Billed £280 per month for electricity!

aleksandramcr

When we first moved in last August, we didn't need the heating on at all until beginning of October. Our bills were on £36 DD with British Gas. As it started to get colder, we begun turning the heating on for a couple of hours. We would put it on comfort mode for 4-5 hours throughout the day. The bills started to go up significantly. 
The heat escaped within minutes of turning the heating off. It's a ground floor falt, we've high ceilings, massive windows and I doubt the property is insulated to the highest standard like the landlord's advised. Agency/landord contacted. 
When I say heating system, I mean the schedule - sorry. 
As per the landlord's advice and the way he's scheduled our thermostat (he's been to change it manually) - we started to leave the heating on at all times and various temperatures. It was meant to on a low temperature during working hours and back to 20 C in the evening hours, also said to be on highest usage at night (for a seemingly cheaper tarriff reason) which I now know is untrue. He's advised it's better to never turn it off, because if we do turn it on/off - it's having to work twice as hard to heat the property again. 

Takmon

aleksandramcr said:

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. 

In late October you had a bill that said how much your electricity usage would cost per KWH and you have a IHD display that show exactly what you current using and how many KWH per day. In one day you could have turned things on and off to see how much electricity they were using and then determined what was costing you the most, no specialist help required just common sense really.

Yes you can ask whatever questions you want to ask but all the information you needed is available online without having to contact them and wait for replies. Obviously we have different moral values but i think it's very cheeky to ask for money you are not entitled too but that's just my opinion like the rest of my post. 

Even if you had no choice and this was the only property available it's always best to go in with your eyes open and understand the drawbacks so you can act accordingly to limit them. 

aleksandramcr

Yes you can ask whatever questions you want to ask but all the information you needed is available online without having to contact them and wait for replies. Obviously we have different moral values but i think it's very cheeky to ask for money you are not entitled too but that's just my opinion like the rest of my post. 
Thanks for the valuation of my morals, I think it's time to start considering myself a criminal.
I don't know what your problem is, but Bulb had none to a) answer my query on their webchat in a minute, as well as go the extra mile to educate me on BASICS (yes, you are right if that what you want to hear again) and refuse to offer any reduction. Period. The bill is now fully paid. 

Gerry1

aleksandramcr said:

As per the landlord's advice and the way he's scheduled our thermostat (he's been to change it manually) ....

D'oh !  Do you get your landlord to schedule your alarm clock?

aleksandramcr said:

He's advised it's better to never turn it off, because if we do turn it on/off - it's having to work twice as hard to heat the property again. 

D'oh !  More nonsense, that's an old chestnut.  If your landlord told you to drink bleach to protect you from corona virus, would you follow his advice?  (Hint: Don't.)

aleksandramcr

The landlord has visited with his contractor to fix something else. One day, we've reported a fishy smell in one of the rooms indicating an electrical fault. Shortly afer, the electricity's gone off completely in one room. He came in the next day (while we were at work, they could only offer me weekday slots). He then concluded it was due to a cracked socked "DAMAGED by a tenant" which is also untrue because we would have spotted it's broken and seemingly that's caused the circut breaker to switch the electricity off. According to the "impartial" report, the damaged fused spur would have caused the heating system to perform poorly. For my own peace of mind, as I was getting nowhere with my concern regarding this "impartial report" I paid £40 for the repair and asked the landlord if he could set the schedule to whatever he feels will work best. I assume it's been scheduled by his electrician, while he was watching anyway. 

aleksandramcr

I also thought it's in his interest that my bills or any future tenant bills go down (if myself or the next door neighour find a good heating schedule and learn to operate the thermostat because otherwise he will face these complaints again and again and people will continue to move out unless one of you guys (I assume you never make mistakes) will rent it. 

aleksandramcr

Thank you once again to those of you who've offered me valuable advice, but also those who've pointed my mistakes. 
Now that I'm searching for a new property and my bills are paid, it's time to learn the lesson and move on as someone's recommended before. Have a good day!

matelodave

C'mon people, no need to get snotty or critical.

it's not easy to get your head around a new heating system, neither is it easy to determine how well a system has been installed, how good it might be nor even how much it's going to cost to run and if you've never had to organise it all before then it can take a fair while to get it all sorted out. Some of us have been doing it for 50 years or more and I'm sure have cod's it all up more than once, so give the guy a break.

It took some time to establish what was going on, but some asked pertinent questions and got close to the root of the problem and hopefully the OP will be better equipped in the future.with some of the help that he's had.

Takmon

aleksandramcr said:

I also thought it's in his interest that my bills or any future tenant bills go down (if myself or the next door neighour find a good heating schedule and learn to operate the thermostat because otherwise he will face these complaints again and again and people will continue to move out unless one of you guys (I assume you never make mistakes) will rent it. 

Everyone on here has made plenty of mistakes in their life but reading this forum over the years and reading how other people have dealt with situations more effectively has prevented me from making many more. If nobody explained how mistakes can be avoided then this forum would not be very helpful to casual readers...

Edit: Oops missed a word. 

aleksandramcr

Some of us have been doing it for 50 years or more and I'm sure have cod's it all up more than once, so give the guy a break.

Thanks for the understanding I also understand other people point and I can accept the rightful remarks. 
P.S. I'm a girl, not that it changes anything! Also a foreign national, who've been renting rooms for the past five years in the UK and never had to worry about bills. I'm 25, so let's hope I'll build enough knowledge as you guys have in the next quarter of the century haha!