All electric flat usage sky high - advice needed

electric_city30

Hello - looking for some advice. 

My partner and I moved into a rented property in December and have been bombarded by an astronomical bill for January, the first month we were both in full time after Christmas, and we’re trying to figure out why.

The flat is a small, new build, one bed flat (3 rooms total), and the certificate states there is an EPC rating of A with solar panels, which I thought would mean a slightly more efficient property. However, everything is electric: immersion water tank (which we weren’t made aware of at the time of signing our contract), electric heaters and hob/oven.

Our electricity usage is usually:
2 x showers per day (1 each)
Heating on ~2 hours per day maximum (30 mins morning, 1ish hours in evening - but not used since the start of March)
1 x washing up in sink per day
Washer and dryer max 3 x per week each
I work from home but in the day use one lamp until it is light enough, and then we turn 2 more lamps on in the evening in one room and the TV.

We try to be conscious about how we used our electricity and keeping it as listed above, but in February our bill came in at £250 which was shocking.

An electrician advised he thinks it’s the water meter, so we’re waiting on him for a solution like an off switch for the tank, or having it heat only in off peak times but we've heard nothing back yet. I am having to shut the tank off at the fuse box everyday but it still isn’t making much difference to the usage.

Between December and mid-March, our meter is saying that we’ve used 1840kWh which our electrician who lives in a 5 bed property says is more than he could ever imagine using in his own home – our predicted usage for the year is 3502kWh, which it looks like we’ll be there in no time despite using so little.

We’re at the point now where if we try to use less, we won’t be living at all comfortably in our house - we don't use the heating at all anymore but we need to have hot water. Our usage is still averaging at around 17kWh per day. Does this sound correct for a property like this/what should we be expecting to use?

Does anyone have experience with this sort of issue and any advice of what we could do to try and help ourselves?

MattMattMattUK

electric_city30 said:

Hello - looking for some advice. 

My partner and I moved into a rented property in December and have been bombarded by an astronomical bill for January, the first month we were both in full time after Christmas, and we’re trying to figure out why.

The flat is a small, new build, one bed flat (3 rooms total), and the certificate states there is an EPC rating of A with solar panels, which I thought would mean a slightly more efficient property. However, everything is electric: immersion water tank (which we weren’t made aware of at the time of signing our contract), electric heaters and hob/oven.

All electric can be quite expensive, the solar panels on the roof will not help your bills they are there to lower the shared costs on the public areas.

electric_city30 said:

Our electricity usage is usually:
2 x showers per day (1 each)
Heating on ~2 hours per day maximum (30 mins morning, 1ish hours in evening - but not used since the start of March)
1 x washing up in sink per day
Washer and dryer max 3 x per week each
I work from home but in the day use one lamp until it is light enough, and then we turn 2 more lamps on in the evening in one room and the TV.

Showers may vary, some people have long and hot showers, others have cool short showers, there can be a huge difference. 
Heating, what is it, storage heaters, panel heaters, what is the wattage?
Sink and washing machine will use very little, the dryer could be very expensive to run. 
Lamps and TVs do not use much at all, what do you work on during the day? My laptop and monitor together draw around 150w normally, 250 if I am running a lot of software, by my desktop and monitor can hit close to 1kW, which makes a big difference over eight hours.

electric_city30 said:

We try to be conscious about how we used our electricity and keeping it as listed above, but in February our bill came in at £250 which was shocking.

What is your usage in kWh each month? Are you on a smart meter? Are you being billed based on actual reads rather than estimates? Have you built up a credit on your account? Have you checked the meter number you are being billed for is for your property? What tariff are you on?

electric_city30 said:

An electrician advised he thinks it’s the water meter, so we’re waiting on him for a solution like an off switch for the tank, or having it heat only in off peak times but we've heard nothing back yet. I am having to shut the tank off at the fuse box everyday but it still isn’t making much difference to the usage.

I am guessing you mean water heater, but you could also mean electricity meter? How big is the tank, what tank is it and how long is the heater on each day? It should have a timer, or follow the wire back from the immersion heater fitted to the tank.

electric_city30 said:

Between December and mid-March, our meter is saying that we’ve used 1840kWh which our electrician who lives in a 5 bed property says is more than he could ever imagine using in his own home – our predicted usage for the year is 3502kWh, which it looks like we’ll be there in no time despite using so little.

If he has gas then his usage could easily be very low, generating heat requires quite a bit of electricity, that is where the cost comes from. For an all electric property your usage figure is not outlandish. 

electric_city30 said:

We’re at the point now where if we try to use less, we won’t be living at all comfortably in our house - we don't use the heating at all anymore but we need to have hot water. Our usage is still averaging at around 17kWh per day. Does this sound correct for a property like this/what should we be expecting to use?

