Is this bill possible??

Ectophile

£600/month works out at about 3kW being used 24 hours a day.  That sort of power requires things that get hot as part of their purpose, e.g. electric heaters and immersion heaters.

Is the house temperature tropical, even in winter?  Does the 17yo have a heater that's turned on all the time?

masonic

Any vegetation being grown in the attic?

A good start would be to take daily readings for a few days. Then if unusually high, narrow down what is responsible.

TroubledTarts

Surely you have been here long enough to know the normal culprits for energy drains and meter sanity tests etc?

But to add a 3 bedroom all electric (storage or panel) heated house can use £500 in a cold month with multiple storage heaters on plus lots of immersion heating and electric showers. But normally this would be for fully occupied 3 bedroom houses.

Time to get your detective on

Brie

cannugec5 said:

Is the £600 bill including a proportion towards the arrears? 

no.  it's for one month's use of electricity

Robin9

Brie said:

cannugec5 said:

Is the £600 bill including a proportion towards the arrears? 

no.  it's for one month's use of electricity

Can we have the readings please  -  beginning and end  of month. Please include any letters A C E S or our read/your read

Brie

here's the bill

Offpeak
opening 11755.461
closing 12947.344

1191.883 kwh at 18.63p  £222.05

Peak
opening 12426.435
closing 13663.949

1237.514kwh at 27.79p £343.91

standing charge 31 days at 67.47p a day £20.92

cost of electricity  £586.88

5% vat brings the total to £616.22


all readings state that they are off the smart meter.  so no estimates.


Still thinking it's the immersion heater that's to blame.

QrizB

So about 2400kWh in total, as guessed

Brie said:

Offpeak
opening 11755.461
closing 12947.344
1191.883 kwh at 18.63p  £222.05

Assuming storage heaters, that's a little higher than I'd expect for space heating in March but it's not unreasonable.

Brie said:
Peak
opening 12426.435
closing 13663.949
1237.514kwh at 27.79p £343.91

That however is a huge amount for the peak period. It's almost half the average annual non-heating consumption in a single month.

Brie said:

Still thinking it's the immersion heater that's to blame.

That seems unlikely, they'd have a permanently-running tap. Unless they have a hot water leak somewhere?

How do they heat their house?

Brie said:

here's the bill

And this still seems odd. You say they're on pre-payment? Why are they receiving bills?

Brie said:

all readings state that they are off the smart meter.  so no estimates.

If the house has a smart meter, do they have a working in-home display? Can they see their half-hourly consumption on the IHD, or on their online account? Does ths give any clue as to when in the day they are using all this electricity?
Have they checked the meter serial number against the one on the bill?

Can they carry out Gerry1's meter sanity test?

tim_p

It’s been asked before but I don’t think it was answered. Do they use any extra heating in the peak period? So panel heaters, blower heater etc? 

Robin9

As above that "peak" use is excessive,

It is time for detective work -  go from room to room , inc the attic, the garage, the shed.  Agree the immersion isn't a likely reason but panel heaters, oil filled rads, showers, gaming pc's  are -  chargers, lighting unlikely

You mentioned a pile of insulation in the loft and a 17 year old.  An ideal DIY job for him/her -  just get some masks and a pair of gloves.  

Edit -  not forgetting the blocked pond pump which was the problem for a poster 

Reed_Richards

Brie said:

Still thinking it's the immersion heater that's to blame.

Thing is, you can't go on making the water in your cylinder hotter and hotter.  Even if the immersion heater is switched on all the time there is a thermal cut-out which will stop it heating when the tank temperature reaches its pre-set value and another safety cut-out if that fails.  This needs a manual reset if it is ever triggered.  So the only way an immersion heater can use lots of energy is if hot water is being run-off from the cylinder continually. 

Pressurised cylinders have an overflow which would operate when the water is heated if the vessel maintaining the pressure failed.  But this overflow goes via a tundish so it is visible to anyone that looks.  I have postulated before that this might be equivalent to leaving a hot tap running but nobody has ever reported finding this happening.