Moved into a one bedroom and payed 240 for the first month. Can this change?

amapofthepiano

Hi everyone,
I was hoping someone here can help me cause it's a little ridiculous and i'm wondering if i can do anything to fix it.
I've been in this apartment for two months so far and payed 240 in the first month for energy and then just stopped counting. I live alone with no high tech and i'm very conscious of when and how i use energy.
Full disclosure: poorly insulated victorian house by the sea, 4 meters (13 feet) ceilings, two big sash windows and it's all-electric with an Economy 7 prepayed meter, so i knew the bills would be bad but i didn't expect them to be that bad. I talked to everyone i could about this but no one can help me. The agency/landlord are refusing to do anything and the supplier (bulb) says they're just charging me for used energy, but how can i use 50 units a day in a one bedroom with nothing but a table lamp and a laptop?
Right now it's a little better because i draught proofed it to the extent of my abilities, put the foil behind the radiators and i'm keeping the boiler at minimum - i've been told i should run it like that all day instead of just switching on a high setting during the night. It's terribly cold here most of the time so I also got a couple of heaters that i run when i'm really cold (not at the same time; they spend 2 units an hour) and it's costing me 6 to 8 pounds a day. I'm not eligible for a smart meter until the end of Feb and they can't move me to credit yet so i'm trying to figure out if there's any way out of this situation.
I tried living without central heating but that makes me run the heaters all day/night and it's still about 6 a day so not a big difference. I'm not running any appliances before midnight cause that's when the cheap rate starts, not using too much hot water and only warming it up for an hour each evening and then switch the water option on the boiler off. Feels like i did everything i could to reduce the usage but it's still very expensive. 
Is there a way to fix this? Will it get better when i switch to credit meter? I would very much appreciate any ideas because i exhausted all options i had.
Thank you.

Robin9

A SMART meter won't reduce your bills; a credit meter a little.  Changing to a lower tariff may well help a little but you are trying to heat a badly insulated barn. Sounds like my first flat !

What is your tariff -  can you give a day/night split of the 50 units. please 


I assume these are conventional storage rads.

Gerry1

Much more info needed.  If you have a genuine electric boiler and wet radiators it will be catastrophically expensive and you should move out at the earliest opportunity, and you should not be on Economy 7 because its day rate is even more expensive than single rate.

With E7 you shouldn't be using any form of electrical heating during the day, except boiling the odd kettleful.  Assuming you have NSHs, when you go to bed turn the input control up and the output control down.  If it gets cold in the evening, turn the output control up.

Did you get your own pre-payment card from the start?  If you were given one by the landlord or one left behind, you're probably paying off debt for someone else's usage.  The meter will tell you, insert the card and look at the info against the relevant letters.

https://help.bulb.co.uk/hc/en-us/articles/360006306551-What-do-the-prepayment-meter-errors-mean-

This link may also be relevant:-

https://www.boostpower.co.uk/help/topics/payg/traditional-payg/what-do-the-screens-on-my-prepayment-meter-mean.html

Bulb aren't the cheapest, start a switch away from them, preferably to a credit meter (but get your landlord's permission for that).

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/switch-prepaid-gas-electricity/

amapofthepiano

Robin9 said:

A SMART meter won't reduce your bills; a credit meter a little.  Changing to a lower tariff may well help a little but you are trying to heat a badly insulated barn. Sounds like my first flat !

What is your tariff -  can you give a day/night split of the 50 units. please 


I assume these are conventional storage rads.

So the radiators aren't storage - just the regular ones and quite small for a big living room.
I think i'm already on the lowest tariff - i checked a few times and the tariff checker on this website also told me i'm on the cheapest tariff. 
Huh so i was wrong about 50 units - sorry about that - i used to spend that much but this was before i started using the boiler around the clock on the lowest setting. Now it's a little less. 
31.73 units during the day
6.91 at night
Night rate is midnight to 7am i think.
So this was a cold day so i had to use the heater during the day more than when it's sunny and the apartment warms up. But i still can't see what is using 30 units? I cook once in two days, sometimes i use tv for a couple of hours in the evening, other than that i'm just working so it's me, my laptop and a table lamp.
Looks like it's all a matter of the place being cold and me having to use the heater at 2 units per hour? =\

amapofthepiano

Gerry1 said:

Much more info needed.  If you have a genuine electric boiler and wet radiators it will be catastrophically expensive and you should move out at the earliest opportunity, and you should not be on Economy 7 because its day rate is even more expensive than single rate.

