Electricity bill regularly high but with no apparent cause

emujuice

thanks for all your comments. i'm determined to get to the bottom of this. we're still taking meter readings (one as we leave in a morning, and one when come home) that way we can see what the costs are when we are there and when we aren't.
i'm really beginning to think something is wrong.
we are rented, but we've got the landlord invloved in this, as he lives next door. we spend a happy afternoon turning everything off at the wall, and back on again to see if we could narrow down where the main usage was, or if it was going up of it's own accord. it didnt' get us very far unfortunately. he tried to persuade us it was our run down fridge freezer, and that we shoudl use the old one he'd left in the house. we've now switched to that one, but have so far not seen much improvement - but i'm willing to give it time, as it will be using more as it first cools down.
anyway readings for yesterday:
as we left: 7602.5
when we got home:7603.9
this morning:7612.4
so we seemed to have go the 'empty house' cost down (only 1.5 units for the 9 hours or so we were out- so just the fridge freezer and little fish tank pump)
will keep you posted on tonights readings.
(also all we did last night was watch tv, no computer and no shower even urgh, i know, but was running late!)

Phonix

does anyone have an idea what the electrics are for in the tank on the first floor above the gas boiler which is on the ground floor.

What I do know is that the electrics around this tank power the little heating and water settings box downstairs however when the water is turned on the electrics kick into action and I guess then the water is pumped upstairs.

I guess this might be what's on the blink as it sounds like it's on its last legs.

emujuice

hi all,
still not getting very far with our electricity problem
recent readings
thurs morning before work:7612
thurs after 7613
fri am before work:7620
Fri after being out all night, went straight to bed when we got in (ie empty flat) 7622
Sat morning after shower and breakfast :7627

So on thursday evening, we just watched a bit of telly and didn't even have the computer on, did no washing or anything, had a shower in the morning. used 7 units of leccy.
had an empty house from 8.30 till 11.30pm yesterday, used 2 units.
had brekkie and a shower this morning, and that used 5 units! what on earth is going on? was only in the shower for 10 mins. not even done any washing yet, or had the fire on.
keep trying to pin point some faulty equiptment or something, but not using various items...doens't seem to make a difference.
please help someone?

uncle_buck_3

It could be that your meter is broken & is recording the usage inaccurately!

It could be quite accurate when you are using low power appliances but when you have a heavier load on (shower) it is going on the blink & recording the units to quickly!

Personally I would contact your electricity supplier & explain your situation, they should change your meter.

Robert5988

emujuice wrote:

hi all,
still not getting very far with our electricity problem
recent readings
thurs morning before work:7612
thurs after 7613
fri am before work:7620
Fri after being out all night, went straight to bed when we got in (ie empty flat) 7622
Sat morning after shower and breakfast :7627

So on thursday evening, we just watched a bit of telly and didn't even have the computer on, did no washing or anything, had a shower in the morning. used 7 units of leccy.
had an empty house from 8.30 till 11.30pm yesterday, used 2 units.
had brekkie and a shower this morning, and that used 5 units! what on earth is going on? was only in the shower for 10 mins. not even done any washing yet, or had the fire on.
keep trying to pin point some faulty equiptment or something, but not using various items...doens't seem to make a difference.
please help someone?

I am afraid I cannot see what your problem is?

A fridge + fridge freezer + fish tank pump and you use 1 or 2 units(7/14pence) in a whole day.

Breakfast + shower + lights + fridge + fridge freezer + fish tank pump and you use only 5 units(35p).

It would appear that your fridge etc will account for 1-2 units overnight, a 10 min shower will use 1 -1.5w. Kettle? Hair dryer?

As said above most people use 10-15 units a day without any heating/hot water; lots use considerable more.

emujuice

Robert5988 wrote:

I am afraid I cannot see what your problem is?

A fridge + fridge freezer + fish tank pump and you use 1 or 2 units(7/14pence) in a whole day.

Breakfast + shower + lights + fridge + fridge freezer + fish tank pump and you use only 5 units(35p).

It would appear that your fridge etc will account for 1-2 units overnight, a 10 min shower will use 1 -1.5w. Kettle? Hair dryer?

As said above most people use 10-15 units a day without any heating/hot water; lots use considerable more.

hi robert,
I can see what you mean, that 5 unit doesn't seem like a lot, but that's actually over 50p, just for an hour or so of use doing nothing out of the ordinary, no kettle, no hairdryer, did have the toaster do 2 rounds of toast. if we are in all day it jumps a massive amount. there's only 2 of us, sat in the same room, with no lights on else where, nothing on standby. the out of the house use we think is fairly normal, would acount for around 3-5 units a day for the fridge freezer, whihc is around 30 - 50p a day, or £9 -15 a month. but £15 is what we expect to pay for the whole month of use. so any extra on top of hte fridge freezer seems a lot. everyone we've talked to uses between £15 and £25 a month, and that includes larger families or home offices.
we've discovered that hte router/modem is what's giving us electric shocks, so we've stopped using that, incase it's whats draining power.
i'm begining to think the meter might be faulty, but don't want to call them out to check yet, as they'll charge us if it's not.
(btw, am now using old style modem and laptop running off batteries as i charged it up at work yesterday...trying so hard to be careful with the leccy, but now the gas central heating is on hte blink, and i'm cold!!!)

Robert5988

emujuice,
You appear to be working on a tariff of 10p a unit. Only the first 900 or so units in a quarter should be that high, it then should drop to about 7p.

The 15 pounds a month you expect to pay is pretty low IMO - I pay 4 times that(with Gas CH)

From the details you have given I think your consumtion is not excessive. A router consumes very little power.

If you are really concerned you will need to buy one of those devices that measures consumption of each device.

emujuice

hi robert.
that's excellent news. the flat is new, so the first bill was 10.5p per unit. it will now be 8.5p a unit , which is much better - nearly a 20% reduction.
i'm begining to accept that we are using that much energy, and i don't mind paying for what we're using. our problem was that we really are energy efficient and do our best to conserve energy, if our bill is regularly £40 a month, then we're going to struggle to pay the bills, as i'm not sure how we can cut down more.
ah well.
we'll have to start showering less

Fastflys

It’s looking like your electric shower and fire are the culprits.

How is your other hot water in the bathroom/kitchen heated? Do you have a bath?
If so try filling it one third full from the tap instead of using the shower.

Of course you could become professional visitors and call on people in rotation.
Blag a bath, use their toilet, eat their food enjoy their heating, watch their TV/DVD. The possibilities are endless. :idea:

Result very low housekeeping bills.

My electricity usage as posted above amounts to an average DD monthly payment of £19.00. My supplier is: Atlantic Electric & Gas which for my area [Eastern] was/is one of the cheapest.

Phonix

Of course you could become professional visitors and call on people in rotation.
Blag a bath, use their toilet, eat their food enjoy their heating, watch their TV/DVD. The possibilities are endless.

For me this would make little difference as I live with three other people. During the two weeks I was away the bill was still very high which does seem very odd as I use the electric shower a fair bit, which we thought was the culprit.