High Electricity bills

QrizB

That's a great photo of the lower 24h consumer unit.

I can see MCBs marked as being for heaters; I take it your storage heaters are modern ones with built-in convector elements too? You could switch off both those MCBs too, along with the corresponding ones in the upper E7 consumer unit, if you wanted to.

iFunk

QrizB said:

That's a great photo of the lower 24h consumer unit.

I can see MCBs marked as being for heaters; I take it your storage heaters are modern ones with built-in convector elements too? You could switch off both those MCBs too, along with the corresponding ones in the upper E7 consumer unit, if you wanted to.

Thanks, I switched everything off last night except router and my radio and fridge, and the meter was the same as it was yesterday, so I suspect that the meter is in fact ok. However this morning looking at the meter, there are 2 lights on it, one is the 1000kWh one which will flash about 1 every 1.5 seconds if the cooker or the kettle is on, the other light says 100A next to it, and this was on this morning, what does that one mean? and why would it be on with just those three items listed above still on?

victor2

iFunk said:

QrizB said:

That's a great photo of the lower 24h consumer unit.

I can see MCBs marked as being for heaters; I take it your storage heaters are modern ones with built-in convector elements too? You could switch off both those MCBs too, along with the corresponding ones in the upper E7 consumer unit, if you wanted to.

Thanks, I switched everything off last night except router and my radio and fridge, and the meter was the same as it was yesterday, so I suspect that the meter is in fact ok. However this morning looking at the meter, there are 2 lights on it, one is the 1000kWh one which will flash about 1 every 1.5 seconds if the cooker or the kettle is on, the other light says 100A next to it, and this was on this morning, what does that one mean? and why would it be on with just those three items listed above still on?

One flash every 1.5 seconds is a load of about 2,400 watts, so could be an electric kettle.
The 100A light probably means your E7 circuit is on, supplying the top switches at the lower rate. You should find that all electricity used when that light is on will be at the lower rate. Just check your meter registers and see which one changes when you boil the kettle and that LED is on. I believe the meter itself controls the E7 hours, so worth checking to see when it changes. Could be midnight and 7am, but might not be. Might not change when the clocks do either!

Edit: boiling the kettle alone may not change either register, as it doesn't show fractions of kWH. Switching on an oven at a high setting might. It takes 1,000 flashes to record 1kWh.

iFunk

victor2 said:

iFunk said:

QrizB said:

That's a great photo of the lower 24h consumer unit.

I can see MCBs marked as being for heaters; I take it your storage heaters are modern ones with built-in convector elements too? You could switch off both those MCBs too, along with the corresponding ones in the upper E7 consumer unit, if you wanted to.

Thanks, I switched everything off last night except router and my radio and fridge, and the meter was the same as it was yesterday, so I suspect that the meter is in fact ok. However this morning looking at the meter, there are 2 lights on it, one is the 1000kWh one which will flash about 1 every 1.5 seconds if the cooker or the kettle is on, the other light says 100A next to it, and this was on this morning, what does that one mean? and why would it be on with just those three items listed above still on?

One flash every 1.5 seconds is a load of about 2,400 watts, so could be an electric kettle.
The 100A light probably means your E7 circuit is on, supplying the top switches at the lower rate. You should find that all electricity used when that light is on will be at the lower rate. Just check your meter registers and see which one changes when you boil the kettle and that LED is on. I believe the meter itself controls the E7 hours, so worth checking to see when it changes. Could be midnight and 7am, but might not be. Might not change when the clocks do either!

Edit: boiling the kettle alone may not change either register, as it doesn't show fractions of kWH. Switching on an oven at a high setting might. It takes 1,000 flashes to record 1kWh.

Yes that seems to be the case, I think I am starting to get a handle on this now. The kettle alone doesn't trigger the light, but with the cooker on it does, I'm ok with that, the kettle is a 3kWh kettle so I would expect it too. Good to know about the 100A light. All in all, it looks like the meter is working as it is supposed to, I am now gravitating to the idea that it is the hot water or more specifically the shower that is costing so much money so I am checking the meter at the same time every day to see what my electric use is, I'm a man of habits so any spikes of usage on a particular day will be a red flag. Thanks this has been a very very useful and informative thread. Unfortunately it looks like it is an issue for the landlord and I know he will not solve it and what's more there does not appear to be a way to force him despite it being his responsibility, though I would argue he is actually in breach of contract. After all this, I am now just going to pay the bill and start looking for somewhere else to live. 

victor2

iFunk said:

...  After all this, I am now just going to pay the bill and start looking for somewhere else to live. 

Get somewhere with gas heating and hot water, and no E7 to worry about. Then you can be a little more comfortable and not have such a financial burden. Depending on what happens to gas prices of course!

iFunk

victor2 said:

iFunk said:

...  After all this, I am now just going to pay the bill and start looking for somewhere else to live. 

Get somewhere with gas heating and hot water, and no E7 to worry about. Then you can be a little more comfortable and not have such a financial burden. Depending on what happens to gas prices of course!

I was thinking of hooking up an alternator to the back of my bicycle and generating my own electricity while doing my daily exercise actually

coffeehound

iFunk said:

 I am now gravitating to the idea that it is the hot water or more specifically the shower that is costing so much money so I am checking the meter at the same time every day to see what my electric use is,

If you could use the shower while the 100A light is still on in the morning, that should save you some £.  Or as mentioned upthread, instead make use of the immersion heater for bathing water as then you would be certain it was heated on the cheaper rate

iFunk

Hi, I've just had a look at the meter, and the 1000kWh is flashing, but nothing in the house is on but my workstation, exactly the same as this morning. Everything is still unplugged. Would this point to someone else using my electricity?

iFunk

Also, for some reason R2 is now showing 48172, when it it was 48170 this morning at 10am. 

I can't work out what this means, R1 is the same as it was this morning, that has not ticked at all, it is still at 51617. 

Any thoughts?

iFunk

Right I see I have them the wrong way round for some reason on the bill the lower figure is the Day one and the higher one the Night figure, I'm still curious what is taking my electricity right now with nothing but my laptops plugged in.