huge energy bills

JRN

Any advice please. My son lives in a one bedroom 'house' (these half & half modern houses). Combined sitting room/kitchen One bedroom & bathroom. He has an instant hot water boiler, electric shower (used daily). Washing machine - rarely used. fridge & freezer. Apart from this, the usual TV, phone chargers. There are 2 storage heaters - upstairs one not used & downstairs gives off so little heat he bought a plug in oil radiator to use this last winter. The bills are over £100 monthly and at end of year he's just had a statement of £650+ in debit and they want to in crease to £175 a month. My 3 bed house bills are nothing like this. what to do!?

Robin9

£100 a month is par for the course for this type of set up.
Big user is a shower  - cut the 15min back to 5.
Mistake to use an oil radiator instead of storage rads
Is he on E7  - if so then the oil filled will be using the higher day rates  than the lower night rates for the storage rad.

Is he giving monthly meter reads ?

Are hill bills full of E's for estimated against the meter reads.

Please give us ACTUAL meter reads from about a year ago and also read the meters today.

When did he last switch suppliers / tariff ?

matelodave

Stop using the the plug in oil radiator. Learn how to use the storage heater properly. Make sure that he's on the best possible E7 tariff and if he must have a shower everyday then only have a quick one one less that five minutes and do it during the off-peak period (between midnight and 7am). Using energy during the day will cost a lot more than using it at night, so only use the water heater when he needs to, save the washing up and do it once a day. Dont let hot water run down the sink - use a bowl. Dont rinse stuff in hot water (even your hands). Ideally try and run the washing machine during off peak times (use the timer function if it's got one)

Turn off stuff when it's not being used- dont leave it on standby and finally put a bit more effort into reading bills, sending the readings in every month and checking them every month to make sure that they are correct and that the DD is going to pay for it all.

To be £650+ in debt must mean that he has been accepting estimated bills and not checking his bills, otherwise it would have been obvious when he was only £200 in debit and he could have done something about it then..

 If he learns to read his meter once a week on the same day and just before he goes to bed and just after he gets up the next morning (both peak and off peak registers) and puts them onto a spreadsheet he'll know when he's using it all and hopefully what is using it and he can then do summat about it. It may seem like a faff but the alternative is to keep paying excessive bills.

Its a bit of a tough lesson but he does need to take charge and not let it drift - hopefully you can see what he's doing wrong and teach him the error of his ways. 

JRN

Hi - thanks for answering. Same supplier as when he moved in 2 yrs ago. These are actual readings. 
The heater using now not on economy as you say - but exactly the same as two heaters I use as supplement to gas fire in my house. He will def. do monthly readings now. The heaters installed by landlord give off virtually no heat - perhaps they should be asked to replace as old. Hate to think what that will do to rent though (she increased when she knew he wasnt working due to lockdown!!)

JRN

Thanks - all good advice! Appreciate you taking the time. I thought we were bad at home use as we're both here all day but wow !
thanks again

Robin9

You say same supplier as 2 years ago - did the tariff fix run out a year ago ? If so your son is on a standard (ie expensive tariff) - switch with that supplier now.
Still an outstanding question  E7 or not ?

Richie-from-the-Boro

- get online account
- (1) read own meter monthly (2) submit your own monthly reading
- E7 tariff (assumed ?) get best E7 tariff
- stored heat (NSH) is cheaper than day time heat
- max input zero output winter
- more cheap stored is better
- night reading counters 70% day reading counters 30%
Best of luck JRN

Gerry1

JRN said:

He has an instant hot water boiler, electric shower (used daily).  There are 2 storage heaters - upstairs one not used & downstairs gives off so little heat he bought a plug in oil radiator to use this last winter.

More facts needed, please, it's all too vague.

Presumably there is no gas?

Please be more specific about the boiler.  Does it supply any wet radiators (bad)?  Is it hot water only on demand (bad), or is there a tank that stays hot after it's switched off (better, cf. immersion heater)?  Similarly, is it an instantaneous electric shower (bad) or can it use stored hot water (better)?

JRN said:

The heaters installed by landlord give off virtually no heat - perhaps they should be asked to replace as old.

Storage heaters can have broken elements or a faulty thermostat.  Turn the heat input to maximum and the heat output to minimum.  Check the meter and when the cheap E7 rate kicks in, switch off everything except one storage heater.  Count the number of times the red light on the meter flashes per minute, and convert this to kW (the light will be marked, typically 1000 flashes (impulses) means you have used 1 kWh).  Compare this with the rating plate on the storage heater, e.g. if the light flashes 2000 per hour it's a 2kW heater but if it's rated 3kW then one of the three elements has failed.

But per kWh all forms of electric heating give out the same amount of heat and cost the same to run, so a new device won't be any more efficient.  There is a slight exception: a modern well insulated storage heater with clever controls can save money by not leaking heat all night and during the day if no-one is at home, but otherwise a kWh is a kWh whatever the flavour of electric heater.

What is the cost per kWh, what is the daily charge and is it Economy 7?