Insane Energy Bill

Slinky

Gerry1 said:

Slinky said:

Gerry1 said:

Newbie_John said:

QrizB said:

Newbie_John said:

Something is using 2-3kWh every hour.

That's a kettle boiling 24/7, though. Considering that this is a flat not a mansion, it would be noticeably hot somewhere.

If it isn't a meter fault, the phantom load should be obvious.

There was a case here of someone who's immersion heater was broken and was running 24h.. just saying.

Unless there was a hot tap left permanently on it would have boiled.

Not if it was the timer that was broken rather than the thermostat. I noticed high electricity usage and found the time switch had been knocked on by mistake and it had been on for a month. The thermostat was still controlling the temperature.

You'd only get extra consumption of about 2kWh per day from heat leakage if the immersion heater supply was live 24/7.  The OP seems to have extra consumption of about 2-3kWh per hour.

If the flat has a loft, make sure a fan heater or something hasn't been left on !

Yes I'm not suggesting that the OP's 2-3kWh per hour is the immersion, I just noticed it with ours as I monitor our usage weekly and couldn't make out why we were using more for no apparent reason until I checked in the airing cupboard.

MacMickster

SubZombies said:

Thanks for all the replies. Our reading when we moved in was 20694 and now is 32044. Gave the initial reading when I moved in on 24th August and have done another reading today as was prompted to do so. 

Did you take a photograph of that initial reading? Any chance that the 2 was actually a 3?

Reed_Richards

Slinky said:

Gerry1 said:

Slinky said:

Gerry1 said:

Newbie_John said:

QrizB said:

Newbie_John said:

Something is using 2-3kWh every hour.

That's a kettle boiling 24/7, though. Considering that this is a flat not a mansion, it would be noticeably hot somewhere.

If it isn't a meter fault, the phantom load should be obvious.

There was a case here of someone who's immersion heater was broken and was running 24h.. just saying.

Unless there was a hot tap left permanently on it would have boiled.

Not if it was the timer that was broken rather than the thermostat. I noticed high electricity usage and found the time switch had been knocked on by mistake and it had been on for a month. The thermostat was still controlling the temperature.

You'd only get extra consumption of about 2kWh per day from heat leakage if the immersion heater supply was live 24/7.  The OP seems to have extra consumption of about 2-3kWh per hour.

If the flat has a loft, make sure a fan heater or something hasn't been left on !

Yes I'm not suggesting that the OP's 2-3kWh per hour is the immersion, I just noticed it with ours as I monitor our usage weekly and couldn't make out why we were using more for no apparent reason until I checked in the airing cupboard.

This is almost impossible.  The only way it could happen that I can think of is if its a pressurised tank but the pressure vessel has failed so hot water is discharged from the tank via the tundish when the tank is heated.  If the rate of discharge were fast enough it could be like having a hot tap running all the time.  I'm not sure if this is credible but @SubZombies should definitely check their tundish (if there is one).      

Robin9

SubZombies said:

I am currently at work in the office so will be doing the above tonight when I am back

Did you find out anything yesterday evening?

RelievedSheff

In a shared flat with 3 people living separately it isn't out of the question to rack up these kinds of usage.

3 people cooking meals, using the washing machine, differing heating schedules, differing hot water schedules, watching TV, gaming, all done separately. A household like this will inevitably use more than a family household where schedules are synchronized.

zagfles

RelievedSheff said:

In a shared flat with 3 people living separately it isn't out of the question to rack up these kinds of usage.

3 people cooking meals, using the washing machine, differing heating schedules, differing hot water schedules, watching TV, gaming, all done separately. A household like this will inevitably use more than a family household where schedules are synchronized.

Not on this scale! It's an average of 3kW day and night! 

Unless it's a faulty meter or misreading it etc, it's likely that something high power is on all the time or most of the time. Most likely thing is a heater. 

Newbie_John

zagfles said:

RelievedSheff said:

In a shared flat with 3 people living separately it isn't out of the question to rack up these kinds of usage.

3 people cooking meals, using the washing machine, differing heating schedules, differing hot water schedules, watching TV, gaming, all done separately. A household like this will inevitably use more than a family household where schedules are synchronized.

Not on this scale! It's an average of 3kW day and night! 

Unless it's a faulty meter or misreading it etc, it's likely that something high power is on all the time or most of the time. Most likely thing is a heater. 

Not impossible.. 3 separate rooms with heaters constantly on and open windows? I had a friend staying for a week at mine and he did just that, about 20kWh a day extra, as he liked his room to be around 25*C and had window open for fresh air 

But yeah, could as well be incorrect reading taken, soemthing else broken - electricity item, or the less likely options like broken meter or soemone else using your electricity.

If you take the daily reading now and it's 20kWh-ish then the problem is likely gone and may have been a result of incorrect reading taken.

Robin9

SubZombies said:

I had to send pictures of my meter and checked that against my first bill and current one and they are correct

@Can you share these photos please ?    Particulalry if they are the old clock meters (where the dials go alternately the wrong way) are easy to misread

magpies79

I mean that bill seems crazy for my 2 bedroom semi 
2 adults 2 kids this was our usage for 2024 only thing we have for gas is heating everything else is electric 

wrf12345

why would you have an estimated cost (a guess) for a year that has already finished, actual cost could be higher or lower depending on meter readings...