With E7 you shouldn't be using any form of electrical heating during the day, except boiling the odd kettleful.  Assuming you have NSHs, when you go to bed turn the input control up and the output control down.  If it gets cold in the evening, turn the output control up.

Did you get your own pre-payment card from the start?  If you were given one by the landlord or one left behind, you're probably paying off debt for someone else's usage.  The meter will tell you, insert the card and look at the info against the relevant letters.

https://help.bulb.co.uk/hc/en-us/articles/360006306551-What-do-the-prepayment-meter-errors-mean-

This link may also be relevant:-

https://www.boostpower.co.uk/help/topics/payg/traditional-payg/what-do-the-screens-on-my-prepayment-meter-mean.html

Bulb aren't the cheapest, start a switch away from them, preferably to a credit meter (but get your landlord's permission for that).

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/switch-prepaid-gas-electricity/

The saddest bit is that this apartment is wonderful and i was looking for it for a year (well, i was stuck outside of the country in pandemic fr half a year but still - it took a lot of effort to find it). The fact that it's cold it's only flaw and i hate moving and would like to stay here but these energy bills are soul crushing. I can't let it be cold all the time cause i'm a professional singer and it's a matter of my health cause it's quite poor so there's no way around it but to try and heat the place up no matter how expensive it is =\

The heaters aren't storage and i tried switching to the regular tariff (Bulb's regular one rate is about 16, but on two meter it's 19 agains 9 at night) but i think i asked them and they say that they can't take me off E7. They say that they're planning to start doing that in the future but don't know when and if i switch to anyone else now i'll have to wait for another three months to get a credit meter i think cause providers require you to be with them for a while before they can run a credit check to get you a smart meter and credit instead of prepayed? Or am i wrong?

I had the key but two different providers checked it a few times and i wasn't paying the debt, both said i'm simply paying for the amount of energy used...

Thanks for the link, i'll check with whoever is cheapest if i have to wait before they can install a credit meter; if not then i'll switch. The agency said i can and that's where their help stops =\

amapofthepiano

Okay so i found the credit meter eligibility thing here on the website for every supplier and i don't have to spend three months with them - Bulb told me that but i guess that's cause i just moved to this address. The cheap energy club says London Energy is the cheapest but they don't operate on my address.
Now EDF seems to be the best option cause they don't even do credit checks but they also say that i can get a fixed tariff and their "personal projection" is that i'll be paying 51 pounds a week with it fixed till may. This is more than i'm paying now and i'm expecting it to get cheaper when it'll get warmer cause less need of a heating so i'm just gonna call them and ask. I loved the email they sent me though. "Hey, sign up with us, you'll be paying more than you're already paying!"

Mouldymeat3

Is there an open flue? That can cause a real draught and should be blocked with an old sack to leave just a little ventilation up the chimney.

Robin9

I suggest you revisit the comparison sites. Your night use is barely 18%  in the winter - over the year its likely to be less than 10% and you will be better with single rate.

Even with Bulb 6.91 x 9 plus 31.73 x 19 is £6.60 ;  38.64 x 16 is £6.18    so single rate would be beneficial. And you should be able to do better than 16p.  

Things will certainly be better in the Summer but I guess with your particular flat you may need some heat through till may and start again in October

You need to track down the day use - forget battery chargers and TV. Lots of halogens ceiling lights or electric shower perhaps ?    More detective work - go to the consumer unit next to the meter and switch off all the various circuits. Switch one at a time and see how much the meter moves in an hour. One circuit will stand out.

Best of luck

Gerry1

Sorry to preach, but you're still far, far too vague.  (You're forgiven - it's easily done because it's a bit tecchy if you're not an anorak.)

