Excessive energy bill price - help??

drummergirl95

For some background, me and my partner recently moved into our first apartment (1 bedroom). The flat is all electric, no gas.

Our October usage was 380 kwh and the bill came to £104. This was roughly what we expected so didn’t question it. 

Our November bill came… £260 and 750 kwh usage. This seems absurd to me. We have not done anything differently to October other than have the heating on once for an hour or two. Our apartment is usually a good temperature naturally as we are quite high up so didn’t need to use it. We really try our best to be energy efficient, I use eco mode on everything I can and never leave things on standby. The only items on 24/7 are the router and the fridge/freezer (obviously). 

We spoke to our building maintenance who did a creep test on our meter. The meter did not move during the power off so seems to be working fine. The only other thing we can possibly think it could be is the immersion heater? We are young and have never lived alone before but from reading it seems as though these are quite costly to run, and I believe ours is on all of the time (but is set to a timer we did not set). 

We don’t know what else to do but are really worried. Maintenance said that from 2nd December to today (6th), we’ve already used 150kwh! We haven’t done anything differently and have checked everything. Any help would be appreciated. 

MaryNB

drummergirl95 said:

For some background, me and my partner recently moved into our first apartment (1 bedroom). The flat is all electric, no gas.

Our October usage was 380 kwh and the bill came to £104. This was roughly what we expected so didn’t question it. 

Our November bill came… £260 and 750 kwh usage. This seems absurd to me. We have not done anything differently to October other than have the heating on once for an hour or two. Our apartment is usually a good temperature naturally as we are quite high up so didn’t need to use it. We really try our best to be energy efficient, I use eco mode on everything I can and never leave things on standby. The only items on 24/7 are the router and the fridge/freezer (obviously). 

We spoke to our building maintenance who did a creep test on our meter. The meter did not move during the power off so seems to be working fine. The only other thing we can possibly think it could be is the immersion heater? We are young and have never lived alone before but from reading it seems as though these are quite costly to run, and I believe ours is on all of the time (but is set to a timer we did not set). 

We don’t know what else to do but are really worried. Maintenance said that from 2nd December to today (6th), we’ve already used 150kwh! We haven’t done anything differently and have checked everything. Any help would be appreciated. 

The immersion heater is the usual culprit. I'm a bit confused about the next sentence. Is it on all the time or set to a time? Have you tried adjusting the timer? Keep adjusting the time down until it's on long enough to provide you with sufficient hot water. Use the boost function (if available) to top it up if you occasionally need a bit more. 

victor2

The expensive devices to run are the heating and immersion heater. If you haven't had the heating on since December 2, then look at your immersion heater. Is it on a timer? Are you on economy 7 billing and if so is your immersion heater set to benefit from that?

As the temperature outside drops, so does the incoming cold water supply, which means your immersion heater has to work harder.

Edit. I see the immersion is on a timer, so you need to adjust that and see how it affects your hot water supply.

drummergirl95

MaryNB said:

drummergirl95 said:

For some background, me and my partner recently moved into our first apartment (1 bedroom). The flat is all electric, no gas.

Our October usage was 380 kwh and the bill came to £104. This was roughly what we expected so didn’t question it. 

Our November bill came… £260 and 750 kwh usage. This seems absurd to me. We have not done anything differently to October other than have the heating on once for an hour or two. Our apartment is usually a good temperature naturally as we are quite high up so didn’t need to use it. We really try our best to be energy efficient, I use eco mode on everything I can and never leave things on standby. The only items on 24/7 are the router and the fridge/freezer (obviously). 

We spoke to our building maintenance who did a creep test on our meter. The meter did not move during the power off so seems to be working fine. The only other thing we can possibly think it could be is the immersion heater? We are young and have never lived alone before but from reading it seems as though these are quite costly to run, and I believe ours is on all of the time (but is set to a timer we did not set). 

We don’t know what else to do but are really worried. Maintenance said that from 2nd December to today (6th), we’ve already used 150kwh! We haven’t done anything differently and have checked everything. Any help would be appreciated.

