Electric usage and cost advice?

leependle

I'm looking for some advice on behalf of my grandfather. His electricity is due for renewal and has been quoted at £470 per month which is simply just unaffordable for someone just on the state pension.

I know that electricity is going up for everyone, but I wanted to get some useful insights from people with similar houses.

He lives in a 3-bed terrace house with electric heaters set to 18c in the winter, and only uses the hot water tank one hour per day. No huge electric-consuming appliances.

At the moment he supposedly uses 10,000khw per year, compared to my usage of dual fuel electric usage of 1500khw (I know that his usage will be more as we use gas for heating and water but it still seems too much! And I'm running more electronics daily as I work from home)  

The meter is old and has 3 rates, could it be a faulty meter or is this amount of usage normal for bare minimum heating and hot water?

xeny

How well insulated is the house and the tank (I can get an adequately heated tank in about 30 minutes but it is double lagged to keep heat in for example)? That will make a huge difference. Heat is what takes energy - your electronics probably don't throw out as much heat as his electric heaters.

[Deleted User]

leependle said:

At the moment he supposedly uses 10,000khw per year, compared to my usage of dual fuel electric usage of 1500khw (I know that his usage will be more as we use gas for heating and water but it still seems too much! And I'm running more electronics daily as I work from home)  

Where has this supposition come from? Does it match his actual usage?

BUFF

leependle said:

I'm looking for some advice on behalf of my grandfather. His electricity is due for renewal and has been quoted at £470 per month which is simply just unaffordable for someone just on the state pension.

I know that electricity is going up for everyone, but I wanted to get some useful insights from people with similar houses.

He lives in a 3-bed terrace house with electric heaters set to 18c in the winter, and only uses the hot water tank one hour per day. No huge electric-consuming appliances.

At the moment he supposedly uses 10,000khw per year, compared to my usage of dual fuel electric usage of 1500khw (I know that his usage will be more as we use gas for heating and water but it still seems too much! And I'm running more electronics daily as I work from home)  

The meter is old and has 3 rates, could it be a faulty meter or is this amount of usage normal for bare minimum heating and hot water?

he potentially could be entitled to up to £1500+ in govt support though.
10,000kWh for a 3 bed terrace house is quite believable depending upon it's age/construction.
Do you have actual meter readings for a year?

TheMilkmansDad

For an all electric flat that sounds not unheard of. you can't compare to yourself as you are on dual fuel so I assume you heat my gas central heating and not Electric which will take a big portion of the kwh.

jimjames

Is he being offered a fixed tariff? He doesn't have to take it and can default to SVT

macman

 Warning bells here; You say 'electric heaters': what kind? Convectors, or NSH's?
If the meter has 3 rates then it's designed to charge storage heaters on a dual rate tariff with an afternoon boost. An expensive legacy tariff. Cheap rate overnight but very expensive in the day outside the cheap rate times.
Get hold of the bills and tell us a) what the tariff is called and b) what his actual annual kWh usage is on each register.
I'm wondering if the NSH's were removed some years ago and replaced with convectors, but not re-metered?
If his usage really is only 10,000kWh per year then that is below average and quite normal: The problem is whether a lot of that is on peak rate.
A DD of £470pm tells us that he's probably heavily in debt on his current DD, as, even under the October cap, his DD should not be that high. It's being set to recover debt, unless there is a reading error.
Your assumptions about presumed annual usage are way off: heating and DHW can account for up to 80% of annual usage, and of course he is retired and heating the house all day in winter.

pochase

macman said:

 Warning bells here; You say 'electric heaters': what kind? Convectors, or NSH's?
If the meter has 3 rates then it's designed to charge storage heaters on a dual rate tariff with an afternoon boost. An expensive legacy tariff. Cheap rate overnight but very expensive in the day outside the cheap rate times.
Get hold of the bills and tell us a) what the tariff is called and b) what his actual annual kWh usage is on each register.
I'm wondering if the NSH's were removed some years ago and replaced with convectors, but not re-metered?
If his usage really is only 10,000kWh per year then that is below average and quite normal: The problem is whether a lot of that is on peak rate.
A DD of £470pm tells us that he's probably heavily in debt on his current DD, as, even under the October cap, his DD should not be that high. It's being set to recover debt, unless there is a reading error.
Your assumptions about presumed annual usage are way off: heating and DHW can account for up to 80% of annual usage, and of course he is retired and heating the house all day in winter.

I agree, either in debt or been offered a fixed tariff.

Even October SVT on single tariff will be cheaper than £470

gazapc

macman said:

A DD of £470pm tells us that he's probably heavily in debt on his current DD, as, even under the October cap, his DD should not be that high. It's being set to recover debt, unless there is a reading error.

How did you figure that out? At the 55 or 60p rates being thrown around in the other thread for fixes, 10,000 x 0.55 = £5,500 = £460/month. So plausible if a standard rate tariff.

Obviously a different answer if they have correctly used night heaters.


OP, the method of heating via electricity has been and still is very expensive. You can fiddle around the edges with LED bulbs, appliances etc... but the heating will be the big draw. The amount used is very believable.

My suggestion would be, to as quickly as practical identify any measures to improve the insulation of the building. Then you need to optimise usage without leaving them in the cold e.g. don't heat unused rooms.

pochase

Nobody quotesgazapc said:

macman said:

A DD of £470pm tells us that he's probably heavily in debt on his current DD, as, even under the October cap, his DD should not be that high. It's being set to recover debt, unless there is a reading error.

How did you figure that out? At the 55 or 60p rates being thrown around in the other thread for fixes, 10,000 x 0.55 = £5,500 = £460/month. So plausible if a standard rate tariff.

Obviously a different answer if they have correctly used night heaters.


OP, the method of heating via electricity has been and still is very expensive. You can fiddle around the edges with LED bulbs, appliances etc... but the heating will be the big draw.

My suggestion would be, to as quickly as practical identify any measures to improve the insulation of the building. Then you need to optimise usage without leaving them in the cold e.g. don't heat unused rooms.

The official cap will only be announced by Ofgem on 26th of August. No supplier will quote on unconfirmed guesswork.

All offers show fixed tariff offered and current SVT. 

macman

gazapc said:

macman said:

A DD of £470pm tells us that he's probably heavily in debt on his current DD, as, even under the October cap, his DD should not be that high. It's being set to recover debt, unless there is a reading error.

How did you figure that out? At the 55 or 60p rates being thrown around in the other thread for fixes, 10,000 x 0.55 = £5,500 = £460/month. So plausible if a standard rate tariff.

Obviously a different answer if they have correctly used night heaters.


OP, the method of heating via electricity has been and still is very expensive. You can fiddle around the edges with LED bulbs, appliances etc... but the heating will be the big draw. The amount used is very believable.

My suggestion would be, to as quickly as practical identify any measures to improve the insulation of the building. Then you need to optimise usage without leaving them in the cold e.g. don't heat unused rooms.

Since there are 3 rates and presumably 2 meters, it is not a single rate tariff. It's E10 or an equivalent system. Which is why I asked the OP for the name of the tariff.
He's about to transition onto a new tariff and has already been quoted £470. The price cap figure doesn't arrive until end of August.