Sky high electric usage

EssexHebridean

Nicksby said:

EssexHebridean said:

Following on from immediately  above re heating:have 
- How do you heat your water?
- are your shower(s) fed from a tank or are they self-heating standard electric style ones?

- Do you have anything like an older American style Fridge Freezer, a pond or a fish tank, anything else that you could immediately identify as possibly being a higher than average user? (As a short cut here, have a think about things that heat something up or cool something down to start with as those are usually your biggest culprits)

As a first step though you definitely need to get a handle on what you ARE actually using - it may be that UW are wildly overestimating for whatever reason, and yes, I sympathise with your issue about them just not listening, I’ve been there! You do need to arm your argument with actual detail though - otherwise you’re just saying “I think this is too much” but every second caller they have is going to be saying the same at the moment, and 50% of those will be paying the right amount but just using more than they think! 

Have a hot water tank it looks old but seems to work as i get hot water.I put this on for around an hour a day. Electric shower.  No huge appliances. Do work from home but only for 6 hours 3 days a week. 

So an immersion heater then presumably - the thermostat will likely be on top of the tank somewhere and if it's like ours a devil to see. Thurn the power off to the immersion COMPLETELY first - personally I would also switch off at the consumer unit. Again if like ours you are looking for a round plastic cover that should be able to be removed by taking out a single screw. Underneath that is the thermostat control which is likely to be quite small, but marked with temperatures round the dial. Ours is set at 60 degrees which is plenty hot enough. You may well find you need a torch and a mirror (or a torch and a mobile phone camera) to see what you are doing if the control is in a less than easily accessible area. 

We currently run ours on a couple of full reheats a week done overnight and then some 15/20 minutes top ups first thing in the mornings but that is on E7 night rates and so proves not to break the bank - if I were doing it all on day rate then I would undoubtedly have gone down the "just boil a kettle" route by now though. In our case using it as above is a decent compromise between affordability and convenience though. 

As for the showers - electric showers can be guzzlers of electricity. 

I suspect the culprit on high power use is going to turn out to be those heaters though if I'm honest - presumably as there used to be E7 in the property there was also originally Storage heaters but they were removed by someone who knew no better. 

ChaunceyGardiner

Nicksby said:

Alnat1 said:

What do you use the hot water for if you have an electric shower? If it's only for washing up/cleaning, boil a kettle when you need it, turn that immersion heater OFF. Perfectly fine to wash your hands in cold water, it's the soap that cleans them.

I only have a switch on wall to turn on and off can't see a thermostat to turn temp down as boiling hot 

The thermostat adjustment is on the immersion heater itself, on the side of the tank. You could replace your immersion on/off switch with a timer very easily.

michaels

Nicksby said:

dunstonh said:

Keep complaining but don't get any where. 

You have missed the most important thing out of your posts.  You haven't mentioned what you usage is.  Give us some ACTUAL meter readings that cover at least a year.    Then we can start analysing it.

 I do have a economy 7 meter but had this changed to a single taffif but bills still display day and night readings.

That is normal.  The single rate gets applied to the night and the day figures.

 I seem to using way more than the average house hold.

The average is misleading as there will be households with 1 person or even 0 people. There will be second homes drawing very little and there will be people with masses of consumer electricals that are left on standby permanently.  Or fridge freezers that are older than a few years that are drawing 6 times the power of the modern efficient ones.  Or dishwashers running on standard programmes rather than eco or tumble driers that use so much energy that they could account for 25-50% of your overall use.  Or halogen spot lights....     The list goes on but you haven't given us any detail for us to help.

8958 was estimated usage when moved in and gave 1st reading 91365 day 80134 night. This was nov. Was billed in Dec for 75 quid. 
Jan bill. 31-11-31-12 DR 91534 NR 80196 estimated. Kwh was 732
Feb bill. 31-12-28-01 DR 9226 NR 80473 estimated khw 3658. My reading 28-01-31-01 DR 85924 NR 80513. Was billed for 992.61
March bill. 22-11-28-01 DR 91365-95924 KWH 4559 NR 8034-80513 KWH 379. 
My reading 28-01-28-02
DR 95924 NR 80513
April bill. 01-03-31-03 DR 9556-97135. Kwh 538NR 80788-81012. Kwh 224. At this point 473.06 behind and bill for that month was 673.06
May bill. 31-03-30-04 DR 97134-97617 E khw 483 NR 81012-81213 kwh 201. Bill is 172.62
June bill. 30-04-31-05. DR 97617-98065 E  kwh 448 NR 81213-81400 E kwh 187.
July bill. 31-05-30-06 DR 98065-98481 E kwh 416. NR 81400-81573. Was behind 418 and bill was for 819. 
August bill. 30-06-31-07 DR 81573 NR 81758 now owe 986.15 
Sep bill. 31-07-31-08 NR 98996-99599 E  kwh 693 NR 81750-82075 E kwh 325. 
Oct bill. 31-08-01-08 DR 99599-9806 -693 kwh NR 82075-81750 - 325 kwh
01-08-01-04 DR previously billed 98906-97134 -1772 kwh NR 81750-81012 - 737 kwh.
01-04-02-03 DR previously billed 97134- 96596- 538 kwh NR 81012-80788- 224 kwh 
02-03-31-03 DR 96596-97571 kwh 975 NR 80788-80875 kwh 85
31-01-31-07 DR 9757-780 kwh 3209 NR 80873-81154 kwh 281
31-07-12-09 DR 780- 1855 kwh 1075 NR 81154- 81248 kwh 94
21-09-30-09 my reading 1855 DR and NR 81248. 
Did not have a clue what all this meant and was told it was because meter had reset and now they say I have not being enough. I do not understand any of it. All they keep telling me is my bills seem excessively high . 

I think you are suggesting the day rate meter went over 100k and went back to zero.

I can't understand the dates but the highest day rate would seem to be (1)01855 and the lowest 91365 so usage of 10,490 units and night rate 81248 and 80134 so usage of 1,114 units

Total usage 11,604

At the old rate of 28p per unit this would come to about 3,000 for the period or about 300 per month but of course the rate was lower before April.

TBH the usage does not sound excessive to me, we use only a bit less but have gas heating and hot water.

macman

I think we really need to see a pic of the 'electric radiators' to determine if these are convectors or a more modern type of NSH?
The OP has been very vague about what is already installed and maybe too many assumptions being made. Nothing here at all to indicate a meter fault, given an all-electric house.
OP, you said that the tariff you inherited was E7, but you switched to single rate. Why was that? Did you change the heating, or inherit it? Either way, it seems that the property must in the recent past have had NSH's, or it wouldn't have been on an E7 tariff.