Help understanding excessive electricity usage

dunstonh

 so the only heating we use is a 1.2kw infrared (meant to be more efficient) bar heater in the living room set to 22 degrees, with the hot water tank on timer in the airing cupboard upstairs keeping the upstairs warm at all times. 

22 degrees is high.  Most people can quite happily live in comfort at 19.5 degrees or thereabouts.

Remember that for comfort purposes, it is mostly the change in temperature you feel rather than the actual temperature.  That heating is likely to be the least efficient.

 We do not use the heating system in the house, it is an old fashion vent system which blows hot air into the rooms.

Is that heating storage based or does it draw power in real time?    If storage based, these draw electricity overnight at off peak economy 7 rates when its cheaper.  Then store it allowing it to be used during the daytime.

. During the Summer months I have to turn this off timer and switch to just heating it using the boost function, otherwise it's just too hot upstairs.

From around June/July to Sept/Oct, most people have no heating on at all.

I am on a flexible tariff with Octopus. It is worth noting that only the day reading (2) works on my meter. The figure of the night reading (1) has never gone up since we moved here over 3 years ago. When I raised this with them some time ago, they said I was on a tariff where everything goes through on the day rate, but at a reduced price.

It most likely means that the property was originally on economy 7 but isn't any more.   

Hoping for some possible reasonings as to why A) my usage could be this high and  what would you do in my situation? £330 per month just for electricity is running me and my small family into the ground.

Its high because you are heating to a high temperature and keeping heating on in warm months,  albeit reduced.   The method of heating is expensive too.

Gaming PCs are heavy when gaming. They can go to 1kWh under load.

Does the shower use hot water from the tank (lower cost way) or a heated power shower (expensive way)?

Alnat1

So on an E7 tariff but with nothing connected to the night rate supply, as that is not increasing. So hot water heating overnight is also being charged at the high cost day rate.

I would contact Octopus and ask to go on the single tariff SVT which will work out quite a bit cheaper for you.

subjecttocontract

I agree, you are being charged for the Octopus economy 7 tariff  for everything at the day rate of 37p. On economy 7 you get a cheaper night rate of 15p but your day rate is slightly higher than the single /non economy 7 rate of 30p.
Contact Octopus and get on a single rate charge.......that should save around 20% on your bills.

Turn your heating down slightly (wear more layers of clothing), use the wash machine less and look at how you can economize on using kitchen appliancees.

1moneyspendingexpert1

dunstonh said:

 so the only heating we use is a 1.2kw infrared (meant to be more efficient) bar heater in the living room set to 22 degrees, with the hot water tank on timer in the airing cupboard upstairs keeping the upstairs warm at all times. 

22 degrees is high.  Most people can quite happily live in comfort at 19.5 degrees or thereabouts.

Remember that for comfort purposes, it is mostly the change in temperature you feel rather than the actual temperature.  That heating is likely to be the least efficient.

 We do not use the heating system in the house, it is an old fashion vent system which blows hot air into the rooms.

Is that heating storage based or does it draw power in real time?    If storage based, these draw electricity overnight at off peak economy 7 rates when its cheaper.  Then store it allowing it to be used during the daytime.

. During the Summer months I have to turn this off timer and switch to just heating it using the boost function, otherwise it's just too hot upstairs.

From around June/July to Sept/Oct, most people have no heating on at all.

I am on a flexible tariff with Octopus. It is worth noting that only the day reading (2) works on my meter. The figure of the night reading (1) has never gone up since we moved here over 3 years ago. When I raised this with them some time ago, they said I was on a tariff where everything goes through on the day rate, but at a reduced price.

It most likely means that the property was originally on economy 7 but isn't any more.   

Hoping for some possible reasonings as to why A) my usage could be this high and  what would you do in my situation? £330 per month just for electricity is running me and my small family into the ground.

Its high because you are heating to a high temperature and keeping heating on in warm months,  albeit reduced.   The method of heating is expensive too.