Are the radiators electric (e.g. panel heaters) or are they conventional wet radiators with hot water pumped around  by an electric boiler?  Note that a hot water cylinder with an immersion heater or two is not a boiler.

I suspect that some of the day units are used by inappropriate use of an immersion heater.  If there's a cylinder there may be one heater at the bottom on an overnight-only circuit; it should be left on.  There may be another heater half way up on a 24h supply to give you half a tank of hot water at expensive day rates in an emergency. That boost switch should be left permanently OFF. 

Alternatively, if it's a cheapskate installation there may be just one heater on a 24h circuit, possibly with a local timer and an emergency boost switch.  Make sure that it's matched up to the meter times: it can be expensive if the wrong rate is used because the timer has not been programmed correctly or the clock has drifted because of a power cut.   You MUST find out your exact E7 times - look at the meter and note when it switches over.

Unfortunately Bulb are awkward, they won't offer single rate with an E7 meter, but many others will.  I doubt very much whether you're on the cheapest tariff: start comparing using Citizens Advice and 'Which? Switch'.  Always ignore all projections and claims about savings.  Projections are often inaccurate, especially if you haven't been a customer for a full year, and Ofgem's daft rules mean that most savings claims are nonsense.

So there's your homework: until you can escape to single rate from another supplier (preferably on a credit meter - get your landlord's permission), check those E7 times and make sure the hot water is only heated overnight.

amapofthepiano

Gerry1 said:

Sorry to preach, but you're still far, far too vague.  (You're forgiven - it's easily done because it's a bit tecchy if you're not an anorak.)

Are the radiators electric (e.g. panel heaters) or are they conventional wet radiators with hot water pumped around  by an electric boiler?  

The radiators are just the regular ones. I'm sorry i'm very new in the UK so i might not know the most obvious things so i'll just show:

The boiler is this one:
https://www.elnur-global.com/electric-boilers/mattira-combi-boiler-cmxi-wall-mounted/
It doesn't have a timer and i found the immersion heater switch and i'm keeping it off at all times.
Someone here suggested that i don't heat the water overnight (especially since i don't wake up at 7am when the cheap rate ends) but just heat it for an hour before shower cause that's enough so i've been doing that and i think it helped reduce the usage a little bit. I tried not using central heating at all but my living room became uninhabitable and i had to use the standalone heater on full blast so the bills basically stayed the same so i've been keeping the heating constantly on 30 out of 80 - the radiators are barely warm but i think gradually it begins to make a difference.
It's snowing outside now and negative temperatures all week so i'm a bit desperate cause it's terribly cold =\

I applied to switch to EDF but they take 3 weeks (however they'll get me off E7 straight away) and then another month before i can get a smart meter and switch from prepayed to credit....i should have ignored the hipster bulb from the start =\

macman

Oh dear. An electric wet CH system: the most expensive way ever devised to heat a property. And, since you are running it all day on E7 rates, it's bound to be cripplingly expensive. Your LL is culpable here, because he's probably ripped out nice old economic NSH's to install CH some time ago, but he's neglected to change the metering back to single rate. 
Your first priority is to get off E7, because you are paying for 82% of your usage at the expensive day rate. Get your LL's approval to switch to single rate metering, or use a supplier that will total the 2 readings from the E7 meter.
Then ask your LL to improve the insulation in the flat, the first step would probably be some secondary glazing for the sash windows?
If you have an immersion heater, it's cheaper to run that on E7 cheap night rate, than to run the electric combi on day rate....
The CH and your standalone electric heaters will cost exactly the same to run per kWh, if run at the same time, so use whichever does the job.
I'm baffled as to why you have an immersion heater and a combi; a combi usually replaces an immersion heater. It sounds like your LL is a real bodger when it comes to upgrades...
PS: I don't know what country you are from, but 30C here in winter is ridiculously hot, even supposing the CH system could ever get it that high with the huge heat loss from your sort of property. Typical living rooms temps here are 19C to 21C, with bedrooms a couple of C cooler.