Is my bill about right?

oligopoly

Hi there, I have spent an hour trying to evaluate my expensive energy bills, comparing to previous usage etc but I'm finding it difficult. Can you guys please help?

Bit of background - moved house in August so limited data for current property. Plus the new property has an occupied, self-contained one bed annexe whose usage is included in the figures below. Now I know prices have skyrocketed (and will continue to do so) but do my figures for usage and price look about right for a 4 bed house plus annexe or not? 3 adults home a lot and heating on the generous side.

Next thing for me to look at will be our water tank / immersion heater which I think is set up wrong and basically acting like a kettle, so this might be the guilty culprit if the figures look high! Thanks in advance

30th Nov - 11th Jan (43 days)

ELECTRIC
1299 kWh @ 19.70p/kWh
£279
-- OR --
30 kWh per day
£6.49 per day

GAS
175.0 Units
5514.8 kWh @ 3.970p/kWh
£241.12
-- OR --
128 kWh per day
£5.61 per day


4th Oct - 17th Dec (58 days)

ELECTRIC
1531 kWh @ 19.70p/kWh
£330.59
-- OR --
26 kWh per day
£5.70 per day

GAS
148 Units
4675.9 kWh @ 3.970p/kWh
£210.06
-- OR --
80.62 kWh per day
£3.62 per day

So in just over 3 months we've paid £609.59 for electricity (~£203 per month) and £451.18 for gas (~£150 per month) = ~£353 per month. Ouch.

Verdigris

If you've got gas then you won't be needing the immersion heater, unless the boiler breaks down.

The heavier daily usage for Nov-Jan fits the seasonal difference.

Turn the thermostat down a degree at a time, over a week or so. You'll be surprised how much energy you save and not feel it.

For electricity lighting can use a lot, for heavily occupied homes. Change all bulbs, that are on for long periods, to LEDs.

oligopoly

Verdigris said:

If you've got gas then you won't be needing the immersion heater, unless the boiler breaks down.

The heavier daily usage for Nov-Jan fits the seasonal difference.

Turn the thermostat down a degree at a time, over a week or so. You'll be surprised how much energy you save and not feel it.

For electricity lighting can use a lot, for heavily occupied homes. Change all bulbs, that are on for long periods, to LEDs.

OK thank you. So just try turning off the plug next to the water tank and monitor to see what happens?

Gerry1

You seem a bit muddled, overlapping timeframes and wrong number of days.  Are the properties separately metered?

Are the readings estimated or your actual readings?

oligopoly

Gerry1 said:

You seem a bit muddled, overlapping timeframes and wrong number of days.  Are the properties separately metered?

Are the readings estimated or your actual readings?

I am definitely muddled. Properties are on same meters and they are actual readings. The data above is copied from their bills.

Verdigris

oligopoly said:

OK thank you. So just try turning off the plug next to the water tank and monitor to see what happens?

Yes. There should be a thermostat, on the hot water cylinder, to control the hot water temperature from the boiler. You may have to adjust that, if the immersion has been used to boost the temperature. It should be set to around 60-65 degrees. Also check the boiler programmer to make sure that hot water is produced at times suitable for your needs.

Gerry1

The immersion heater(s) should be left permanently switched off.  They're not needed unless the boiler packs up.  They can't use vast amounts of energy (unless a hot tap is left on permanently) and if the thermostat failed (unlikely) the water would literally be boiling.

The problem is that using electricity for hot water costs about five times as much as gas.

KathysBoy

Your figures look extremely high to me. There are two of us, and we live in 4 bedroom property like you. We don't work so at home most of the time.

Our thermostat for gas heating comes on about 6.15 and is set to be 21c by 9am, and 21c between 5pm and 9.30pm. In between these times its never below 20.5c. On average our daily usage during November and December was about 65kwh.

We have loads of electrical equipment including Tumble Dryer which we use to dry Towels and bedding in the winter months, and Two fridge/freezers. Our average daily use throughout the year is about 9.5kwh. This has been pretty constant for the last 5 years.

I would take daily readings, as well as monitoring it every fe hours or so for a few days to see if there's a pattern. Immersion heaters burn power, so this should definitely be monitored. Other tips are to turn off all electrical equipment and see if the meter stops recording. etc

Gerry1

If the meter is metric but the energy company thinks it's imperial then you'll be charged for 2.83 times the amount you've used.

Do the Meter Sanity Test.

Subtract the opening readings from today's reading and do the sums.  For electricity, it's the number of kWh multiplied by the kWh rate, plus the daily charge for the number of days (note you've miscalculated this number in your first post).  Same for gas, but first convert from m3 or ft3 to kWh here (scroll down).

QrizB

As others have said, your useage looks to be on the high side for the size of your property.

Also, and not directly relevant, those energy prices might be "plus VAT"; they look like the ex-VAT SVT prices in Southern region.

theoretica

oligopoly said:

30th Nov - 11th Jan (43 days)

ELECTRIC
1299 kWh @ 19.70p/kWh
£279
-- OR --
30 kWh per day
£6.49 per day

GAS
175.0 Units
5514.8 kWh @ 3.970p/kWh
£241.12
-- OR --
128 kWh per day
£5.61 per day


4th Oct - 17th Dec (58 days)

ELECTRIC
1531 kWh @ 19.70p/kWh
£330.59
-- OR --
26 kWh per day
£5.70 per day

GAS
148 Units
4675.9 kWh @ 3.970p/kWh
£210.06
-- OR --
80.62 kWh per day
£3.62 per day

So in just over 3 months we've paid £609.59 for electricity (~£203 per month) and £451.18 for gas (~£150 per month) = ~£353 per month. Ouch.

If those dates are correctly copied, you should not be adding the costs quoted as they overlap for over two weeks so will total £150 or so too high.

Does the annex run off the same heating system, or have a separate boiler or what?

If your heating is all gas, the electricity looks high (I agree, turn the immersion heater off), the gas isn't low but you say your heating is on the generous side so low usage is probably not expected.

How old are your meters?  If they are only a few years old you can work out how much has been used on average since they were installed.