Electricity costs in electric only flat - Advice needed

dave2319

In that case I hope you're able to confirm for yourself that the previous estimates were just a long way out compared to your first actual reading, so you're just paying off the debt that's built up but your actual monthly cost would now be normal otherwise.
Might be useful to confirm that as soon as possible by maybe taking a reading every day for a few days or something, and calculating the cost to make sure it's now reasonable. If it's still not, you could contact Bulb again or follow their steps here about checking for a faulty appliance, which could be a cause: https://help.bulb.co.uk/hc/en-us/articles/360033353271-Faulty-or-broken-meters

Robin9

@Pachey  What form does your electric heating take - storage rads, underfloor, panels ?

Pachey

dave2319 said:

In that case I hope you're able to confirm for yourself that the previous estimates were just a long way out compared to your first actual reading, so you're just paying off the debt that's built up but your actual monthly cost would now be normal otherwise.
Might be useful to confirm that as soon as possible by maybe taking a reading every day for a few days or something, and calculating the cost to make sure it's now reasonable. If it's still not, you could contact Bulb again or follow their steps here about checking for a faulty appliance, which could be a cause: https://help.bulb.co.uk/hc/en-us/articles/360033353271-Faulty-or-broken-meters

Thank you for the link, I’ve not tried that route previously, so will give it a go. 

So this months bill was £170 and I paid £237 to make a payment towards the debt, however looking at this time last year the winter months the statement were between £250-£280 a month, so there’s not much opportunity to pay back the debt much. 

Pachey

Robin9 said:

@Pachey  What form does your electric heating take - storage rads, underfloor, panels ?

They’re storage heaters, I have 6 in total on timers 

dave2319

Unfortunately storage heaters are expensive though. I've got a couple of them but most nights that I have the heating on I only use one. Yours are presumably newer and better than mine but you say they're on from 6:30-8am... do you notice much difference in temperature from having them on for only an hour and a half before they go off again?
Mine need at least a couple of hours to make it worthwhile so I only put them on once a day for 4-5 hours, rather than leaving them on to get the maximum 7 in two goes.

If you feel the difference in 90 minutes then great and maybe mine need upgrading, but just wondering: if it's simply that you've got a lot of storage heaters that are expensive to run, can you alter the settings so they're running more efficiently?

Also, when having storage heaters it's ideal to be on Economy 7 to take advantage of the much cheaper night rates. If you can't have an Economy 7 meter fitted, what about looking into replacing the storage heaters with cheaper options? I certainly wouldn't want 6 of them running on a standard tariff! Maybe that explains your bills, although I hope there might also be room for other improvements somewhere.

Pachey

dave2319 said:

Unfortunately storage heaters are expensive though. I've got a couple of them but most nights that I have the heating on I only use one. Yours are presumably newer and better than mine but you say they're on from 6:30-8am... do you notice much difference in temperature from having them on for only an hour and a half before they go off again?
Mine need at least a couple of hours to make it worthwhile so I only put them on once a day for 4-5 hours, rather than leaving them on to get the maximum 7 in two goes.

If you feel the difference in 90 minutes then great and maybe mine need upgrading, but just wondering: if it's simply that you've got a lot of storage heaters that are expensive to run, can you alter the settings so they're running more efficiently?

Also, when having storage heaters it's ideal to be on Economy 7 to take advantage of the much cheaper night rates. If you can't have an Economy 7 meter fitted, what about looking into replacing the storage heaters with cheaper options? I certainly wouldn't want 6 of them running on a standard tariff! Maybe that explains your bills, although I hope there might also be room for other improvements somewhere.

That’s really good advice, I think I’ve been coming at it from the less I use I better which maybe not be an efficient use of the heaters - the Bulb app lets me track usage daily so I will test it out over the next couple of days and see if it makes a difference. 

I googled the Economy 7 meter, I’ve not known much about it but it does seem like the flat I live in would benefit from that. 

Appreciate you taking the time to share your advice!