17kWh a day is still on the high side for your setup, I average about 10kWh a day in an all electric flat of around 100sq meters. I live alone so only me showering and I have a lot of tech. I rarely work from home these days though. 

electric_city30 said:

Does anyone have experience with this sort of issue and any advice of what we could do to try and help ourselves?

Unless there are some oddities I suspect that your high usage is from your water heating, if your immersion is on all day you will have both very hot water a high energy cost. Your water heater probably only needs to run for an hour a day, maybe two if you have long and/or hot showers. 

FrugaiMacDugal

You say all electric then mention E7, so are you using direct heating, electric fire or panel heating, or do you have night storage heaters that work on the E7 cheaper night rate?

electric_city30

MattMattMattUK said:

1. All electric can be quite expensive, the solar panels on the roof will not help your bills they are there to lower the shared costs on the public areas.

2. Showers may vary, some people have long and hot showers, others have cool short showers, there can be a huge difference. 
Heating, what is it, storage heaters, panel heaters, what is the wattage?
Sink and washing machine will use very little, the dryer could be very expensive to run. 
Lamps and TVs do not use much at all, what do you work on during the day? My laptop and monitor together draw around 150w normally, 250 if I am running a lot of software, by my desktop and monitor can hit close to 1kW, which makes a big difference over eight hours.

3. What is your usage in kWh each month? Are you on a smart meter? Are you being billed based on actual reads rather than estimates? Have you built up a credit on your account? Have you checked the meter number you are being billed for is for your property? What tariff are you on?

4. I am guessing you mean water heater, but you could also mean electricity meter? How big is the tank, what tank is it and how long is the heater on each day? It should have a timer, or follow the wire back from the immersion heater fitted to the tank.

5. If he has gas then his usage could easily be very low, generating heat requires quite a bit of electricity, that is where the cost comes from. For an all electric property your usage figure is not outlandish. 

6. 17kWh a day is still on the high side for your setup, I average about 10kWh a day in an all electric flat of around 100sq meters. I live alone so only me showering and I have a lot of tech. I rarely work from home these days though. 

7. Unless there are some oddities I suspect that your high usage is from your water heating, if your immersion is on all day you will have both very hot water a high energy cost. Your water heater probably only needs to run for an hour a day, maybe two if you have long and/or hot showers. 

Thanks so much for your reply - here are my answers to your questions:

1. The flat set up is strange - we are technically a bungalow and there are two 'flats' next door (one up, one down with no communal spaces) but all are referred to as flats. We have the solar panels only on our roof (and the solar box in our attic so it is assumed that we are the ones benefitting from these solar panels) - I'm unable to see if the other building with the two flats has solar panels on their roof.

2. We have short showers unless I wash my hair. The heaters are 2000w panel heaters. We use the dryer as little as we can but we get a lot of condensation so can't dry our clothes any other way. I only use a laptop to work and always shut off the charger at the wall when it is fully charged (its an old laptop from work so need to charge it to full twice a day).

3. February kWh usage for 28 days was 495 - I checked the smart meter each day and put in the readings myself every morning. They are now taken every morning. Yes it is a smart meter - I have called multiple times to request a monitor for inside the house but the company still hasn't sent anything but I keep trying. We are being billed based on actual reads. We have been in debit for each bill (between 6 December - 6 Jan by £20 but we were only in the property for 12 days during because of Christmas, 6 Jan - 6 Feb we had the super high bill so the debit went up to £220 and 6 Feb - 6 March it is now £257 in debit). The meter has been checked as for our property but I still want the landlord to get someone from the company out to look at the meter (he has never responded about this). We are on a Fixed Tariff v14 (23.49p per kWh, 60.26p standing charge per day) I have done research and this is the cheapest option I can find, otherwise I would have moved provider.

4. I do mean water heater. It is a Gledhill Stainlesslite Plus Direct 150 Slimline tank - the electrician who came to the property said he had wired it to only heat half a tank per day which is enough for us. Its capacity is 152L and the manual says its expected annual consumption is 1425kWh. I turn the tank off at the fuse box during the day and then back on at night. There is no easy access to switch it on and off other thank the fuse (the tank is in the attic). We are waiting to hear back from this electrician about the timer - when he came he said he couldn't see one (I'm not sure how much I trust this electrician).

5. I understand re him having gas at his home, but this is a different, more trusted electrician (family friend), however his wife uses a lot of electricity as she runs a bakery business from home and he says their bills are still not as high as our highest.

