Help needed on extremely high electricity bill

theoretica

Gentlegiant said:

Here is what I plan to do.

i have switch off everything and will monitor the meter readings for 3days from what was posted yesterday. So come Saturday evening I will check the readings and see but during this period only Tv and a very little kettle use will be used.

Do you have a fridge/freezer?  Three days with that off might want thinking about.  I also doubt you will want to go three days without lights.   First do a test for an hour or so with absolutely everything off and see what happens. Then as advised everything off but boil the kettle.

Very remote chance, but was this part of a larger property not long ago?

Gentlegiant

theoretica said:

Gentlegiant said:

Here is what I plan to do.

i have switch off everything and will monitor the meter readings for 3days from what was posted yesterday. So come Saturday evening I will check the readings and see but during this period only Tv and a very little kettle use will be used.

Do you have a fridge/freezer?  Three days with that off might want thinking about.  I also doubt you will want to go three days without lights.   First do a test for an hour or so with absolutely everything off and see what happens. Then as advised everything off but boil the kettle.

Very remote chance, but was this part of a larger property not long ago?

Yes I do have a fridge freezer. I think trying it out for an hour is a good idea

Talldave

The flashing LED on the meter can be used to get an instant indication of consumption. At 3000W (kettle or immersion heater) the LED will flash every 1.2s, at 1000W (fan heater) it'll flash every 3.6s, at 500W every 7.2s, 250W every 14.4s etc.

[Deleted User]

cattie said:

Gentlegiant said:

comeandgo said:

Gentlegiant said:

jack_pott said:

Gentlegiant said:

MWT said:

Gentlegiant said:

Okay as soon as I get back from work, I will check the rate one and compare it from yesterday. Also is it possible that my bills is calculated using only one rate? I have the BG app but I can only see bills history for the last 6months. I will try to dig up the first bill. And post my findings. 

Even just the most recent bill would help as that will show if they are using two rates and an E7 tariff or not and will also confirm the meter reading or readings they have used for that bill.

It is possible that you have a 2-rate meter but are being billed on a single rate tariff, but that would usually require you to report both readings, or at least the total of the two readings.

If I recall correctly Gerry has his electricity billed that way so he will probably add his experience shortly.

I have learned a lot in this short space if time. 

The moral of the tale is that you need to keep all your bills, check all the readings against your meter, and watch for any unusual changes in consumption (gas & water too).
There are quite a few coming on here querying outlandish bills, and I've noticed that almost all of them have electronic smart meters. It leaves me deeply sceptical that they are as reliable as the old electromechanical ones, which is the main reason I have resisted changing thus far.

At the moment I have decided to switch off everything and use only my gas for cooking and heating which has always been the case anyway. The electricity is only for bulbs, tv and and very very basic things

Do you have fridge, freezers, kettle, toaster, hair dryer, washing machine that heats the water, tumble dryer, spot lights, radio, laptop.  You may find you have lots of things using electricity.

Water tank yes but it doesn’t get hit if the gas is out so I know it doesnt use the electricity as a result. Kettle, water heater etc. But arent these basic things? Are these responsible for 130000kwh 6months? 

Anything that uses heat, such as kettles, hairdryers, water heater etc. are high energy, so definitely not  basic items in terms of energy when used each day. 

They're high power, not necessarily high energy.

niktheguru

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)

[Deleted User]

To all those suggesting using a kettle as a test load, the rating plate on my kettle just says 2500-3000W. Better than nothing, but a bit vague if you're trying to calibrate the meter.
To the OP: remember if you're testing the meter with a known load, you need to make sure everything else in the house is off whilst you're doing it.

[Deleted User]

Gerry1 said:

jack_pott said:

Last but not least, you need to get rid of the E7 metering for the future, you don't need it.

You probably need to get rid of the E7 tariff but there's no need to change the meter, that would just muddy the waters even further.  Only one person standing in the boat at any time ! 

I didn't say get rid of the meter, I said get rid of the E7 metering. Presumably if you don't need E7 it's simply a matter of setting the meter to record the consumption all as one period/rate.

[Deleted User]

coffeehound said:

jack_pott said:
... and I've noticed that almost all of them have electronic smart meters. It leaves me deeply sceptical that they are as reliable as the old electromechanical ones, which is the main reason I have resisted changing thus far.

The government propaganda campaign tells people that a smart meter is somehow going to save them money, and that it is somehow saving the polar bears, too.  I suspect it has been the exact opposite on both counts.

It estimates bills will fall....as consumers cut their electricity usage by 2.8 per cent....but an early study of 743 Dutch households with the meters found they only used....0.6 per cent less electricity than those with old meters.

Gerry1

jack_pott said:

Gerry1 said:

jack_pott said:

Last but not least, you need to get rid of the E7 metering for the future, you don't need it.

You probably need to get rid of the E7 tariff but there's no need to change the meter, that would just muddy the waters even further.  Only one person standing in the boat at any time ! 

I didn't say get rid of the meter, I said get rid of the E7 metering. Presumably if you don't need E7 it's simply a matter of setting the meter to record the consumption all as one period/rate.

No, nothing with the meter changes, it's just that the Day Rate and the Night Rate will be the same on the bill.

coffeehound

jack_pott said:
It estimates bills will fall....as consumers cut their electricity usage by 2.8 per cent....but an early study of 743 Dutch households with the meters found they only used....0.6 per cent less electricity than those with old meters.

A prophetic article.  In fact even then, they couldn't foresee the fault that meters couldn't even be used by different suppliers.  What a clusterfudge.