The immersion heater is the usual culprit. I'm a bit confused about the next sentence. Is it on all the time or set to a time? Have you tried adjusting the timer? Keep adjusting the time down until it's on long enough to provide you with sufficient hot water. Use the boost function (if available) to top it up if you occasionally need a bit more. 

Sorry for the confusion! We’ve never used an immersion heater before. The switch is set to timer, but has always been set to that so we don’t know what times it actually comes on and off. Would you suggest messing with this, or just turning off completely and on when we actually need it? 

victor2

drummergirl95 said:

MaryNB said:

drummergirl95 said:

For some background, me and my partner recently moved into our first apartment (1 bedroom). The flat is all electric, no gas.

Our October usage was 380 kwh and the bill came to £104. This was roughly what we expected so didn’t question it. 

Our November bill came… £260 and 750 kwh usage. This seems absurd to me. We have not done anything differently to October other than have the heating on once for an hour or two. Our apartment is usually a good temperature naturally as we are quite high up so didn’t need to use it. We really try our best to be energy efficient, I use eco mode on everything I can and never leave things on standby. The only items on 24/7 are the router and the fridge/freezer (obviously). 

We spoke to our building maintenance who did a creep test on our meter. The meter did not move during the power off so seems to be working fine. The only other thing we can possibly think it could be is the immersion heater? We are young and have never lived alone before but from reading it seems as though these are quite costly to run, and I believe ours is on all of the time (but is set to a timer we did not set). 

We don’t know what else to do but are really worried. Maintenance said that from 2nd December to today (6th), we’ve already used 150kwh! We haven’t done anything differently and have checked everything. Any help would be appreciated.

The immersion heater is the usual culprit. I'm a bit confused about the next sentence. Is it on all the time or set to a time? Have you tried adjusting the timer? Keep adjusting the time down until it's on long enough to provide you with sufficient hot water. Use the boost function (if available) to top it up if you occasionally need a bit more. 

Sorry for the confusion! We’ve never used an immersion heater before. The switch is set to timer, but has always been set to that so we don’t know what times it actually comes on and off. Would you suggest messing with this, or just turning off completely and on when we actually need it? 

Are you on an Economy 7 tariff? If so, you need to find out if the immersion is linked to that or just depends on the timer. The timer shouldn't be so hard to adjust once you understand it. Ask the building maintenance how it is set up. Maybe they'll also show you how to adjust it.

Do you have a seperate electric shower or one that runs off the immersion heater?

MaryNB

drummergirl95 said:

MaryNB said:

drummergirl95 said:

For some background, me and my partner recently moved into our first apartment (1 bedroom). The flat is all electric, no gas.

Our October usage was 380 kwh and the bill came to £104. This was roughly what we expected so didn’t question it. 

Our November bill came… £260 and 750 kwh usage. This seems absurd to me. We have not done anything differently to October other than have the heating on once for an hour or two. Our apartment is usually a good temperature naturally as we are quite high up so didn’t need to use it. We really try our best to be energy efficient, I use eco mode on everything I can and never leave things on standby. The only items on 24/7 are the router and the fridge/freezer (obviously). 

We spoke to our building maintenance who did a creep test on our meter. The meter did not move during the power off so seems to be working fine. The only other thing we can possibly think it could be is the immersion heater? We are young and have never lived alone before but from reading it seems as though these are quite costly to run, and I believe ours is on all of the time (but is set to a timer we did not set). 

We don’t know what else to do but are really worried. Maintenance said that from 2nd December to today (6th), we’ve already used 150kwh! We haven’t done anything differently and have checked everything. Any help would be appreciated.

The immersion heater is the usual culprit. I'm a bit confused about the next sentence. Is it on all the time or set to a time? Have you tried adjusting the timer? Keep adjusting the time down until it's on long enough to provide you with sufficient hot water. Use the boost function (if available) to top it up if you occasionally need a bit more. 

Sorry for the confusion! We’ve never used an immersion heater before. The switch is set to timer, but has always been set to that so we don’t know what times it actually comes on and off. Would you suggest messing with this, or just turning off completely and on when we actually need it? 

