Extortionate Energy bills - please help.

treeclimber47

teaselMay said:

are they all actual readings not estimates?

Readings. 

Gerry1

What sort of readings — smart, meter reader or customer?

treeclimber47

Gerry1 said:

What sort of readings — smart, meter reader or customer?

2023 readings were by me, 2024 were smart meter. 

Scot_39

treeclimber47 said:

RelievedSheff said:

Do you have some figures in kWh of energy consumed?

Talking in pounds and pence is pretty meaningless!

Yes. So January 2023: 45018.2
             May 2023:       47721
             Total usage:     2702.8

              January 2024: 52331.1
              May 2024:       57286.9
              Total usage:    4955.8

Nothing in the house has changed between the two periods. In fact, kids are in the house less and most lights have been changed to LED. 

Assuming these are electric even your 2023 numbers were high.

2700kWh is tge annual electric allowance now in the Ofgem median tdcv consumption based cap.  You were using that in 4 months in 2023 - and not quite double in 2024..

The increase in 2024 seems very strange.  But I would say there already were potential issues in 2023.

I would suggest you start doing an audit of your device ratings and check against electric 1/2 hourly data.


Even daily might tell you if it's the kids presence making the difference.  My ihd gives last 8 days  total kWh.

Do you have access either on BG site or perhaps download an app like loop or bright - to get 1/2 hourly smart data - that might indicate times of day much of that energy is being used - and the power demands at the time to compare against what devices might be using it.

If it tells you you used 3kWh in a half hour slot - you needed to be running on average 6kW of rated power to do so. 

What is your typical consumption level during day shown on IHD in W or kW.

You appear to be averaging 40kWh per day or drawing nearly c2kW power on ave over 4m / 120 days in 2024,  1kW in 2023.

That's potentially a sign of something big drawing power for several hours a day.  Like as above an immersion heater at 3kW running for several hours. But that would imply system boiler not a combi.  I mentioned turning off gas, but even turning down system gas boiler hw target temps can make an immersion heater dominant.  Immersion normally set for 60C - drop a boiler setpoint to 50-55 it's potentially going to trigger frequently - almost even every time rinse hands of few dishes  etc under hot tap.


My low instant demand on IHD is only 25 W or nearer 100W when fridge freezer cycles for instanceovernight  - but jumps over 3kW if my immersion heater activates.  My friends fish tanks / ponds mean he draws nearly 300W min not 25.  Similarly daytime my tv adds c100W the old one was nearly double - and desktop PC runs 150-200W total upto c450W total if thrashing cpu

Washing machine heater adds 2.3 kW, but only for 10 mins, oven adds 2.2kW etc for 10-15min a time etc.

Take an electric shower that's 9.5kW for mine.  Again 10min = 9.5x10/60 =c 1.1kWh

You need to look at what sort of numbers you see - and try to correlate with what is or could be running.

Sone might suggest smart plugs with monitoring like say  tapo 110? s but a lot of big power draws - electric showers, ovens hw immersion etc are not via 13A sockets. 
You could try getting a clip on current ct type based monitor on your meter tail to cu feed  - which start far cheaper than the meter test - but their fiddly.

But the smart meter and ihd is capable of telling you a lot already anyway.

The only other option if cannot rationally see that demand after above is the meter test.

Followed if suspect ideally by installing a new meter in series for a period to establish the extent of over billing likely.   But many suppliers might only offer a swap out that will not provides good relative error metric to seek compensation.

You could try a zero drift test - switch off at the consumer unit  and see what happens on meter / IHD instantly or over say 1/2hr slot for meter kWh  - or a high use test - if have a suitable steady load - oven with door open, fan heater etc  over say half hour to see what smart meter records.

MikeJXE

Nothing in the house has changed between the two periods. In fact, kids are in the house less and most lights have been changed to LED. 

So the question is why is it double ? 

debitcardmayhem

What are readings for May to September?

bob2302

treeclimber47 said:

RelievedSheff said:

Do you have some figures in kWh of energy consumed?

Talking in pounds and pence is pretty meaningless!

Yes. So January 2023: 45018.2
             May 2023:       47721
             Total usage:     2702.8

              January 2024: 52331.1
              May 2024:       57286.9
              Total usage:    4955.8

Nothing in the house has changed between the two periods. In fact, kids are in the house less and most lights have been changed to LED. 

Did you take these on a specific day of the month?  Otherwise Jan to May could be anything from 3 to 5 months. The usage might differ by only 10%.

victor2

treeclimber47 said:

RelievedSheff said:

Do you have some figures in kWh of energy consumed?

Talking in pounds and pence is pretty meaningless!

Yes. So January 2023: 45018.2
             May 2023:       47721
             Total usage:     2702.8

              January 2024: 52331.1
              May 2024:       57286.9
              Total usage:    4955.8

Nothing in the house has changed between the two periods. In fact, kids are in the house less and most lights have been changed to LED. 

The 2024 readings equate to something like 41kWh per day, assuming they were taken on the same day of the month.

Take daily readings yourself, at the same time each day for at least a week and see if you can account for that usage. If the house is going to be empty for a day, take readings before going out and after coming back and see what your typical "background" usage is.

Look for high usage patterns and see if you can explain them.

Meters can go wrong, but it isn't that common.

Gerry1

Last thing at night, read the meter and switch absolutely everything off at the consumer unit.

First thing in the morning, read the meter and switch everything on again.

If the readings aren't identical then you've found a problem.  Either there's a circuit of which you're unaware, or the meter is faulty.

If everything seems OK then you'll have to play detective and isolate each circuit in turn until you find the culprit.

Qyburn

The readings seem to follow on suggesting it's the same meter and the same register. A new mtr would have started from zero.

Just a another cross check, do you have recent manual readings to compre with the smart readings on the bills, and do they match?