6. Thanks for letting me know.

7. I've requested for the electrics to be looked at as a whole to see if there are any abnormalities but this hasn't been listened to. As mentioned, I am switching the tank on at night only (11pm to 7:30am), but may have to only have it on for an hour a day.

electric_city30

FrugaiMacDugal said:

You say all electric then mention E7, so are you using direct heating, electric fire or panel heating, or do you have night storage heaters that work on the E7 cheaper night rate?

Was the mention of E7 when I said 'or having it heat only in off peak times but we've heard nothing back yet'? I am not an expert in this so may have listed this incorrectly but just mentioning something the electrician had said to me. We have 2000w panel heaters which we switch on only when needed (as listed 30 mins in the morning and maybe 1hr in the evening - but not since the start of March)

Gerry1

Sorry to be the bringer of bad news, but you have pretty much the worst of all worlds.  Bungalows are difficult to heat because of the large roof and floor areas, so it's always going to be something of a money pit.  Being all electric makes it worse, because electricity costs about four times as much as gas.  The triple whammy is having to use daytime electricity instead of a lower night rate and storage heaters.  Sounds like it was a cheapskate developer, panel heaters are cheap (for them) but cripplingly expensive (for you to run).

Check your bills to see whether you are being billed on E7 (there will be two sets of readings and two kWh rates).  Do the sums, but single rate is likely to be cheaper, so switch to it if so.

Sadly the only realistic option is to move unless you can persuade the landlord to install High Heat Retention Night Storage Heaters (e.g. Dimplex Quantum) or a heat pump.  Needless to say, the rent would go up...

For info, the typical annual usage for all electric properties is Low 2200kWh, Medium 3900kWh and High 6700kWh.

FrugaiMacDugal

electric_city30 said:

FrugaiMacDugal said:

You say all electric then mention E7, so are you using direct heating, electric fire or panel heating, or do you have night storage heaters that work on the E7 cheaper night rate?

Was the mention of E7 when I said 'or having it heat only in off peak times but we've heard nothing back yet'? I am not an expert in this so may have listed this incorrectly but just mentioning something the electrician had said to me. We have 2000w panel heaters which we switch on only when needed (as listed 30 mins in the morning and maybe 1hr in the evening - but not since the start of March)

My apologies, when you said 'off peak' I thought you had a two rate meter, thus cheaper rate at night.

electric_city30

Gerry1 said:

Sorry to be the bringer of bad news, but you have pretty much the worst of all worlds.  Bungalows are difficult to heat because of the large roof and floor areas, so it's always going to be something of a money pit.  Being all electric makes it worse, because electricity costs about four times as much as gas.  The triple whammy is having to use daytime electricity instead of a lower night rate and storage heaters.  Sounds like it was a cheapskate developer, panel heaters are cheap (for them) but cripplingly expensive (for you to run).

Check your bills to see whether you are being billed on E7 (there will be two sets of readings and two kWh rates).  Do the sums, but single rate is likely to be cheaper, so switch to it if so.

Sadly the only realistic option is to move unless you can persuade the landlord to install High Heat Retention Night Storage Heaters (e.g. Dimplex Quantum) or a heat pump.  Needless to say, the rent would go up...

For info, the typical annual usage for all electric properties is Low 2200kWh, Medium 3900kWh and High 6700kWh.

Thanks for your reply - of course not what we want to hear but appreciate you responding.

We've found that the property actually heats up quite quickly and retains the heat really well, even with us only using one of the three panel heaters for a short burst in the morning and then slightly longer in the evening - I'm hoping now it is (hopefully) getting a bit warmer we can continue to not use the heaters as we have been doing for the last 2ish weeks. As we're using the heating so sparingly and it is not causing us issues, my only thought is that the water heater is causing us the issue, as outlined above. 

I've checked our statements and we are on a single rate - there is no mention of E7 or two sets of readings.

Gerry1 said:

For info, the typical annual usage for all electric properties is Low 2200kWh, Medium 3900kWh and High 6700kWh.

This is what I was expecting and could see when researching electrics once we moved in (naively not knowing what we were getting ourselves into) but it seems like despite it being a small property with 2 people living in here we will be definitely heading towards the high usage. I'll be doing all I can to make that not the case!

Gerry1

Might be worth doing the Meter Sanity Test just to make sure you're not paying for your neighbour's usage or have a rogue meter.

subjecttocontract

17kwh per day doesn't sound excessive for your set up. That's equates to around £5 a day adding up the unit rate + vat + standing charge. That's £150 a month in winter.

FrugaiMacDugal

electric_city30 said:

 my only thought is that the water heater is causing us the issue, as outlined above. 

Perhaps you could get a timer on water heater, maybe set for an hour in morning or as needed, a well insulated tank should keep water warm, enough.