Electricity meter readings seem too high & bill is excessive

Harry_510

I'm going to be moving onto bulb, should I let them change me over? Or just leave E-on myself?

MattMattMattUK

Harry_510 said:

I live in a two bedroom maisonette and my energy provider is E-on. I have given actual meter readings and for the 13th Feb to the 23rd Feb the meter showed 503KWH of usage at a total bill of £91.89 and from the 23rd Feb to the 2nd March the meter showed 238KWH of usage at a total bill of £44.10. This means that my energy bill will be around £240 per month, when it's predicted to be £51 by E-on.

I live in a large (150sq m) two bed flat, all electric, in monetary terms my energy bills work out at around £1.20 per day at this time of year, with a small amount of heating, although it was higher at nearly £2.10 per day in January with the weather being much colder, most of the usage comes from water heating, yours should not be that dissimilar. 

Harry_510 said:

I have been fairly frugal with the heating/hot water - a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours at night. 

Heating does not tend to use that much, especially if your home is well insulated, however hot water can use an incredible amount. Look at the wattage on your hot water heater vs your radiators, there will be a huge difference.

Harry_510 said:

My only source of energy is energy is electricity but this still seems far too high. I am unsure whether my tariff is just far too expensive (17.71p per KWH) or whether there is excess energy usage somewhere in the system?

It is more expensive to use electricity rather than just gas unfortunately, but your rate is also at the higher end. my previous fix was £0.1379 per KWh, however the best deal I could get a few months ago was £0.1689 so a fairly significant rise, you should however be able to save on your rate slightly by shopping around.

Harry_510 said:

E-on have claimed they are unable to send a technician until the 19th March - will they be able to retrospectively reduce the bill if they find an issue? Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

The technician will be able to tell if your meter is faulty and they will put right any pricing if they are, but the issue might be your actual usage as well. I would suggest you do a quick test first, turn everything off, at the fuse box, so that there is no power going to anything (Fridge/freezers will be fine for a few hours), leave it for an hour and check your measurements before and after. They should be at zero, if they are not then there is an obvious issue with the meter. Also monitor your usage over a period when there is no heating and hot water usage (all day would be good as you say you only use hot water and heating in the morning and evening), it should be minimal in that period, if it is high then it gives you something more to investigate. 

Harry_510 said:

Hi, yes but I've only lived here for just over two weeks... I will continue to need hot water, even when it's warmer. The boiler is using 10KWH for an hour of hot water. If the only energy I used was hot water, that's 20KWH per day or £106 per month?

You will use less energy in the summer heating water as well, at the moment the water is probably arriving in your property at 3-6c, in the summer the water will be arriving at 15-20c (although can rise as high as 25c), so in the summer the water heater has to raise the temperature 15-20c less than in winter. Also in summer people tend to have cooler showers than in winter so there is another saving to be had. 

Gerry1

MattMattMattUK said:

most of the usage comes from water heating, yours should not be that dissimilar.

Nope, it's the other way round.  An immersion heater is probably 3kW but it won't run all day, unlike electric room heating.

MattMattMattUK said:

Heating does not tend to use that much, especially if your home is well insulated, however hot water can use an incredible amount. Look at the wattage on your hot water heater vs your radiators, there will be a huge difference.

As above, it's the kWh that do the damage, not the kW.

MattMattMattUK said:

however the best deal I could get a few months ago was £0.1689 so a fairly significant rise, you should however be able to save on your rate slightly by shopping around.

You obviously looked at the wrong PCWs, those that show by default only the expensive companies that pay commission.  Try Citizens Advice and 'Which? Switch' instead.

Farway

Harry_510 said:

I'm going to be moving onto bulb, should I let them change me over? Or just leave E-on myself?

Let Bulb do it, it's industry normal plus that way the dates will be the same and not you trying to second guess it

Harry_510

Gerry1 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

most of the usage comes from water heating, yours should not be that dissimilar.

Nope, it's the other way round.  An immersion heater is probably 3kW but it won't run all day, unlike electric room heating.

