Please can you help - electricity quadrupled

johnsof75

I would be very grateful for your help. 

In the past year, according to my meter, my electricity use has quadrupled. in the past 30 days  the metre is saying that I used 478 kWh in the day and 207 kWh at night (I am meant to be on economy seven). I used to use about 5-6kwh per  day and night (so now around 23kwh). I live alone in a one bedroom flat and spend most of the day in the office. I don't have a dishwasher or tumble dryer. I haven't bought any new electrical items and still get up/ go to work at the same time. 

I did wonder if it may be my hot water boiler (a Gledhill plus coil boiler). It broke down last March and they sent someone to fix it. Since then the electricity  bill has been very high. I don't ever touch the boiler but today I noticed that its no longer  possible to get an on peak boost (there is a button you used to be able to push and it would flash red- this doesn't do anything now) - the water  just seems to be permanently boiling hot. Could this be the cause of my very high bills and if so what can I do to fix it? 

I am so sorry if this is a silly question to ask. Thank you in advance for any help you may. be able to give. 

johnsof75

I am sorry to drip feed. I have just checked the boiler and next to it is something called the Merlin Green IHP- 15720. This says Perm On on the screen . Does that mean that it is permanently on so not using Economy 7? Could this be why the electricity has become so expensive? The Gledhill Engineer set it last year. Should I call them out again to reset it? sorry I don't have a clue. Thank you 

Neil_Jones

Do you have a smart meter?  Is this what the in-house toy device thing says?

Get some old bills out and see what you were using on them.  Also check if you they were billed on actual readings or estimates.  If its smart, doesn't necessarily mean its been sending them particularly if you changed supplier.

johnsof75

Thank you. I don't have a smart meter. I have compared my old bills with my current ones and it says I am using nearly four times as much- they were billed on actual readings. 

I think when my boiler was serviced the settings may have been changed as it now seems to be permanently on ( as per the IHP) -and the boost button doesn't work. I haven't bought any new electrical items nor have I done anything differently (eg routine wise) than I did in the past 12 years of living here. 

Gerry1

I assume you are referring to Gledhill PulsaCoil and a Merlin Gerin IHP- 15720?

You don't need anyone to reset it, you can check it yourself and make any adjustments that may be necessary.

https://docs.rs-online.com/2c3d/0900766b802296b2.pdf

In particular, make sure that the GMT/BST change hasn't resulted in the charging period starting an hour too early or finishing an hour too late.  E7 meters usually stay with GMT, so if you use a 24h circuit you shouldn't alter the local time when the clocks change or let the timer do this automatically.  Even worse if it's switched on 24/7 !  Note the bit about the permanent override: you may need to press the < and > buttons simultaneously for a couple of seconds to return it to Automatic mode.

If the timer is adrift from the meter by an hour it would effectively transfer most of your hot water electricity usage to the expensive day rate.

If you look at the flashing red light on the meter (marked 1000 Imp/kWh or similar) you can see when there is high usage.

johnsof75

Thank you so much for such a helpful response. I did try to reset the Merlin Gerin IHP using the document you kindly provided but couldn't do it (sorry for being so useless). Is this something an electrician may be able to help with? It just seems to be stuck saying  Perm ON. 

I also checked the metre. Although the only things that are on is the Fridge Freezer and the boiler (I have switched everything else off) the flashing red light is consistently on. 

Gerry1

Pics of the meter and Merlin Gerin IHP would help.

Do you mean that the LED is permanently illuminated, or that it's always flashing?  The latter is to be expected, it's just the flash rate that varies.

macman

Is the 400% usage increase on the day or night rate?
Forget dishwashers, fridge/freezer: what matters is your heating and hot water.