Help with approx £700 pcm electric bills

niktheguru

it might be worth speaking to your "employer" and asking instead of paying for utilities would they instead charge you rent and include the utilities, as you seem to be paying a fortune in energy bills!!

Robin9

@SublimeEnvy What is the VAT rate ? Just thinking that if the bills are in the employers name VAT might be charged at 20% instead of the domestic 5%

NewLeaf1986

There's only one output on the teleswitch meter so I would have to assume that the digital / teleswitch meter is off peak only and the analogue meter is permanent feed / peak rate... There's no signal wire from the teleswitch meter either so it isn't telling the other meter when E7 hours are on and to pause metering.

It's a very strange setup and needs looking at by the DNO. It might be setup incorrectly. 

You should have an off peak supply which feeds a separate consumer unit for your hot water cylinder and radiators with a boost function fed from your "permanent live" consumer unit.

You should also have a meter which records all overnight usage at a low rate irrespective of whether it's being consumed by the heating or other appliancea and day usage at a higher rate with the heating not being supplied...

Unless you have a peculiar triple rate supply but that still wouldn't explain why your teleswitch meter only has one output.

This needs properly investigating by an electrician and the DNO. 

I wouldn't be half surprised if your supplier have you on a tarrif that's incompatible with your metering, too.

I'm not surprised the employer asked you to cover the 'leccy instead of the rent. They know what's up ...

NewLeaf1986

Edit: just read the post properly.

Oh dear. Assuming there's no gas supply you aught to be moved on to E7 and given night stores and a hot water cylinder.

We had night stores and a big hot water cylinder in our old house, with the radiators only charged over night and hot water only heated overnight, all supplied by E7 off peak, and a shower fed off the hot water cylinder, our energy bills averaged £75 PCM. 

We didn't use a dryer though... Those things absolutely rape the electricity bill. If we do ever buy one it will be a heat pump dryer but given the cost of running any kind of dryer we are quite happy to hang-dry our unmentionables.

The setup you have right now is worse than burning cash to warm yourselves 😕

Gerry1

The setup you have right now is worse than burning cash to warm yourselves 😕

Absolutely.  SSE state "With THTC you get two meters. One is for off-peak energy you use and the other records all your normal usage like lights, kitchen appliances and sockets. Just so you know, energy used on the normal meter costs more than our standard rate."

Presumably this means that because the Night Storage Heaters aren't in use, the OP is only getting the immersion heater at the Expensive Off Peak Rate and everything else including all the panel heaters at the Very Expensive 24h rate.  Probably two standing charges as well, so it's really a disaster.

Looks like SSE's single rate won't be very competitive, perhaps 17.88p per kWh and a 27.39p daily charge, whereas you should be able to pay as little as only 12.432p per kWh and 20.18p daily charge with PFP.  (YMMV because of location.)

Assuming that gas, oil, or a heat pump won't be available, the only realistic answer is Economy 7 with a different company used with repaired and / or new storage heaters.

NewLeaf1986

A complete overhaul of your entire installation will definitely pay for itself rapidly...

Supply changed to Economy 7.

All heaters swapped out for night stores with optional daytime boost (but really daytime boost only to be used in extreme cases of severe low temperatures).

Hot water and shower supplied from a hot water cylinder which is heated from your off peak switched supply.

Dryer swapped for a Heat Pump type dryer or just got rid of altogether.

It would probably cost £5,000 to do all this work or more given at least a partial rewire would also be required, but given the extreme costs you are currently incurring, this heating system overhaul would almost certainly pay for itself inside a year. 

Gerry1

A E7 meter with a daytime boost might be a workaround if the existing storage heaters are repaired.  If they are relatively low capacity (e.g. if designed for E10 or similar) it might avoid the need to buy a new NSH for extra capacity and rewiring the NSHs.  Of course the meter's boost would be at the daytime rate and have to be used sparingly but overall it could be very cost effective.

Grumpy_chap

SublimeEnvy said:

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

I don't understand your system, and others have commented about the two-meter arrangement.

BUT I will ask this question as I cannot see that anyone else asked it.  You pay no rent in return for paying the utility bills in an employer-owned property.  Are you certain that the electricity meter(s) feeding your house feed your house and nothing else?  You say the other two houses have their own meters, but it is possible that they are sub-billing meters fed from the main supply meter.  Two empty houses may still have heating on for frost-protection.  OR, the main supply meter may also feed other demands within the employer's estate - I don't think you mentioned what type of site it is that you are located on.

Finally, how does the electricity cost you have paid compare to comparable rent for an equivalent property in the areas?  Are you still better off?  

Gerry1

Grumpy_chap said:

SublimeEnvy said:

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

You say the other two houses have their own meters, but it is possible that they are sub-billing meters fed from the main supply meter.  Two empty houses may still have heating on for frost-protection.  OR, the main supply meter may also feed other demands within the employer's estate - I don't think you mentioned what type of site it is that you are located on.

It's difficult to work out because there's lots we don't know, but if we assume the meters date from about 1994 (one manufactured in 1991, the other certified in 1994) they show an average total annual consumption of 5,637kWh for those 17 years.  Of course that figure could be skewed if the house has been unoccupied for significant periods.

However, the OP's consumption since November is a massive 17,454kWh on the ordinary circuits (which now include the convectors) plus an equally massive 2774kWh on the off-peak heating circuit (presumably it's only the immersion heater because the NSHs are switched off).  That could well be explained by the OP's meters supplying all three properties.

A meter sanity test is urgently required.  Switch everything off at the consumer unit(s) or fusebox(es), watch the the 1500 Imp/kWh LED on the telemeter for a few minutes and make sure it never flashes, and make sure the disc on the black meter never moves.

If they do, the OP is probably paying for three properties, so it might explain why there's no rent being charged, there's no free lunch !

SublimeEnvy said:

We're a semi-detached with two other houses attached to us

I can't quite visualise that...

Grumpy_chap

Gerry1 said

SublimeEnvy said:

We're a semi-detached with two other houses attached to us

I can't quite visualise that...

I took that to mean end of a terrace of 3.