Energy Costs for a Single Person

Kamatz

Hey people, first post and just a quick one really.

Im moving from a very small apartment (hasn't even got a bedroom, the bed folds from a closet) in an upmarket area (Hertfordshire) and so i need to clear my energy bills. The apartment is electric only and my fixed tariff was a paultry ~£20 per month. I appreciate I was under paying but upon submitting my final readings I have been lumped with a £700 bill

My readings are:

47436 kWh (low)

75478 kWh (normal)

The british gas site states these readings are abnormally high but i dont have any frame of reference to agree or disagree. I have been at this place for ~8 months

The only things i do when i get in are play the xbox or watch films on my computer. I dont leave any lights on. The electric heaters are on for 4hrs per day (6-8am, 7-9pm). Thats about it. Am i getting shafted?

pochase

Kamatz said:

Hey people, first post and just a quick one really.

Im moving from a very small apartment (hasn't even got a bedroom, the bed folds from a closet) in an upmarket area (Hertfordshire) and so i need to clear my energy bills. The apartment is electric only and my fixed tariff was a paultry ~£20 per month. I appreciate I was under paying but upon submitting my final readings I have been lumped with a £700 bill

My readings are:

47436 kWh (low)

75478 kWh (normal)

The british gas site states these readings are abnormally high but i dont have any frame of reference to agree or disagree. I have been at this place for ~8 months

The only things i do when i get in are play the xbox or watch films on my computer. I dont leave any lights on. The electric heaters are on for 4hrs per day (6-8am, 7-9pm). Thats about it. Am i getting shafted?

I assume that are the final readings that you gave them, and are not a usage in as the KWh implies?

Alone from your use of the electric heating it seems to be possible. You are on an E7 tariff and are using electric heating on the high day rate. 

Just give us the start reading for the 2 registers and the rates for day and night for up to 31st of March and thereafter.

Or just post a details from you bill.

Benny2020

What does low and normal mean? You need to know how much you are using per day or month but you have given us no time frame.

Kamatz

Ive attached an image of the current meter. None of my statements are available to download, they either say "bill cancelled/replaced" or "not ready". Low is night time rate, normal is day time rate

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

Kamatz said:

The only things i do when i get in are play the xbox or watch films on my computer. I dont leave any lights on. The electric heaters are on for 4hrs per day (6-8am, 7-9pm). Thats about it. Am i getting shafted?

No, you're not getting shafted.

It's vey easy to spend more than £100/month in an all-electric flat, even a tiny one.

From the sounds of it you had an E7 tariff but your heaters were set up to run on day-rate electricity, which is one of the most expensive options for heating.

Kamatz

In which case ill learn my lesson then. My sympathy goes out for people with families, I cant imagine what a family of 4 pays for energy in a medium sized house. Cheers all

Robin9

Assuming photo is taken daytime then the pointer is in the direction of Normal;  Low is therefore night.

I assume you read the meters when you moved in 

£20 was plain silly  -  barely covered standing charges. Typically all electric flat £80-90 / month (in the good old days)

Gerry1

What tariff are you on?  Is the immersion heater on a switched E7 circuit?  Sometimes there are two. the lower one should be on E7 circuit, the upper one is on a 24h circuit but should always be left switched off unless you've messed up and the water has gone cold during the day.

There's something strange about your timeswitch.  It's hard to see, but the on/off times don't seem to be E7.  Can you post a better photo showing the ON and OFF lugs more clearly?  Also, unless you took that photo around midnight (11pm GMT) it seems it has drifted.

Unfortunately it seems that everything has unwittingly been 'pessimised' to get the highest possible bill !

There aren't many cases of four people in a medium sized house using non-storage heating on a two rate tariff.  They'd be using gas, oil, LPG or high heat retention night storage heaters instead, not just panel heaters.

Kamatz

Here is a pic of the timeswitch. Time taken was 18:47

Section62

Kamatz said:

Here is a pic of the timeswitch. Time taken was 18:47

The timeclock has drifted, so you won't be getting the low rate at the normal E7 time.

Kamatz

Thankyou everyone, I'll see what british gas says though i suspect they wont particularly care. Still worth a shot