I would set it for a few hours a day so you don't have to wait for ages for a shower. If you both shower in the morning set the time so it comes on for a few hours before you get up. If you prefer showers in the evening set it for a few hours in the afternoon. Otherwise I think a boost function (which would only heat a portion of the tank) would cover a shower. Have a play around with the timer to see how long it has to be on for for you to have a comfortable level of hot water. Shouldn't be much more than a few hours. 

If you have an economy 7 meter it would be cheaper to heat some water overnight. But not benefitial if you shower at night.

Thrugelmir

You should be able to find a manual for the timer online. Google it. 

QrizB

There are two things here that are combining to cause problems:

1. You seem to be using quite a lot of electricity. 750kWh for November for a 1-bed flat where you "heating on once for an hour or two" seems a lot; that's 25kWh/day. Four of us in a 3-bed semi use around 10kWh/day for hot water and maybe 8kWh/day for everything else except heating.
2. Your tariff seems expensive, even for single-rate electricity. 750kWh @ 21p/kWh plus 30 days at 25p/day would be £165, £95 less than your bill for November.

Can you confirm:

• Is your heating storage heaters, panel heaters or something else?
• What electricity tariff are you on, both by name (Eg. "EDF Welcome Variable") and rates?
• Were those last two bills based on actual meter readings, estimates or something else?
  

With a bit more info we might be able to give you some pointers.

Gerry1

If the meter is not in your flat but in a communal cupboard or a meter room you need to make sure it's really the meter that's supplying your flat.  You also need to insist on taking the readings yourself, at least monthly but perhaps weekly until things have settled down.

Do a sanity test by turning everything on, especially the cooker, tumble dryer, immersion heater, kettle, electric shower, panel heaters etc.  Look at the meter(s) and find the one with an LED that's flashing rapidly, probably marked 1000 Imp/kWh or suchlike.  Then switch everything off at the consumer unit and make sure the LED stops flashing.  That will be your meter.  Best achieved with one person in the flat and the other with a mobile phone at the meter.

Read the serial number on the meter and check it's the same as shown on the bill.

Some meters can be hard to read: posting a photo would be helpful.

Basically you need to understand your systems and tariffs and take control, not relying on others.  They may be misinformed or make mistakes, but you'll be paying for them.  Did you read the meter(s) when you moved in?  If not, you could be paying for the previous occupants' use or while it was empty.

drummergirl95

QrizB said:

There are two things here that are combining to cause problems:

1. You seem to be using quite a lot of electricity. 750kWh for November for a 1-bed flat where you "heating on once for an hour or two" seems a lot; that's 25kWh/day. Four of us in a 3-bed semi use around 10kWh/day for hot water and maybe 8kWh/day for everything else except heating.
2. Your tariff seems expensive, even for single-rate electricity. 750kWh @ 21p/kWh plus 30 days at 25p/day would be £165, £95 less than your bill for November.

Can you confirm:

• Is your heating storage heaters, panel heaters or something else?
• What electricity tariff are you on, both by name (Eg. "EDF Welcome Variable") and rates?
• Were those last two bills based on actual meter readings, estimates or something else?
  

With a bit more info we might be able to give you some pointers.

Hi, first of all apologies, it’s my first time moving out and so am stupidly clueless about all of this. 

Our heaters are panel heaters. And I genuinely mean it when I say our actual heaters have been on for 2 hours maximum for the whole of November. 

Our tariff (which is what we were put on as the rest of our complex uses) is Ecotricity Green Electricity Variable. It says our price per unit since the price change is 34.03p.

our bills were all based on actual meter readings that I submitted. 

QrizB

drummergirl95 said:

Our tariff (which is what we were put on as the rest of our complex uses) is Ecotricity Green Electricity Variable. It says our price per unit since the price change is 34.03p.

Ah. Ecotricity are one of the UK's greenest suppliers but they are also one of the most expensive. Because of their deep-green qualities they are exempt from the Ofgem cap on variable tariffs, which means they are currently ~50% more expensive than most other suppliers.

Unless you really *really* value the green credentials you would be better off financially by switching somewhere else, if you can find anyone that will take you.