Gaming PCs are heavy when gaming. They can go to 1kWh under load.

Does the shower use hot water from the tank (lower cost way) or a heated power shower (expensive way)?

Thanks for your reply.

We don't use any heating during the summer months. I think there was a misunderstanding. The infrared heater bar goes in the attic during the summer. In the winter our hot water tank is on a timer, in the summer we turn the timer off and just use boost to make hot water when we need it. No other heating methods are used.

Regarding the vented heating system, all I know is there is a cupboard downstairs that has a big white tank, which is related to the system. We do not use this system though, so it shouldn't be using any power. On top of this, we do not have a night rate, so even if it did draw power during the night it would just be adding on to our 'day' usage.

1moneyspendingexpert1

Alnat1 said:

So on an E7 tariff but with nothing connected to the night rate supply, as that is not increasing. So hot water heating overnight is also being charged at the high cost day rate.

I would contact Octopus and ask to go on the single tariff SVT which will work out quite a bit cheaper for you.

Thank you, that is helpful. 

As mentioned in my OP I did raise this with them before, but perhaps I will get a different answer/results this time around.

Veteransaver

Swipe said:

1moneyspendingexpert1 said:

Veteransaver said:

Do you only use electric for heating and hot water?
If so then your electric use will be very high in winter.
Do you have gas?

Hello, only using electricity as mentioned in the first line.

Even in the Summer months, we are using 500-600 kwh - which still seems excessive. I know every home is different, but comparing my usage to colleagues and friends who have bigger families in bigger houses, they are using between 200-350 kwh right now in the winter.

500-600 kWh per month over summer months is excessive.

It isn't excessive if they are heating hot water electrically.
Hot water could easily use 10kWh per day, especially if cylinder isn't well insulated 

Veteransaver

1moneyspendingexpert1 said:

Veteransaver said:

Do you only use electric for heating and hot water?
If so then your electric use will be very high in winter.
Do you have gas?

Hello, only using electricity as mentioned in the first line.

Even in the Summer months, we are using 500-600 kwh - which still seems excessive. I know every home is different, but comparing my usage to colleagues and friends who have bigger families in bigger houses, they are using between 200-350 kwh right now in the winter.

Yes, 200-300kWh per month is about normal for those that don't use electric for heating. But your friends will also have a gas/oil bill which you don't have.
Heating your hot water with electricity would likely account for the difference.

WBCPB

1moneyspendingexpert1 said:

As mentioned in my OP I did raise this with them before, but perhaps I will get a different answer/results this time around.

I would put it to them as a formal complaint,hopefully this will swerve the frontline customer service reps, unfortunately their customer service seems to be taking a dive since taking on MILLIONS of extra customers in a short time span.

MWT

1moneyspendingexpert1 said:

It is worth noting that only the day reading (2) works on my meter. The figure of the night reading (1) has never gone up since we moved here over 3 years ago.

Can you post a photo of your electricity meter or at least describe it for us..?

As it is an older E7 meter, is there a mechanical clock nearby that looks something like this...

If so is it set to the correct time, or has it got stuck?

1moneyspendingexpert1

Veteransaver said:

1moneyspendingexpert1 said:

Veteransaver said:

Do you only use electric for heating and hot water?
If so then your electric use will be very high in winter.
Do you have gas?

Hello, only using electricity as mentioned in the first line.

Even in the Summer months, we are using 500-600 kwh - which still seems excessive. I know every home is different, but comparing my usage to colleagues and friends who have bigger families in bigger houses, they are using between 200-350 kwh right now in the winter.

Yes, 200-300kWh per month is about normal for those that don't use electric for heating. But your friends will also have a gas/oil bill which you don't have.
Heating your hot water with electricity would likely account for the difference.

Thank you. Would you recommend always using the boost function to heat the water from cold when we need it? Or is using the timer more efficient since it keeps it ticking over rather than trying to heat a whole tank of cold water?