Electric bill excruciatingly high - meter wired up wrong?

SanaMasood

Hello everyone

In September 2023 I rented a beautiful 3 bedroom apartment, with all electric supply, no gas powered appliances. 
I noted down the initial meter reading which was 81677. This was on the 23rd of September. 
On the EPC rating certificate I was given by the lettings agency, the estimated energy cost was stated as £3,405 per 3 years, which sounded okay to me

I had already supplied the readings to my energy supplier (Octopus). I was shocked to see that with each passing day, my consumption of electricity in kWh was disproportionately high. For example, from 21st October to 11th November , I have "used" 1753kWh for which the energy company billed me £448. This was just 20 days. 

My usage is only 4 hours of heating per day, washing machine and dryer twice on weekends, hardly or no ironing. Cooking on electric stove OR oven 30 minutes per day max.

I read that an average house in the UK consumes 3000kWh annually, I am baffled that my consumption shows so high, I have no explanation for it and I an extremely worried.
I have now switched off all heating completely even though the kids are freezing and it is mid November, yet I see the meter clocking at least 15kWh for 24 hours. Right now my meter reads 84654.

I am on E7 meter so I should be billed differently at night. I do have 2 meters in the property, but the second one doesn't work at all. Octopus says my day rate is 26p/kWh and the night rate is 7p/kWh but the numbers just don't add up!

I have contacted my agency who contacted the landlord and they said everything is wired up fine. I have asked Octopus to check as well, which they've said they will but after 10 days. And they'll also install a smart meter, I have the old fashioned spinning disc ones right now.
What could the problem be? Is it possible my meters might be wired up wrong? At this rate I'm looking to pay upwards of £650 a month in just electricity bills which I absolutely cannot afford, and is miles from the estimate on the EPC ratings certificate. Please advise. 

Stubod

Have you tried turning everything off for an hour or two and then see what the meter readings are??

Netexporter

Has you old fashioned meter also got an old fashioned electro-mechanical timer? It could be the time is wildly out, so the storage heaters are filling up at peak rate.

How many kW of storage heaters have you got? Is the water heating at the same time (that could use 12kWh/day, alone)?

born_again

 the estimated energy cost was stated as £3,405 per 3 years, which sounded okay to me

Based on what kWh prices?

MultiFuelBurner

Are you sure the meter you are reading belongs to your apartment?

Netexporter

I read that an average house in the UK consumes 3000kWh annually,

That's for a house with non-electric heating. Typical gas usage is about 11,000kWh/annum.

Gerry1

Do the Meter Sanity Test.

Gerry1

Make sure your meter readings don't include any digits that are red or in red boxes.

Gerry1

Don't use instantaneous electric showers.

Use water from the hot tank heated by cheap rate E7.  Make sure the boost immersion heater (the upper one) is left switched off.

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

Are you able to post a photo of yur meters and any associated boxes or wiring?

SanaMasood said:

On the EPC rating certificate I was given by the lettings agency, the estimated energy cost was stated as £3,405 per 3 years, which sounded okay to me

That would be very cheap for an all-electric three-bed apartment. How many kWh does the EPC say?

SanaMasood said:

For example, from 21st October to 11th November , I have "used" 1753kWh for which the energy company billed me £448. This was just 20 days.

90kWh/day isn't impossible, but does seem quite high.

What sort of heating do you have? Storage heaters, underfloor heating, an electric combi boiler, or someting else?

SanaMasood said:

I am on E7 meter so I should be billed differently at night. I do have 2 meters in the property, but the second one doesn't work at all. Octopus says my day rate is 26p/kWh and the night rate is 7p/kWh but the numbers just don't add up!

That does not sound like a current Octopus E7 tariff. Exactly what is the name of the tariff on your bill?

Newbie_John

First of all, if you're on E7 and only have one meter ? That can't be right and needs to be looked at, as how would Octopus decide on how much you use at night? Or maybe you put the Night meter readings to Day meter readings and it added up wierdly?

Then you may have some mysterious things eating your energy, constant water tank heating? Some random heating hidden somewhere?

So you've used about 100kWh a day, I'm being very generous with heating in my tiny 3 bed house without gas and 20-30kWh has been the minimum recently. 

But as you're down to 15kWh with things switched off that could be a good sign, usage definitely down, although still high.