MattMattMattUK said:

Heating does not tend to use that much, especially if your home is well insulated, however hot water can use an incredible amount. Look at the wattage on your hot water heater vs your radiators, there will be a huge difference.

As above, it's the kWh that do the damage, not the kW.

MattMattMattUK said:

however the best deal I could get a few months ago was £0.1689 so a fairly significant rise, you should however be able to save on your rate slightly by shopping around.

You obviously looked at the wrong PCWs, those that show by default only the expensive companies that pay commission.  Try Citizens Advice and 'Which? Switch' instead.

Citizen's advice has come up with 'Symbio' at 13.1p per KWH and 17p per day standing charge, which is much cheaper than bulb at 16.5p per kwh and 20.5p per day standing charge. Thank you for this tip! 

However, is it an issue that I've never heard of them & they have horrible customer reviews??

Gerry1

Harry_510 said:

Gerry1 said:

You obviously looked at the wrong PCWs, those that show by default only the expensive companies that pay commission.  Try Citizens Advice and 'Which? Switch' instead.

Citizen's advice has come up with 'Symbio' at 13.1p per KWH and 17p per day standing charge, which is much cheaper than bulb at 16.5p per kwh and 20.5p per day standing charge. Thank you for this tip!
However, is it an issue that I've never heard of them & they have horrible customer reviews??

A bit like Super-Concentrated Marmite, although Marmite don't threaten to sue customers for £25,000 if they post less than enthusiastic reviews on Trustpilot !

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5960285/symbio-energy-feedback

Harry_510

Gerry1 said:

Harry_510 said:

Gerry1 said:

You obviously looked at the wrong PCWs, those that show by default only the expensive companies that pay commission.  Try Citizens Advice and 'Which? Switch' instead.

Citizen's advice has come up with 'Symbio' at 13.1p per KWH and 17p per day standing charge, which is much cheaper than bulb at 16.5p per kwh and 20.5p per day standing charge. Thank you for this tip!
However, is it an issue that I've never heard of them & they have horrible customer reviews??

A bit like Super-Concentrated Marmite, although Marmite don't threaten to sue customers for £25,000 if they post less than enthusiastic reviews on Trustpilot !

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5960285/symbio-energy-feedback

Ah I see!! Well maybe not then... Neon reef looking like the next best option. Their fixed rate option has a £30 exit fee and the variable rate does not, do we have any idea what sort of increases will be happening with the variable rate changes in April?

matelodave

My Aqua One is variable and hasn't changed since October (12.25/kwh + 13p s/c), dunno when or if it will.

However come April, I'll have used about 5000kwh (approx 70%)of my annual leccy consumption on it, so I'm more than happy.  I might be looking around if the rate goes up significantly.

Gerry1

I've been with Neon Reef for 13 months and found them great.  You can't phone them, it's all online, but when I wanted to change my DD details a real person responded within minutes.  Although not available to new customers, I'm still on the Aqua One variable tariff which has never increased its rates.

However, they are a sister company of Utility Point who don't exactly have great reviews, and some customers have found themselves suddenly transferred to Neon Reef.

The reviews seem generally favourable.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6164185/neon-reef-any-views

You may be able to get a joining bonus if you go to the referrals board on MSE.

MattMattMattUK

Gerry1 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

most of the usage comes from water heating, yours should not be that dissimilar.

Nope, it's the other way round.  An immersion heater is probably 3kW but it won't run all day, unlike electric room heating.

I do not run my heating all day despite being at home all day, an hour in the morning is plenty to keep warm for the day, sometimes it might need another hour in the evening if it is particularly cold, but it certainly does not run all day. so the 3kW immersion heater might run for two hours a day, the 1.2kW of electric radiators might run for one or two hours a day, 6kWh vs 2.4kWh.

Gerry1 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Heating does not tend to use that much, especially if your home is well insulated, however hot water can use an incredible amount. Look at the wattage on your hot water heater vs your radiators, there will be a huge difference.

As above, it's the kWh that do the damage, not the kW.

However someone would not run their heating all day every day, if I did my flat would hit 25c within a few hours and by the end of the first day it would likely be in the 40c+ range, on day two I would be at severe danger of heat stroke.