Help with approx £700 pcm electric bills

SublimeEnvy

Hi there, I live in a 3 bedroom home and I am being billed just under £5,000 of electricity for the last 167 days (November 2nd until now). I've been getting bills of around £400 per month which I felt was very high, but paid and now I've submitted meter readings they are telling me that I have been using nearly £700 per month. I cannot understand how this is the case, it seems insanely high. 
We have:

• a tumble dryer which is used 5x per week
• Electric cooker/oven used once per day
• electric shower used 1-2 times per day
• Lights are on in the living room and kitchen in afternoons and evenings
• Radiators are on in each bedroom and one in the living room (this are electric radiators). 
• We turned hallway, kitchen and dining room radiators off to save money

There are also two meters (its a old house) and I'm not sure I really understand the difference between the two but it is both meter readings that I've given and they have told me this is how much I have to pay. Is there anything I can do, or does a 3 bedroom house with all electrics really cost £700 a month?

Robin9

Please give us your meter readings and a photo. 

Some meters can be very difficult to read - old ones that had dials that went in different directions, new ones that have a decimal point that is difficult to see (and don't read the numbers after the decimal point !)

Who is the supplier?  Did you move in in November or change supplier ?

PS What are the radiators - storage, panel or magic dust?

niktheguru

As many will post.....
electric heating is the most expensive way to heat your house.
If it is your house, consider trying to get gas fitted ASAP.
What type of electric central heating do you have? Storage heaters, fan heaters, water heaters?
You need to check what the meter set up in your house actually is. Is one for the heating and the other for everything else?
What tariff are you on, is it a standard tariff or are you on the cheapest available?

The upshot is you are paying a ridiculous amount....but it is probably near what it actually is considering you are all electric, have a big house and have your radiators in bedroom and living room on at all times????

SublimeEnvy

The electricity supplier is SSE. We moved in earlier in 2020, it's a house that comes with my partners job and as its seasonal with partner not working November- May (usually until February but covid extended it) our employer asked that we covered the electric bills and council tax rather than charge us rent. No change in supplier for years.  We're a semi-detached with two other houses attached to us but both have been empty this time and have their own meters

SublimeEnvy

Above was May's meter readings, this is Novembers:

SublimeEnvy

niktheguru said:

As many will post.....
electric heating is the most expensive way to heat your house.
If it is your house, consider trying to get gas fitted ASAP.
What type of electric central heating do you have? Storage heaters, fan heaters, water heaters?
You need to check what the meter set up in your house actually is. Is one for the heating and the other for everything else?
What tariff are you on, is it a standard tariff or are you on the cheapest available?

The upshot is you are paying a ridiculous amount....but it is probably near what it actually is considering you are all electric, have a big house and have your radiators in bedroom and living room on at all times????

Its a water heater and we don't own the house so can't change the heating unfortunately. I don't know what tariff we're on, think it is standard. Bedroom radiators were on at night, not on anymore and living room was on a little in the morning and evening before bed. In the living room we tried to use our fireplace as much as possible when it was cold.

Robin9

 November / May 83479 80705 is 2774; 68733 51279 is 17454.   WOW  if you are paying say 15p thats £3000 (and that's summer time)

From your description of the heating  this sounds like an electrically heated boiler feeding a wet water system - which is the worst system known to man - described as putting £20 notes on an open fire.

SublimeEnvy

We're going to track in over the next 30 days and use no radiators or the tumble dryer so it will just be lights, cooker and shower. It's just an insane amount considering we were freezing this winter trying not to use radiators too much (we're in North Scotland)

QrizB

From the looks of it, the old mmechanical meter is your "heating" circuit and the newer digital meter should run everything else.

Are you on a dual-rate tariff, like Economy 7? Is the electricity account in your name? Are you able to switch?

I've just got a quote from Which Switch for an address in Thurso. There are 73 plans cheaper than SSE's standard tariff, some being 30% cheaper. Example:

SSE Standard - 18.974 p/kWh, 27.405p/day standing charge

Symbio Energy - 12.479p/kWh, 10.000p/day standing charge

Symbio don't get the best reviews here but they're cheap.

SublimeEnvy

QrizB said:

From the looks of it, the old mmechanical meter is your "heating" circuit and the newer digital meter should run everything else.

Are you on a dual-rate tariff, like Economy 7? Is the electricity account in your name? Are you able to switch?

I've just got a quote from Which Switch for an address in Thurso. There are 73 plans cheaper than SSE's standard tariff, some being 30% cheaper. Example:

SSE Standard - 18.974 p/kWh, 27.405p/day standing charge

Symbio Energy - 12.479p/kWh, 10.000p/day standing charge

Symbio don't get the best reviews here but they're cheap.

The bills are in our employers names, I can raise it with them and request a switch but I'm not sure if they would. up to 30% cheaper is a massive difference

Gerry1

You've misread the radio teleswitch meter.  The little t in the display denotes the total of the day and night readings.  Presumably it's on Economy7 or similar so you need to read the day and night registers (probably R1 and R2) and enter them separately.  You also need to make sure that the readings are not transposed on the bill.

Heaven knows why you have a second meter: if the teleswitch meter is on E7 it's hard to understand why you need anything else because the whole house switches to the low rate overnight.  It is supplying an adjoining property, annexe or all the streetlights? You'll also be paying another daily charge.

You certainly have a weird set up.  Electric heating is the most expensive you can have, and that's before even considering your tariff which I fear will be one of the most expensive on the market.