Huge jump in electricity usage

cushty

I take readings on the last day of the month and our energy supplier shows our month by month usage. The average amount of unites is around 180-240 units. This morning, our reading was 446 units. My husband is in his 80s and I'm not far behind, so would be very grateful for advice. I have emailed out energy supplier and am awaiting a response. Do we need a new meter and who needs to supply and fit it?

Robin9

I think it's unlikely to be a meter fault. I don't think your supplier will be able to help you -  they don't know what you are using electricity for.

Have you done anything different this month - bought a new cooker, freezer ?   A focal point fire instead of the gas central heating. ?

What was your consumption (in kWh not £) last May?


PS it's good that you read your meter regularly - if only some of the other posters would do that.

tim_p

Whilst waiting for a reply from your supplier (which will almost certainly disappoint) check for any electrical items being left on somewhere, things like an immersion heater or panel heater somewhere. Even an old 100w bulb left on somewhere would clock up 70+ kWh over a month. Maybe do an audit of every room for all electrical items. Double check the meter reading is correct. Has anything changed in the house?

elkiedee

Apologies in advance - a whole series of questions which might sound like I'm asking obvious things, sound a bit silly - most of them or what I'd ask myself if my electricity usage jumped like that as I've been checking because I was hoping to negotiate bill refunds and reductions. We've used 5.75 to 7.5 units a day, marginally less since the spring but not a huge reduction, as our heating and hot water are gas so that should be much more variable, and lights (need more on for longer in winter) don't actually use much electricity compared to cooking and washing etc.

Have you bought any new appliances or had anything installed which would use a lot of electricity? Have you left something switched on for a long time by mistake, maybe in a part of the house that you're not in all the time? Do you use electricity or gas for heating/hot water/cooking, or extra heaters or fans? Have you had to do a lot of washing, and do you use a tumble dryer or other electric method of drying stuff? Do you have any mobility aids which would use electricity (such as a stairlift)? 

Do you have a smart meter? If you do, you should have a little display unit on which you can see what you've used today/this week/this month/this year, and it also has options to show current usage. So you could see whether your increased usage is similar during the Mine goes red if we're using a lot of electricity at once (usually briefly when the oven is on and then maybe the kettle, toaster or microwave at the same time or something, I think, but it doesn't necessarily stay on for the whole time of cooking in the oven).

Are you sure that 446 units is the reading of what you've used since 30 April? Are previous readings correct, and can you check your usage over a longer period? My smart meter wasn't working properly so I was being billed for ages on estimates - a meter reader came and did a proper reading at the end of February but she seems to have got it wrong and given a reading for 400 KWh (the unit used) less than the previous estimate. Then when we took a reading to send in the home of getting a refund, our reading was a bit of a shock - basically the estimates were much more accurate than the one from the meter reader. I thought Eon would double my bill but I started submitting my own readings and looking at the usage, I realised that we had not used 600 or more units in a month, we hadn't actually used that much in 2024 by the end of March, and our daily usage was 5.75 to 7.5 units, which monthly added up to around 200 units.

If you don't have a smart meter, have you requested one? Our smart meters were installed by our fuel suppliers - the electric one is a few years old and doesn't seem to transmit readings a lot of the time - this is a system/networks  fault - to do with wireless transmission systems and I don't think companies replace the meters for it as they are not the problem.

cushty

Thank you all for your comments. I have no new appliances, in fact we should have used less electricity than normal as we have been out of the house a lot. I've double and treble checked the meter readings and it is correct, according to the meter. I have checked our usage month on month since last April and it has never exceeded 243. Our heating and water heating is by gas. I use a Ninja for cooking and have a gas hob. Im completely baffled and don't know what to do so whatever is going on doesn't continue.

cushty

I hang my head in shame I did do a reading last month but obviously forgot to submit it and my current reading is for 2 months, not 1 month. But at least it proves the average electricity usage. So sorry to everyone who replied, but many thanks for taking the time and trouble to help me out - it's much appreciated.

Farway

cushty said:

Thank you all for your comments. I have no new appliances, in fact we should have used less electricity than normal as we have been out of the house a lot. I've double and treble checked the meter readings and it is correct, according to the meter. I have checked our usage month on month since last April and it has never exceeded 243. Our heating and water heating is by gas. I use a Ninja for cooking and have a gas hob. Im completely baffled and don't know what to do so whatever is going on doesn't continue.

Your water heating, is direct like from a combi boiler or do have a hot water tank which is heated by a gas boiler?

If the latter there is usually an immersion heater fitted for back up, if so, has this been switched on somehow?

Robin9

Thanks for the honesty. A simple mistake to make.

cushty

PS - after an online chat, I was offered a fixed rate tariff for £36 a month cheaper than my current one. I thought it better to wait until after the July announcement on fuel prices, but my supplier has reduced my monthly payment by £22 a month and all give me another quote in July. So, every cloud has a silver lining. Thank you all once again for your advice.

Ayr_Rage

Thanks for the update @cushty, now go and put the kettle on and have a cup of tea or coffee without worrying about the bill.

elkiedee

Thanks for the updates. I'm very relieved for you to hear it's all fine, as I know how anxious I've been on our readings and bills. And I'm glad that you'll be getting lower bills.