Should I be paying so much electricity?

Anna-Marie_Barry

I have 8 large solar panels on my south-eastern facing roof. These are registered with British gas. My supply is with Bulb. I always get payment for my feed-in tarriff, which I believe means I'm producing more electricity than we use. I don't therefore understand why Bulb are charging me £140 per month for electricity? Please help. 

Neil_Jones

Anna-Marie_Barry said:

I have 8 large solar panels on my south-eastern facing roof. These are registered with British gas. My supply is with Bulb. I always get payment for my feed-in tarriff, which I believe means I'm producing more electricity than we use. I don't therefore understand why Bulb are charging me £140 per month for electricity? Please help. 

What you pay "per month" and what you use are two entirely different things.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits/

Are you reading your meters?  Are you submitting them to Bulb?  Are recent bills based on accurate readings or estimates?

tim_p

The FIT is paid for what you generate, irrespective of whether you use any or all of it, you will still use electricity over and above what you generate, in fact unless you really work hard at timing when you run energy intensive appliances (washer, dish washer, tumble drier etc) then you probably won’t use all of it in the summer.  8 panels (depending on spec) isn’t really likely to run a tumble drier for ‘free’ plus you’ll still use electricity when the sun isn’t shining (night for example!) 

As for why you’re paying £140 / month for electricity we can’t really answer without a lot more info I’m afraid. 

Gerry1

If you choose an expensive supplier such as Bulb then you'll be paying over the odds.  Someone has to pay for all those £50 + £50 bungs to new customer referrals - YOU !

Robin9

Tell us what your ACTUAL annual consumption in kWh is please

Heizen

Whether you want a large or small array, all your solar panels will be connected with the use of wires. These wires will transmit electricity from the photovoltaic cells to your inverter. Therefore, when you have many panels, you have more cells which simply means more power to produce.

The amount of sunlight the panel gets and the location are the power output determiners. Nevertheless, this output is not the same all day or the period where there’s sunlight. Compared to the middle of the afternoon, it creates less energy in the morning or late afternoon.

If there’s a shade such as clouds or anything that covers a portion of the whole module, it can lessen the generated power of the panels. Since there is a change in the sun’s position, there’s also less output during the summer and spring compared to fall and winter.

To put it simply, a 300-watt solar panel will likely produce only 100 watts of power early in the morning and late afternoon. The amount will vary in other parts of the day depending on the sun’s traverse in the sky.

tim_p

Heizen said:

 Since there is a change in the sun’s position, there’s also less output during the summer and spring compared to fall and winter.

You’re not from our hemisphere are you?

Heizen

tim_p said:

Heizen said:

 Since there is a change in the sun’s position, there’s also less output during the summer and spring compared to fall and winter.

You’re not from our hemisphere are you?

       Where are you?

tim_p

Northern hemisphere 

phillw

Anna-Marie_Barry said:

which I believe means I'm producing more electricity than we use. I don't therefore understand why Bulb are charging me £140 per month for electricity? Please help. 

The feed in tariff (the payments you receive) was a bribe to get you to install solar panels, it's only an indication of how much electricity you generate and not how much you are using.

A direct debit of £140 also isn't an indication of how much electricity you are using as you may be using £50 and building up a credit, or using £200 and going into debt.

If they are applying a £140 charge to your account then it will be based on the tariff you are on and your meter readings. If you haven't provided meter readings every month then they will be estimating your electricity usage. If you ever enter incorrect readings, which is easy to do on the old dial meters, then it can really throw out your bills as actual readings could be ignored. Also if your meter is running backwards, which can happen with solar power but it is a fault, then it may cause any actual readings to be ignored. There may also be a fault which is causing readings to be too high, old dial meters are easy to see if this is the case by turning everything off and seeing if the wheel stops.

If your meter readings are correct for your usage then you are either on a very expensive tariff or you are using a lot of electricity.

If you are running underfloor heating, electric ovens, electric heaters, tumble dryers, immersion heater, kettles etc constantly then your bills will be higher.

An energy monitor or smart meter is useful as it can tell you exactly how much electricity is being used at any time and how much is used by each appliance when it's in use.