Help! £400 a month electric bill - one person, 2 bed flat!

lovelouise

Moved into a rented flat a month ago. 2 bedrooms, 3 old storage heaters in total throughout the flat. Have had to use electric convector heaters to boost the heating in the evening - one on for maybe 1-2 hours most evenings, storage heaters on always. I work Monday to Friday 9-5 so only home evenings and weekends. 2 loads of washing done a week. Water heater switched on for an hour at night to do dishes. Submitted meter readings on 31st December to new energy supplier with an E7 tariff. Was projected £55 a month DD. Have just submitted meter readings on app, just to gauge how much I’m using - £227 for the period 31/12 to 16/01! I could cry. £400 a month? That’s almost the same price as my rent. I cannot afford this. What do I do? Switch all the storage heaters off and freeze? I really don’t feel like I’ve been using electric excessively so I’m really worried. I’m pregnant and absolutely dreading next winter when I have a baby here too - I think I need to move!

Robin9

First questions -  is the bill based on the  meter readings that you have given them ?

What annual figures did you give your supplier when you switched ?   If you guessed very low or simply said 2 bed flat with storage rads  then that again leads to rubbish estimates..

Please give us the readings you used. Some modern meters are very difficult to read - watch out for the decimal point. Has your meter got a small keypad. A photo will help

lovelouise

Robin9 said:

First questions -  is the bill based on the  meter readings that you have given them ?

What annual figures did you give your supplier when you switched ?   If you guessed very low or simply said 2 bed flat with storage rads  then that again leads to rubbish estimates..

Please give us the readings you used. Some modern meters are very difficult to read - watch out for the decimal point. Has your meter got a small keypad. A photo will help

Yes, the bill is based on actual readings that I submitted. I didn’t want to leave it and get a shock so was just trying to gauge what sort of leeway i had for bumping up the heating when it gets colder.

I’ve never lived in an all electric flat before so had no idea about consumption. I just input details of the property and they estimated. I expected it to be more than they estimated, but £400 a month is just not something that I can afford. 

I submitted readings 1 and 2 for what I assume is day and night readings, and then the T I guess is total? I submitted them as 02884 and 08047. A pop up came up on Scottish Power saying it didn’t think that was right?

lovelouise

Here are the meter readings

tim_p

Are you sure the 10932 one is the right display, the 1 isn’t the same as the 1 on the 02884 screen, not even a 1 in fact 

Robin9

Can you post a copy of meter readings part of your bill please - blank out the personal info and account number. Are the initial readings what you gave ?

£55  certainly too cheap - older type flat in winter quite possibly well over £100 a month

[Deleted User]

tim_p said:

Are you sure the 10932 one is the right display, the 1 isn’t the same as the 1 on the 02884 screen, not even a 1 in fact 

Hi,

it's actually a 't', total?

lovelouise

This is all I can access at the moment. No bills yet. How do I know which reading is day and which is night when it just says 1 and 2? Maybe I’ve got them round the wrong way?

lovelouise

Robin9 said:

Can you post a copy of meter readings part of your bill please - blank out the personal info and account number. Are the initial readings what you gave ?

£55  certainly too cheap - older type flat in winter quite possibly well over £100 a month

Yes, I expected upwards of £100 in winter but certainly not £400. 

lovelouise

Usage from website

tim_p

[Deleted User] said:

tim_p said:

Are you sure the 10932 one is the right display, the 1 isn’t the same as the 1 on the 02884 screen, not even a 1 in fact 

Hi,

it's actually a 't', total?

So not register 1 then but a total of 1 & 2, so the cause of the huge bill?