Is my electric bill too high?

EssexHebridean

I think finding at least a years worth of accurate readings from prior to the new meter install is vital here. If the usage shows at the same level then, the increase in costs has simply been because energy prices have increased so steeply - not inconceivable at all. If not though, something else is going on.

dunstonh

Octopus gave me the number based on the number of people/type of house etc.

I have three people in the house which is a 4 bedroom detatched.   Yet I use around 14,500 kWh a year.    Someone else with three people in a four bedroom house could be using 2,500 kWh a year.     Four bedroom houses can be modern or old.  They can have one or two box rooms or 4 bedrooms each with large ensuites.      

Energy suppliers should be banned from that sort of quoting method as it is complete garbage.     The only method is that works effectively is unit count.  And you have given us that.  
26th Oct 2022 to 12 Oct 2023 was 4741 units.   Its as good as a year.     You could get quotes on 4750 kWh/units per annum.   

4750 units using EDF Eastern region is 27.93p per unit and 44.02p standing charge.
4750 x 0.2793 = £1,326.67 for electric use.
plus 365x0.4402 = £160.67
Total cost £1,487 per annum which equates to £123.94 pm.      

If you are not Eastern Region then your rates would be different but in a similar ballpark.  Octopus quoting £67pm was assuming almost half the energy use you are using.  Your current £156 is in the ballpark (depending on your region).  Possibly a tad high but not far off.

You would expect to be building credit still for Winter.  

Does your EDF account number start with A-..... or 67x?        
67x was 6 monthly billing and a bit quirky but they have moved to monthly billing using very good software.  If yours is A-... then you are on the new software with monthly billing.  That will more accurately display summer credit.

markin

malkybck said:

Sorry forgot to say, for the water we have a shower. There is a switch next to the smart meter for turning it on and off, and also a cord in the bathroom to turn it on and off. The one next to the smart meter has always been on so that was our first thought and we turned that off, but it doesn't seem to have made it any better as yet. 

And No water tank anywhere?
What heat are you using with the oil boiler not working? Any electric floor heating?

Spoonie_Turtle

PeterGr said:

Short term changes on your home display are typical of say a kettle or washing machine heater element being on for a few minutes.  If you can not access your 30 min data from your online account taking an actual meter reading once a week or once a month will soon give you some data to confirm what appears on your bills.

Third party apps would also do the job.

MultiFuelBurner

dunstonh said:

Octopus gave me the number based on the number of people/type of house etc.

I have three people in the house which is a 4 bedroom detatched.   Yet I use around 14,500 kWh a year.    Someone else with three people in a four bedroom house could be using 2,500 kWh a year.     Four bedroom houses can be modern or old.  They can have one or two box rooms or 4 bedrooms each with large ensuites.      

Energy suppliers should be banned from that sort of quoting method as it is complete garbage.     The only method is that works effectively is unit count.  And you have given us that.  
26th Oct 2022 to 12 Oct 2023 was 4741 units.   Its as good as a year.     You could get quotes on 4750 kWh/units per annum.   

4750 units using EDF Eastern region is 27.93p per unit and 44.02p standing charge.
4750 x 0.2793 = £1,326.67 for electric use.
plus 365x0.4402 = £160.67
Total cost £1,487 per annum which equates to £123.94 pm.      

If you are not Eastern Region then your rates would be different but in a similar ballpark.  Octopus quoting £67pm was assuming almost half the energy use you are using.  Your current £156 is in the ballpark (depending on your region).  Possibly a tad high but not far off.

You would expect to be building credit still for Winter.  

Does your EDF account number start with A-..... or 67x?        
67x was 6 monthly billing and a bit quirky but they have moved to monthly billing using very good software.  If yours is A-... then you are on the new software with monthly billing.  That will more accurately display summer credit.

They do have the historic averages for each address so it's not all made up round the poker table.

Put your own address details in here for example

https://www.moneysupermarket.com/store/gas-and-electricity/enquiry/

Qyburn

That link says we use 14,855kWh of gas per year, supplied by Octopus. We don't have gas available.

Spoonie_Turtle

Qyburn said:

That link says we use 14,855kWh of gas per year, supplied by Octopus. We don't have gas available.

I checked out of curiosity.  We are estimated to use 21,000kWh gas (none available in the village) and c.5,000kWh electricity - same estimate whether I put in just electricity, or electricity and gas.

I would be ecstatic if we used that much electricity!!  It's about half our actual usage.

ArbitraryRandom

Spoonie_Turtle said:

PeterGr said:

Short term changes on your home display are typical of say a kettle or washing machine heater element being on for a few minutes.  If you can not access your 30 min data from your online account taking an actual meter reading once a week or once a month will soon give you some data to confirm what appears on your bills.

Third party apps would also do the job.

That's what I was just thinking. 

@malkybck using the code on your hand held device (the in home display) can you register with one of the apps that shows your 30 min usage? 

The two main apps are: 

https://loop.homes/ (who are also running a scheme at the moment where if you use less power at certain times of day will give you amazon vouchers) 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.hildebrand.brightionic&hl=en_GB&gl=US&pli=1 

The other thing reading your responses would be the same as you've been asked - when you turn on the hot tap, where does the hot water come from (is it heated in a unit at the wall or is there a tank)? 

Robin9

Before you had your SMART I presume you gave the supplier (who is ?)  monthly reads and got printed bills. Were these sent to you as an attachment by email ?


Your electric shower will be a big culprit -  2 x 10min with a 10kW shower is a £1 a day.

malkybck

Thanks for all the replies everyone and sorry for not replying sooner, I'll have a proper read of this tonight and try to get this fixed. Been very busy at work and only now getting round to trying to sort this out again now. 

Sitting here just now I've unplugged absolutely everything in my house so all that is currently on is the fridge freezer, fish tanks, living room light, an amazon alexa show, WiFi hub, and the display for the smart meter.  The display went down to showing 97w as the current usage and stayed there for around 2 minutes, it then jumped up to 470w and stayed there for a couple of minutes, back down to 97w for a few minutes, then jumps up to 213w for a few minutes, and now up to 562w and into the red and hasn't changed for a while now other than constantly moving around between 550-570 ish. Is this normal?  The only thing I can think is the heaters in the fish tanks kicking in every so often but would they really use that much? How reliable are these displays?  Now that I've finished typing it's back down to around 210w. 

I'll get on to reading all the replies first and try some or the suggestions but I am interested to know if the display is even accurate?