How much is too much?

QCQ

Hi all. I'm in need of some unbiased advice. My mother in law was widowed 18 months ago and I am trying to help her sort out her bills. She is with Utility Warehouse for electric, mobile phone and landline/broadband. The electric is the problem. She is on a version of Economy 10 - the multi split cheap rate Economy 7. She lives alone in a 4 bedroom detached house. She has modern storage heaters. She cooks on bottled gas. Over the last 12 months she has used just short of 11000 KW electric. This was split 2000 day rate and 9000 cheap rate. She uses her appliances - washing machine etc - on the cheap rate. 
Does anyone else think there is something wrong here? She is away from home at least one night a week. She isn't in much during the day. 11000 kwh a year seems far too much. I can't think of any reason why it would be so much. She doesn't even use all of the storage heaters. I have a family of 4 in a large bungalow and we don't use anywhere near that much electric. If it does seem too much, what do I do about it? What could the problem be?
Any help gratefully received.
Cheers

Pete99

First thing I would do is to read the meters in the morning, then read them again at the same time the next day, then at least you'll be able to see how much is being used in 1 day, one thing that can really eat through power is a hot water immersion heater with a stuck thermostat, but you'll know if it is stuck because the hot water will be way too hot.

Cardew

Pete99 said:

First thing I would do is to read the meters in the morning, then read them again at the same time the next day, then at least you'll be able to see how much is being used in 1 day, one thing that can really eat through power is a hot water immersion heater with a stuck thermostat, but you'll know if it is stuck because the hot water will be way too hot.

What do you mean by 'stuck thermostat'. If it is not opening at all the water in the tank will boil and you will probably hear it bubbling.

Actually the ratio of day to night usage is excellent(E72000kWh day and 9000kWh night.) In a 4 bedroomed detached house 9,000 kwh for Storage heaters and Immersion heater, plus other usage on cheap rate is not excessive - assuming all storage heaters are in use.

The important issue would be to sort out the cheapest off-peak tariff - even allowing for broadband.landline/mobile I suspect you can do far better than Utility Warehouse.

matelodave

You say you dont use that amount of electricity, but how much gas do you use - bear in mind that heating the house and hot water will use the same amount of energy whether it be gas or electricity - it the cost that will differ because leccy costs 3-5 times that of gas. How much leccy do you use compared to her 2000kwh at the day rate.

TBH a four bedroom house using around 9000kwh for heating, hot water and other stuff plus 2000kwh doesn't sound excessive - try adding together your annual gas consumption in kwh plus your leccy consumption and see if it comes anywhere near 11,000kwh

Unless she's got heating shut off in the unused rooms and the fact that she's only one person probably doesn't make a great deal of difference to her heating requirements unless she lives like a hermit in one room. What sort of insulation has she got, does she shut off the heating and hot water for the one night that she goes away (do you?).

Does she use the heater controls properly - closing the output damper virtually all the time and adjusting the charge control as low as possible commensurate with keeping the place warm enough. Storage heaters arent as reactive as a gas boiler and radiators so to gain any energy saving you need to turn them off a day before you want them cool or on a day before you want them hot - there's not much you can do about that but you can turn them down a bit and right down in unused rooms (be careful of condensation though)

I'm guessing that as she's your MIL she may be a bit older than you and want to keep the place a bit warmer than you might

Leccy is more expensive and she is doing the right thing by using as much off peak leccy as she can. Hopefully she's not using the hot water boost function and doesn't have an electric shower. There are two ways to reduce the bills - use less or get on a cheaper tariff but as I said, I dont think that it over the top for that size of place

Pete99

Thermostats usually weld themselves shut due to arcing, as in always on, the tank will be in a cupboard and unless you've got good hearing you won't hear it as the water heads up the expansion pipe into the loft storage tank, something's eating the power and this is just one thing to check.

Gerry1

QCQ said:

She is on a version of Economy 10
Does anyone else think there is something wrong here?

The consumption seems entirely reasonable, but what's wrong is that it's probably cripplingly expensive because of sky high E10 rates and two lots of standing charges.  What is her tariff charging?

The answer is to switch to E7.  It may require some minor rewiring and another NSH or two (or replacements with bigger ones) because of the lack of afternoon charging, but then she'll be free to switch to any competitive supplier.

LPG and a tank may also be an option if there's space, but obviously there's the capital cost of a boiler and a wet radiator system.

QCQ

Hi everyone. Thanks for your comments.
My first concern was to see if the consumption itself seemed reasonable. I am well aware that if I had electric heating then my consumption would be higher. My MIL couldn't believe 1 person used as much electric as 4 people. My view was that a house is a house is a house. It takes electric to run it regardless of number of occupants. Convincing my MIL of this is another matter. Thanks for the comments on that.
Utility Warehouse is another matter.
Her day tariff is 19.3 and the cheap rate is 8.1. I think the standing charge is 19 or 20p. UW website isn't helpful. I did try to do a comparison using moneysavingexpert economy 10 help page. It's not straightforward and my calculation suggested the tariff isn't horrific although there will be cheaper rates. It's just she is hung up on the Economy 10! Any thoughts or ideas? As an aside she has no mortgage but her income is very low. She has qualified for UC and gets help with council tax reduction on top of the 25% single occupant rate.
Thanks again

macman

The bills are determined by the number of rooms heated and the temp set, not by the number of occupants. Tell her that the bulk of her usage, maybe 80%, is for heating and hot water. Not for appliances. Her usage is not unduly high.
If she is on E10, as opposed to E7, then there will be 2 MPAN's and so 2 standing charges.Get hold of a recent bill and check. You will not find a competitive E10 supplier alternative, as normally only the legacy supplier will support that metering.
Gerry1 has summed it up. Get rid of E10 for E7, and then you can choose from  any supplier and use the comp sites, which do not offer E10.
UW is a pyramid selling scheme, and is rarely competitive.