Help needed on extremely high electricity bill

Talldave

jack_pott said:

coffeehound said:

Talldave said:
How are you going to measure frugality without somehow incorporating the size of the property? 

As a crude measure, perhaps cross reference the Council Tax bracketing, which would also indicate single occupants.  Progressive pricing sounds like a good and reasonable measure.  We're going to need some large sticks and tasty carrots to carry on with electric-only new homes and rising EV adoption.

For a simple tariff with only a small amount of progression there's no need for anything other than a two tier charge per kWh, but if we're going for something more, you would have to take account of whether people are heating by gas or electricity in some way. I don't see that house size should be relevant, large households spend more on food, water, clothing, mortgage, council tax etc., why should fuel be any different?

Because if a house is providing a home for say 6 people, it should be able to use 6x the energy of a single person household before being financially penalised for excessive consumption through its tariff. That all sounds very poll-tax-ish though!!

Mister_G

Robin9 said:

All very interesting but where's the OP ?

They probably went away bored as it has gone off topic.

Gentlegiant

Update;
After turning off “everything” as advised, the picture above were taken today (Saturday). Below are the difference in usage compared to Thursday night 
Thursday
Rate 1: 25883.87kwh
Rate 2: 76714.75kwh
Saturday: 
Rate 1: 25896.85kwh
Rate 2: 76736.16kwh

Please note: only light bulbs, fridge freezer, kettle, Tv are used during this period. 

Is this reading normal? Because if it is I may just have found what may have been causing the spike on the meter usage.

Thank you all for your help and Happy new year to you and yours 

Gentlegiant

Robin9 said:

All very interesting but where's the OP ?

Still here. I was observing the meter for 2days after switching everything off. I have posted my latest findings. Thanks again for your help 

Gentlegiant

niktheguru said:

perhaps an easier thing to do. Can you take a picture of your consumer unit (main fuse box for the house near the meter) and share that with us. Sometimes that can give us an indication of what main items are in your house.
Also, like others are saying if you are testing what is taking energy you need to turn off all the little switches on this consumer unit and then look at how the meter increases, then turn one switch on at a time after say 20min intervals and see how that affects the meter increment (or red light frequency)
By just saying you'll turn everything off except TV and kettle you will probably miss the thing that is causing your high readings, as its highly likely that the culprit is something you don't realise is on (like an immersion heater - which most people dont understand is there half the time)

Thanks for this, I have posted my findings below for 2days. Although i still have some basics things on but it seems there is a massive difference in usage (at least I hope) because it might be the little once electric cot causing the spike. 

bagand96

Gentlegiant said:

Update;
After turning off “everything” as advised, the picture above were taken today (Saturday). Below are the difference in usage compared to Thursday night 
Thursday
Rate 1: 25883.87kwh
Rate 2: 76714.75kwh
Saturday: 
Rate 1: 25896.85kwh
Rate 2: 76736.16kwh

Please note: only light bulbs, fridge freezer, kettle, Tv are used during this period. 

Is this reading normal? Because if it is I may just have found what may have been causing the spike on the meter usage.

Thank you all for your help and Happy new year to you and yours 

Well here's the useage between Thursday evening and today.

Rate 1: 25896.85 - 25883.87 = 12.98
Rate 2: 76736.16 - 76714.75 = 21.41

12.98 + 21.41 = 34.39 kWh

So for the last 2 days, you've averaged 17.2 kWh per day.  Not sure how high or low that is.   The government say an "average" UK household uses around 3,600 kWh per year.  At 17.2 kWh a day (based on your experiment) 6,276 kWh in a year.  So if it really was just  fridge/TV/lights using electricity then that seems high? 

Penelopa.Pitstop

I would say it's high usage for most things off. We get 12kWh average total daily in winter, when using electric heater 3h per day, 2 desktop computers, dishwasher, 2 fridges and outside lights. And when we use oven or vacuum cleaner it gets to max 15kWh.

Gentlegiant

Penelopa.Pitstop said:

I would say it's high usage for most things off. We get 12kWh average total daily in winter, when using electric heater 3h per day, 2 desktop computers, dishwasher, 2 fridges and outside lights. And when we use oven or vacuum cleaner it gets to max 15kWh.

Assuming I am switching, is it possible to have my provider use only one rate?

Gentlegiant

bagand96 said:

Gentlegiant said:

Update;
After turning off “everything” as advised, the picture above were taken today (Saturday). Below are the difference in usage compared to Thursday night 
Thursday
Rate 1: 25883.87kwh
Rate 2: 76714.75kwh
Saturday: 
Rate 1: 25896.85kwh
Rate 2: 76736.16kwh

Please note: only light bulbs, fridge freezer, kettle, Tv are used during this period. 

Is this reading normal? Because if it is I may just have found what may have been causing the spike on the meter usage.

Thank you all for your help and Happy new year to you and yours 

Well here's the useage between Thursday evening and today.

Rate 1: 25896.85 - 25883.87 = 12.98
Rate 2: 76736.16 - 76714.75 = 21.41

12.98 + 21.41 = 34.39 kWh

So for the last 2 days, you've averaged 17.2 kWh per day.  Not sure how high or low that is.   The government say an "average" UK household uses around 3,600 kWh per year.  At 17.2 kWh a day (based on your experiment) 6,276 kWh in a year.  So if it really was just  fridge/TV/lights using electricity then that seems high? 

I think the spike may be caused by the baby's heated cot. its always on. I switched everything off with the cot only turned on for 1hour and it use about 3kwh

Robin9

Gentlegiant s

I think the spike may be caused by the baby's heated cot. its always on. I switched everything off with the cot only turned on for 1hour and it use about 3kwh

That's equivalent to a kettle. !
There's something else