Electric bill excruciatingly high - meter wired up wrong?

Keep_pedalling

Gerry1 said:

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.

A bit difficult to do unless you can get your landlord to spend a lot of money in changing out the shower.

NorfolkCanary

Newbie_John said:

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?

Section in bold, one meter is fairly standard for E7, you'd typically have 1 meter with 2 dials or readings, i.e. normal rate & low (night rate).

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!

Just to clarify something, you've provided 1 meter reading so far (81677: 23/09/2023). If you're (as stated) on E7 there should be 2 readings. Do you have the second reading from moving in? Are you able to check your Octopus bill, and let us know what the tariff name is please?

I'd echo Gerry's suggestion of the meter sanity test with a reading pre and post test.
Usual items eating leccy would be immersion hot water left on, heating turning on at the wrong time, old halogen light bulbs

Gerry1

Keep_pedalling said:

Gerry1 said:

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.

A bit difficult to do unless you can get your landlord to spend a lot of money in changing out the shower.

There may be more than one shower.  If push comes to shove, fill a plastic bowl with hot water from the bath tap !  Not ideal, but needs must.

dunstonh

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 isn't very helpful. Especially, if the EPC is old.   Talking in money when the price of electricity has doubled over that period is going to understate reality.    It would have been better if the info came as kWh.

 I have "used" 1753kWh for which the energy company billed me £448. This was just 20 days. 

That is very high.   However, if your heating and water is also electric then it may not be outside the ballpark.

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.

Forget the average. Its largely meaningless.

I am on E7 meter so I should be billed differently at night.

E7 means cheaper at night but quite painful during the day.
Ideally, you want to run as much as you can off peak.

For example, I run about 53kWh per day.   About 46 kWh are off peak and that costs about £3.70.    The 7-8 kWh that I use peak hours cost me about £3.70 as well.    

One key thing to do with economy 7 is to have devices that have timers that can start during off peak hours.  For example, the dishwasher and washing machine.  Tumble is harder but we are early risers and can get the washing machine to finish as we get up and then have a period with the tumble being off peak.

I have now switched off all heating completely even though the kids are freezing and it is mid November, 

If your heating is storage heaters and the timing is aligned with the off peak rates then that is not where your money is going.   7p per kWh off peak is not likely to be causing the damage.   Its likely to be your peak use.

Until a smart meter is in and the IHD shows your baseline energy use and any spikes, you are going to have to read the meter often to see what the readings are.    Ideally spend a day or two reading the meter every hour you can and log it down.

Newbie_John

NorfolkCanary said:

Newbie_John said:

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?

Section in bold, one meter is fairly standard for E7, you'd typically have 1 meter with 2 dials or readings, i.e. normal rate & low (night rate).

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!

Just to clarify something, you've provided 1 meter reading so far (81677: 23/09/2023). If you're (as stated) on E7 there should be 2 readings. Do you have the second reading from moving in? Are you able to check your Octopus bill, and let us know what the tariff name is please?

I'd echo Gerry's suggestion of the meter sanity test with a reading pre and post test.
Usual items eating leccy would be immersion hot water left on, heating turning on at the wrong time, old halogen light bulbs

Sorry, I meant two readings, rather than two meters (I also have E7).
This is my guess, potentially incorrectly put numbers like night reading to day reading?

Swipe

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!

Those E7 rates can't be correct. That is ridiculously cheap. I'd kill for an E7 tariff at those rates. Sounds like something from 2-3 years ago.

dunstonh

Swipe said:

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!

Those E7 rates can't be correct. That is ridiculously cheap. I'd kill for an E7 tariff at those rates. Sounds like something from 2-3 years ago.

I must admit, they did look good.  The 7p doesn't sound off the mark (mine is 8p) but the peak rate seems very low for a 7p off peak.

Or maybe its not an E7 tariff but en EV tariff.   They have less than 7 hours and are not quiet as painful on the peak the rate.

Or you are right about them being old figures.

QrizB

Swipe said:

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!

Those E7 rates can't be correct. That is ridiculously cheap. I'd kill for an E7 tariff at those rates. Sounds like something from 2-3 years ago.

I thought the same.
We really need more detail from the OP.

TheElectricCow

dunstonh said:

Swipe said:

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!

Those E7 rates can't be correct. That is ridiculously cheap. I'd kill for an E7 tariff at those rates. Sounds like something from 2-3 years ago.

I must admit, they did look good.  The 7p doesn't sound off the mark (mine is 8p) but the peak rate seems very low for a 7p off peak.

Or maybe its not an E7 tariff but en EV tariff.   They have less than 7 hours and are not quiet as painful on the peak the rate.

Or you are right about them being old figures.

7p might be possible from some suppliers/regions but is a bit of a ways off from any of Octopus' current E7 offerings (October SVT rates below)


Those rates do sound more plausible for an EV tariff, though with the meter being non-smart and analogue I'd be surprised if it was. This would also suggest that the OP was somehow still on the previous resident's tariff rather than SVT as would be expected when moving in.

First things first the meter reads situation needs addressing - if they are on a dual rate tariff then there needs to be a second meter reading somewhere as there's otherwise no chance of being billed accurately.

Alnat1

TheElectricCow said:

First things first the meter reads situation needs addressing - if they are on a dual rate tariff then there needs to be a second meter reading somewhere as there's otherwise no chance of being billed accurately.

If there's a second reading, wouldn't that add even more to the energy usage?