HELP! Why are my electricity bills so high?

Huntings101

I moved into a brand new 2 bedroom apartment in April last year.  It has no gas; just electricity.  Heating and hot water is via an Air Source Heat Pump: there are no electric radiators/heaters. 

My electricity bills have been on average £150+ per month based on approximately 1000kwH, despite me using a comparison site and selecting the cheapest tariff (Bulb). To clarify, this does not include any backdated payments and is only for usage since I moved in last year. This seems crazy based on average uses shown online. 
Today I went out for 3 hours with everything except the heat pump unit & fridge-freezer switched off at the mains and my meter showed that - in that 3 hours - I used 3.5kWh. Does this seem right?

By way of background, there are 2 people living in the flat.  We do have 3-4 showers per day (i.e. 1-2 each), washer/dryer is used maybe 3-4 times per week, dishwasher used every day. Other than that should not be anything out of the ordinary.

I live in a new 11-apartment building in Flat 1.  Do you think there is any chance the communal area electricity was put on to my meter? I am at a loss as to why the usage is so high; my current personal projection for next 12 months from Bulb is £2,166!!!!!  Any tips on how I can get to the bottom of this would be much appreciated.

theoretica

Have you asked your neighbours what their usage is?  Assuming they have air source too.

I am sure you could find energy specs somewhere for all your appliances and add them up, but from what you say about your usage when out my first suspicion would be the heat pump.  Is it something you could turn off for a few hours as a test?

tacpot12

The way to determine whether anything (or anyone) else is using your power is to follow the cables that go from your meter to your consumer unit. If someone is stealing your electricity, or you are providing the communal supply, there may be a second set of cables from your meter that don't go to your consumer unit. It is possible that the consumer unit is being used to supply the communal area, but if it is, there should be a circuit breaker that is marked to show this. 

You can turn your consumer off at the main switch. If the meter is still showing electricity is being used, you should call an electrician and get them to trace where the connection has been made and where it is going to. If it is going to the communal supply, you need to report this to the landlord and give them a reasonable time to get a meter and move the supply to the meter. In the meantime, they should be paying for the electricity they use. Your electrician should be able to measure what they have been using, although it will involve a bit of guess work. If the electrician finds someone has been stealing your electricity, you need to call the DNO to report the issue and get the DNO to remove the cable that is stealing the power.  

If the power is being consumed through your consumer unit, you can turn each circuit breaker off in turn to discover which breaker the power is going through. Again an electrician can help you trace the particular appliance that is using the power if you can't.

Don't touch any of the cables between the meter and the consumer unit; inspect them with your eyes only.  

While it is possible you are supplying the communal areas, I can't imagine what would consume that amount of power. A fire panel, entry system and a few lights wouldn't, although if you are supplying heaters in the winter it might consume quite a bit. 

Huntings101

tacpot12 said:

The way to determine whether anything (or anyone) else is using your power is to follow the cables that go from your meter to your consumer unit. If someone is stealing your electricity, or you are providing the communal supply, there may be a second set of cables from your meter that don't go to your consumer unit. It is possible that the consumer unit is being used to supply the communal area, but if it is, there should be a circuit breaker that is marked to show this. 

You can turn your consumer off at the main switch. If the meter is still showing electricity is being used, you should call an electrician and get them to trace where the connection has been made and where it is going to. If it is going to the communal supply, you need to report this to the landlord and give them a reasonable time to get a meter and move the supply to the meter. In the meantime, they should be paying for the electricity they use. Your electrician should be able to measure what they have been using, although it will involve a bit of guess work. If the electrician finds someone has been stealing your electricity, you need to call the DNO to report the issue and get the DNO to remove the cable that is stealing the power.  

If the power is being consumed through your consumer unit, you can turn each circuit breaker off in turn to discover which breaker the power is going through. Again an electrician can help you trace the particular appliance that is using the power if you can't.

Don't touch any of the cables between the meter and the consumer unit; inspect them with your eyes only.  

While it is possible you are supplying the communal areas, I can't imagine what would consume that amount of power. A fire panel, entry system and a few lights wouldn't, although if you are supplying heaters in the winter it might consume quite a bit. 

Thanks so much for the advice.  So, to confirm, 3.5kw in 3.5 hours with everything except the fridge/freezer and air source heat pump switched off does seem far too high?

matelodave

As others have said - try to work out what is using your leccy - read the meter daily if necessary so you can understand your consumption.

Secondly, how are you using your heat pump - what make is it, what flow temperatures have you got set (heating and hot water). You shouldn't try to use it like a conventional boiler so you need to learn how it operates to get maximum benefit. What controls has it got (timers, thermostats etc)

Be aware that if you have them set much above 50-55 degrees then the unit will be using the back-up or immersion heaters which will increase your costs. generally the lower the flow temps the more efficient and cheaper it will be to run so you need to see what you can do to reducing the water temperatures. We only heat our hot water to 45 degrees, the heating flow is between 30-40 degrees. We are at home all day and our annual consumption is around 7000kwh for all our leccy - we pay around £75 a month.

Robin9

Just checking - when you fix ran out in April did you do anything to switch tariff or are you now on Bulb's standard (ie expensive) tariff ?   

Time to revisit what you are paying - even if there is a £30 penalty - there may be better options than Bulb.

Ectophile

It may be the ASHP constantly heating the water in your hot water tank, because you're using so much.

matelodave

How is your shower fed - from a hot water tank heated by the ASHP or via an electric shower. If it's the latter then no wonder that your bills are so high. Showers can use a surprising amount of water and energy, especially if it's got a high flow rate and you spend more than 2-3 minutes in there. 
Four showers a day could easily get through a tankful of hot water and a 10kw electric shower at five minutes each would use up 3.3 kwh a day or 100kwh/month costing £14 or more depending on your tariff. Washer/dryers are notoriously inefficient as are half filled dishwashers - you need to ensure that you use appliances with full loads, they cost as much to run when half empty as they do when full.

Most people think that they use a lot less than they really do so the only way to check is to monitor it - it's too late when the bill comes in because you've already used it

Start keeping a log of your energy consumption and what you are using - if you don't monitor it you cant control it. Make sure that you leccy meter is read frequently. Send in readings at least once a month (or if you've got a smart meter, read it yourself) and make sure you check that your bills are using accurate meter readings and not estimated.