electric bill sky high please help

dianna8106

good evening 
i hope everyone is doing well
i need some help with my electricity 
no matter what i do i cant seem to  get my bills to go down 
this is what i do
unplug all appliances that are not being used
never turn on my heating its underfloor heating and i never have turned it on
turn off the cooker hob from the wall after cooking to save electric
us lanterns at night so the lights are not being used.

the fridge is always on and also the water heater is on a timer. with a temp of 55 for 2 hours in the morning and 4 in the evening 
i have a one bedroom electric only flat so no gas 
i have Scottish power on supersaver fixed jan 2022 b3
when i moved in to this flat i was paying 60 month
now its 190 a month but i dont know why it has increased so much
there is me and one child so one xbox one laptop two phones.

 there must be something i am not understanding here  
my bill is going up the more i try to bring it down 

comeandgo

Are you giving them your actual electricity readings each month?  Do you have a photo of your electric meter?

dianna8106

i do not have access to my meter as its locked down stairs i ask the concierge for it and he send me the reading by text. the estimated amount per month was 108 when i gave them the reading once i received it  it went up to 150 per month im actually scared to give Augusts reading

QrizB

1000kWh in July is quite a large number!

As asked by comeandgo, please can we have a photo of your meter? And could you share your meter reading from eg. the "bills" page of the app, including any letters (A, C, E are common ones) or the words "actual", "customer" or estimated"?

QrizB

Just seen your reply. Are you certain the concierge is reading the correct meter? That's a problem that crops up here from time to time.

Can you get the concierge to take a photo of your meter and send it to you? You can then check the serial number of the meter against the one on your bill. It won't answer all the questions but will at least elimintate one possible error.

dianna8106

that is a great idea i will ask for a photo thank you 

Robin9

 You speak of "the reading""   - if you are on E7 there should be 2.

What times is your water heater set to ?   If on E7 then make the most of the off peak rates.

There was another thread where the only way to turn the underfloor off was to switch it off - just setting the controller to off is not enough.

You really need access to your meter - check the serial number on the actual meter with that on the bill.  Take great care in reading the meter - some can be difficult to read - look for a decimal point.

Reed_Richards

It's hard to think what sort of thing could case electricity consumption to increase in summer, normally it would be much higher in winter because of the need for heating.  Maybe an inefficient fan or air conditioner but that you would not use at all until summer so would not give you a gradual month-on-month increase.  Maybe a fridge or freezer with a faulty seal that has to try harder and harder to keep the contents cold as the room temperature increases.  But I am clutching at straws to think of anything that could account for what you are seeing.   

Robin9

Is SP actually using your readings ?    Post the meter readings from your bills please - include the letters A, C and E.

Gerry1

You MUST get access to your meter, read it yourself and take your own photos to post here and for future reference.  Accept no excuses, and make a fuss if necessary.  Some meters can be quite difficult to read so it's easy to get wrong readings, and it's not impossible that the meter is supplying someone else's flat or is faulty, so you need to do a meter sanity test as follows.

Close down and unplug all computers and sensitive equipment and then switch off all the circuits at the consumer unit, ending with the main switch.  Look at the light on the meter marked '1000 Imp/kWh' or similar and make sure it never flashes once or, if it’s an old meter, make sure the spinning disk never moves.  Then switch on all the high power appliances (kettle, tumble dryer, hotplate, oven etc) and make sure the light is flashing rapidly or the disk is spinning.  Finally, switch off everything except one high power item of known rating (e.g. a kettle) and count the number of flashes (impulses) or disk rotations per minute. If the light says '1000 Imp/kWh' then a 3kW kettle should make it flash about 50 times per minute.  Not an exact test because the kettle's rating may be approximate and the power it draws will depend on the local voltage, but near enough.  Make sure the serial number of the meter is the same as shown on the bill.

Make sure your immersion heaters are not using day rate electricity. The top one is likely to have a Boost switch on a 24h circuit to give you half a tank of expensive hot water ONLY if you've run out by mistake or excessive use.  Should normally be left OFF !  The bottom heater should be on an E7 circuit switched by the meter to give a full tank at the low E7 rate.  Should be left ON when in residence (except for people with gas or oil CH, of course).

mac.d

Gerry1 said:

You MUST get access to your meter, read it yourself and take your own photos to post here and for future reference.  Accept no excuses, and make a fuss if necessary.  Some meters can be quite difficult to read so it's easy to get wrong readings, and it's not impossible that the meter is supplying someone else's flat or is faulty, so you need to do a meter sanity test as follows.

Definitely this. It's your cash so you want them to bill you correctly, so make sure that 1) the right meter is being read & 2) the correct readings are being taken from the meter. You should be doing this on a regular basis, record the readings and submit them to Scottish Power once a month so you're not dealing with estimated bills.