High Electricity bills

coffeehound

@iFunk did you take meter readings when you moved in?

cx6

if you are able, turn all 4 trip switches off (down) and note both meter readings

put each trip on one at a time in turn for say a couple of hours and see which one gives a high usage. Might help you track down what is using the power

see also

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6343447/background-electricity-usage-8760-hours-a-year#latest

iFunk

coffeehound said:

@iFunk did you take meter readings when you moved in?

I have meter readings going back I think 3 years now, I have photos of all of them. Our supplier went into administration so we ended up with SSE in January last year. I've been battling with them since, however I suspect it is just a massively inefficient flat.

Robin9

I suspect they are actual - they are very close to the billed units in February

coffeehound

They are correctly billing Rate 2 at daytime rate, too.

Worth doing the sanity test Gerry1 linked to just to check you aren't paying for anyone else's leccy

iFunk

Thank you very much for all your comments. I suspect there is nothing wrong with the meter, I think I'm just going to have to move out as it seems the electrics in the flat are just too inefficient and it's not worth it. I just didn't want to move again, but I'm not going to be able to pay the electric when it goes up next month. Hard times

Gerry1

Do you have the same landlord as @Huxley71? 

victor2

iFunk said:

Thank you very much for all your comments. I suspect there is nothing wrong with the meter, I think I'm just going to have to move out as it seems the electrics in the flat are just too inefficient and it's not worth it. I just didn't want to move again, but I'm not going to be able to pay the electric when it goes up next month. Hard times

Don't give up, at least not without explaining it.

From what I can see (and I stand to be corrected, as I am not familiar with E7 wiring), the top switches in your picture are on a dedicated night time circuit. Under the flap in the lower unit will be more breakers. See what is there and post a picture if you can.

Then after doing a meter sanity test, switch all those off and check the meter after an hour with everything off. Switch them on one by one until you hopefully have an idea which circuit is using more power than you think.

Edit: The lower of the two LEDs on the meter will flash as electricity is reciorded as being used. 1,000 flashes = 1kWh, so something like an electric kettle will cause it to flash fairly quickly.

QrizB

victor2 said:

iFunk said:

Thank you very much for all your comments. I suspect there is nothing wrong with the meter, I think I'm just going to have to move out as it seems the electrics in the flat are just too inefficient and it's not worth it. I just didn't want to move again, but I'm not going to be able to pay the electric when it goes up next month. Hard times

Don't give up, at least not without explaining it.

From what I can see (and I stand to be corrected, as I am not familiar with E7 wiring), the top switches in your picture are on a dedicated night time circuit. Under the flap in the lower unit will be more breakers. See what is there and post a picture if you can.

I agree. Looking at this photo:

We can say:

• The main incoming supply comes to the silver box on the right.
• From there two grey tails emerge. One goes to the DNO fuse and emerges as the brown live feed to the meter.
• The other goes to a Henley block and is split into two neutrals. One is the blue neutral to the meter, the second feeds a grey neutral to the upper (E7) consumer unit.
  
• The meter is a five-terminal device with an internal E7 clock and contactor.
• The third (N) and fourth (24h live) terminals from the meter feed the lower 24h consumer unit. This will contain MCBs for all the regular domestic circuits. @iFunk please life the cover and provide a photo showing the labels.
• The fifth (E7 live) terminal from the meter feeds the upper E7 consumer unit. This has four circuits, and all four MCBs are currently switched ON. I can't quite read the labels; iFunk can we get a clearer photo of this too?

iFunk if you're not using the heating you can probably switch off the four upper MCBs (one might be labelled for hot water, and you may well want to leave this one on). This may or may not help to reduce your night use, because:

I'm in the Uk and since living in the current property, we have been paying very high bills, and the lat one claimed I used 2,980kW/h in the last 3 months. 1196kW/h of those is Night Energy of which we don't have anything on but a router and a booster, a fridge, a TV on standby and a set top box. To my knowledge nothing else is used at night, we have not used the heating for over a year now.

1196kWh of night use over 3 months is around 13kWh/day. This could mostly be due to water heating. You've said you're not using the heating but are you using the immersion heater to heat the hot water tank?

iFunk

So I have turned the water off completely in the cupboard where the immersion heater is, I only use it for washing up, and an hour on and it keeps water hot for about 3 days, it's just me here. The water was on for an hour a day, before, but I've switched it off now, but yes keeping that on would be a benefit. I'm taking readings every day now, and at night only my router and fridge is left on, however, I can actually switch both those off too as there is no ice in the freezer part so won't get flooded kitchen. Tonight I will keep just the fridge on, my bedside light and my radio plugged in, everything else I will switch off at the plugs, so will see if it ticks over during the night. Thanks for this I really appreciate it.