode (20 C) for 4 hours" to see what happens with the reading. We already used 9.72 kWh since midnight. 

I'm interested why you haven't looked at this before when you first moved in?. You admit you moved in without really understanding how the heating system etc works and had no idea how much electricity would cost.
So why didn't you look at the display and think "I've used "X" amount of electricity today, i wonder how much that has cost?" then simply multiplied it by your unit rate and you would have realised straight away you needed to change the way you are using it. When i first moved into my current home i took opening meter readings and then a week after because i was interested in how much the bills might be (this actually helped me pin point a water leak in the toilet where i was literally flushing money down it and i fixed it right away).

It's very cheeky to ask for a good will gesture from Bulb when they have done nothing wrong and you had all the information at hand by chose to ignore it. It's like driving around in your car at high revs using loads of fuel then going back to the garage to ask for money off when you fill up next because you used too much....

aleksandramcr

Hi, 
Speaking from experience of working in customer service, I know that it's better to ask (even if it's £15 off my bill while I have to hand out £500 for electricity in one day). If it's a NO, which it was - fair enough but no harm done in asking. 
I've just made a full payment to Bulb and my last BS direct debit comes out tomorrow, so as of tomorrow I don't owe any money.
I don't feel like explaining myself 10th time in the same email chain. This is my first rental property and I simply did not have enough knowledge of how electricity works. YES, THIS IS TRUE AND I AM AT FAULT but I've also been misled by the landlord on how to use the heating system "in a most efficient way" which turned out to be the exact opposite. 
The first time I raised my concerns to the agency/ landlord was on receipt on my first high bill in October. 
Anyway, I've already described everything in detail before so I'm not going to go round in circles. 
It's funny how I am "cheeky" for asking for a good will gesture, but you don't appreciate that my landlord's also being cheeky installing the cheapest and worst possible heating system, because it cost him peanuts while the tenants are struggling to keep up or they're being reported to a credit agency. Not cheeky at all. 

Mister_G

Sadly, you will always get people frequenting these boards who think that they know better.  You have admitted your mistakes and are moving on.  I wish you well in these difficult times. 

Gerry1

aleksandramcr said:

I only went to bed at midnight and at that point it was freezing so I thought "Ok, I will turn the heating mat on and have it on Comfort mode (20 C) for 4 hours" to see what happens with the reading.

Seriously? 

• In tomorrow's episode...  "I took the plugs out of the sinks and baths, and I left the shower and all the taps turned on all night to see what happened to the water meter...."

Why not use your thermostat 's Energy Tariff menu (P.33) to monitor energy use and set parameters for monitoring the cost of running your system?  Have you made sure that your thermostat is programmed correctly, e.g. have you told it to switch on an hour or two before you get up (P.19)?  Have you told it what the cost of a kWh is?  That would be far more economical than wasting money by leaving it on all night when it's not needed.

Takmon

aleksandramcr said:

Hi, 
Speaking from experience of working in customer service, I know that it's better to ask (even if it's £15 off my bill while I have to hand out £500 for electricity in one day). If it's a NO, which it was - fair enough but no harm done in asking. 
I've just made a full payment to Bulb and my last BS direct debit comes out tomorrow, so as of tomorrow I don't owe any money.
I don't feel like explaining myself 10th time in the same email chain. This is my first rental property and I simply did not have enough knowledge of how electricity works. YES, THIS IS TRUE AND I AM AT FAULT but I've also been misled by the landlord on how to use the heating system "in a most efficient way" which turned out to be the exact opposite. 
The first time I raised my concerns to the agency/ landlord was on receipt on my first high bill in October. 
Anyway, I've already described everything in detail before so I'm not going to go round in circles. 
It's funny how I am "cheeky" for asking for a good will gesture, but you don't appreciate that my landlord's also being cheeky installing the cheapest and worst possible heating system, because it cost him peanuts while the tenants are struggling to keep up or they're being reported to a credit agency. Not cheeky at all. 

If you don't know how something works that you have to pay for then surely you do some research and find out. There is a massive amount of knowledge online about everything to do with running a home. 

I just don't like how people ask for good will gestures from companies that have done nothing wrong, isn't it enough that you are taking up there time by even contacting them at all when they are simply correctly billing you for the electricity you have been using.

Well you chose to rent a place which had that type of heating system and again did no research at all. I'm not having a go at you i'm just hoping you will research things you don't understand in future before agreeing to them and this applies to all manner of financial matters and beyond. "Never trust a salesman" and always independently check everything they tell you will save you a massive amount of money over the course of your lifetime.

Takmon

Mister_G said:

Sadly, you will always get people frequenting these boards who think that they know better.  You have admitted your mistakes and are moving on.  I wish you well in these difficult times. 

Surely that's the purpose of this board is to get replies from people who know better so they can help with the questions being asked. If nobody on here knew better than the OP then they wouldn't have gotten any help...

aleksandramcr

If you don't know how something works that you have to pay for then surely you do some research and find out. There is a massive amount of knowledge online about everything to do with running a home. 

That's exactly what I have been doing since late October. I've been on the phone to British Gas, continuously trying to get a better understanding of how things work, switching tarrifs as per recommendation and suppliers too. I appreciate I should probably ask for an impartial/specialist help earlier but again - I am trying to educate myself now. 
I just don't like how people ask for good will gestures from companies that have done nothing wrong, isn't it enough that you are taking up there time by even contacting them at all when they are simply correctly billing you for the electricity you have been using.
I am the customer, they are the provider -  I am allowed whatever question I need to ask, including questions on products I don't understand or asking for a good will gesture reduction due to financial difficulty. 
Well you chose to rent a place which had that type of heating system and again did no research at all. I'm not having a go at you i'm just hoping you will research things you don't understand in future before agreeing to them and this applies to all manner of financial matters and beyond. "Never trust a salesman" and always independently check everything they tell you will save you a massive amount of money over the course of your lifetime.
Life is not all black and white, you know. Before I rented this property, I was desperately trying to escape a different one because I was previously renting a room from a person who had an alcohol problem and misbehaved. I was also told by an agent that the heating's estimated to be relatively cheap. 
I also pay £500 for a new built flat near transport links and shops, so I thought I'm saving on rent but that's also not the case. 

Gerry1

aleksandramcr said:

started to use a different underfloor heating system as recommended by the landlord but it doesn't seem to help.

What was the original heating system?