Help with my bill

MARKMAKAVELI

Hi all,

Just wondering if I'm missing a trick here. I live alone, in a flat that I own an all electric flat on Economy 7 tariff with Octopus.

Obviously whilst it's hot, I've had no heating on whatsoever, so the only electric that gets used is for appliances etc.

My bill when using nothing but the essential appliances is around £30 (June) and in July it went up to £40.

Day elec - June 73 to July 106 kWh and night elec June 72 to July 90 kWh.

The only differences in July being that I ran one bath using the boost function (ran out of hot water anyway annoyingly) and I've used a hairdryer for about 20seconds a day and a fan for a total of about 3hrs. I only use the oven once a week and the hob probably for an hour a week total.

I just want to sense check that this is about 'normal'? Even though it's small amounts, an extra tenner or an extra third (my maths isnt great haha) for something so minimal seems crazy. It gets me worried about winter when I do actually have to have the heating on.

JJC1956

Have they sent you a breakdown of your bill or was it an estimate

Reed_Richards

Your fridge and freezer will have to work harder in hot weather and will consume more power keeping things cold.  This would be especially true if you have an inefficient model or a door that is not sealing properly.  And they run 24 hours of the day so both your day and night electricity consumption would be increased.

JGB1955

Presumably you are heating your water overnight on Economy 7?  That will account for most of the overnight usage.

MARKMAKAVELI

Yes it was a breakdown.
Yes I heat my water overnight.

Ok thanks guys, so from what you're saying it's nothing extraordinary going on. That's all I wanted to be sure of as I've never been on all electric before.

QrizB

A total for the month of 196kWh isn't outrageous, that's 6kWh per day (ish). If 3kWh daily are for water heating that leaves 3kWh for eveything else.

yelias

QrizB said:

A total for the month of 196kWh isn't outrageous, that's 6kWh per day (ish). If 3kWh daily are for water heating that leaves 3kWh for eveything else.

With respect, I think the nub of the OP's question is not the total amount of electricity they have used, but rather why it has increased by approximately 35% from June to July.
(145kWh in June to 196 kWh in July)

An extra bathful of hot water would only possibly account for about 10% of 51kWh extra.
The fan and hairdrier can effectively be ignored for these purposes.

Whilst it is true that a fridge freezer would have worked harder in July than in June, it should not account for the extra remaining 45kWh. A fridge freezer should not use that amount of electricity in total in a month, let alone just the incremental amount due to the warm weather.

Robin9

and July is a day longer.

MARKMAKAVELI

June & July bills if this helps?

yelias

MARKMAKAVELI said:

June & July bills if this helps?

Well your "July" bill clearly covers 29 days whilst your "June" bill clearly covers only 25 days, so all things being equal, that accounts for 16% of the increase.

molerat

First bill is 25 days, second 29 so take up a bit of the difference.  Who took the opening reads ? Is it a change of tariff, change of supplier or newly moved into the property ?