Don't understand why it costs so much to power a 1-bed flat!

dearbarbie
dearbarbie Posts: 566 Forumite
edited 30 August 2018 at 12:41PM in Energy
I have no idea why my flat is costing so much.

I live alone in a 1-bed apartment, electricity only. I have an induction hob and oven, I cook maybe 6 times a week as stay at bf's house, same goes for daily shower.

I only have 3 rooms so not lots of lights on and off.
Washing machine maybe twice a week average.
Boil kettle maybe three times a week. Usual washing up etc. Hairdryer three times a week.
Broadband, Amazon echo are on all the time. I watch TV (TV and Apple TV maybe 5 times a week for a few hours at a time).
I don't even use anything like a vacuum cleaner, have no tumble dryer, charge phone at night.

I haven't used the ridiculous tiny heaters for months, which I thought would save me a fortune - I live in a basement, it's all bricks and freezing.

In the winter, I was with ExtraEnergy, a total mess of customer service kinda company and at £90 a month I thought I could do better.

So I moved to bulb. That's been about £85 a month and after a meter reading last month I just got stung with a £250 bill. In July!!

My calculated annual consumption is 8876 kWh.

I can only think of one thing - my boiler. There's a mystery switch in my kitchen that I'm wondering, could it be an immersion/water heating switch and I'm just paying to power that 24/7?

This is my first time living alone so I probably sound like a total idiot - apols for naivety!

Caretaker said towel rail heating is expensive - but I never use that, is unsure of boiler type. About to call my agency who are also not very useful and just say 'well it costs a lot to live there'. HOW? I've seen the EPC, everything is pretty good apart from the heaters I'm not using.

Any power drains that have helped you reduce your bills or surprise issues I could consider investigating?

Am worried that when it gets colder I'm going to be paying even more :(

Thank you!
:A
«13

Comments

  • spiro
    spiro Posts: 6,403
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    Forget money for a minute, how much electricity have you used? Ideally post the meter readings & date you moved in and also a current meter reading & date. We can then see how much you have used over what period.
    IT Consultant in the utilities industry specialising in the retail electricity market.

    4 Credit Card and 1 Loan PPI claims settled for £26k, 1 rejected (Opus).
  • Robin9
    Robin9 Posts: 12,055
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    Lets start at the beginning.

    When you moved in did you contact the existing supplier, give them reads .

    The you switched to Bulb and gave them initial reads when asked for and then got a final bill from your old supplier.

    Good.

    Since then have you been reading your meters at least every month and giving them to Bulb or do you have bills where the reads are Estimated (E) ?

    I assume E7 tariff.

    Can you post your actual consumption figures please with day and night seperate - in kwh not £.


    Electric Showers can be very expensive - cut them down to 5 mins.

    Water heater not too much of an issue but the bottom switch should be on a timer so that it comes on at night, only use the top switch when desperate for a top up.

    Its not unknown for meter errors and the night time and day are reversed. Easily checked - there is an arrow or pointer - is that (now 1350) showing 1, day or low or something else.
    Never pay on an estimated bill
  • dearbarbie
    dearbarbie Posts: 566 Forumite
    edited 30 August 2018 at 12:53PM
    Thanks all so far - see below noting estimates or meter readings. Have just asked my caretaker for another meter reading to get this more up to date. I don't have access to the meter and our on-site caretaker provides them. Turns out he takes them once a month so will ask for a backlog of readings.
    I have also asked if it's an E7 meter. I am on a vari-fair tariff with bulb.
    I don't have day or night figures.

    This is from the bulb statement:

    21 Aug 18 - Estimated - 75879

    23 Jul 18 - Customer - 75321 - look how much it went up!

    21 Jul 18 - Estimated - 73806

    21 Jun 18 - Estimated - 73396

    21 May 18 - Estimated - 72955

    21 Apr 18 - Estimated - 72504

    21 Mar 18 - Estimated - 71982

    21 Feb 18 - Estimated - 71413

    21 Jan 18 - Estimated - 70769

    21 Dec 17 - Customer - 70114 - original one for starting with this new supplier

    Like I said, first time living alone...learned right here to not pay on estimated bills and keen to get to the bottom of this!
    :A
  • Robin9
    Robin9 Posts: 12,055
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    So you are not on E7 or there would be 2 readings. Is your heating storage rads, panels heaters or .....

    5700 units in 8 months is on the high side - approx 8400 a year. At approx 12p a unit plus standing charges and VT gives about £1200 a year, £100 a month so your £85 plus a catch up of £250 is about right.

    Be more energy conscious.
    Never pay on an estimated bill
  • dearbarbie
    dearbarbie Posts: 566 Forumite
    Robin9 wrote: »
    So you are not on E7 or there would be 2 readings. Is your heating storage rads, panels heaters or .....

    5700 units in 8 months is on the high side - approx 8400 a year. At approx 12p a unit plus standing charges and VT gives about £1200 a year, £100 a month so your £85 plus a catch up of £250 is about right.

    Be more energy conscious.

    Is panel heaters I think...see, this is why I'm posting asking how to use less energy. I'm sure my bills are right but something seems amiss in terms of me consuming so much as a single person in a small one-bed?
    :A
  • Robin9
    Robin9 Posts: 12,055
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    Panel heaters can be fine but you need to control them - do you leave them on all day when you are out.? If so switch them off. Only switch the bedroom one on before you go to bed.
    Never pay on an estimated bill
  • D_M_E
    D_M_E Posts: 3,008
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    Another possibility is that the caretaker is not giving you the correct meter readings for your flat and is in fact giving you someone else's meter readings.
    This is a common mistake with flats, particularly when the billpayer does not have access to the meters to read themselves.

    EDIT - since you spend so much time away, try turning off all heaters/immersions until about December and have shorter, maybe cooler showers.
  • matelodave
    matelodave Posts: 8,586
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    edited 30 August 2018 at 3:20PM
    I would be inclined to go down with the caretaker and confirm that the meter he's reading is actually yours.

    Check the serial number on the bill is the same as the serial number on the meter.

    Make sure that if you turn everything off that the meter stops and that turning on a kettle starts it again. As said above it's not unusual to be paying some else's bill because the wrong meter is being read.

    Your consumption sounds like it's way too high - we are all electric, at home all day and haven't used as much as that and we use a tumble dryer, washing machine, dishwasher, heat water etc all with leccy.

    Our average for this time of the year is around 7-8kwh a day (50-55kwh a week) so if you are using much more than that I'd be looking very carefully at where its all going.

    I would ask for a weekly reading at roughly the same time every week to see what your consumption is like - make an arrangement with the caretaker for you to go and read it with him. Relying on months of estimates and the odd random actual reading will not help you gain control of your consumption.

    If you don't monitor it you can't control it
    Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large numbers
  • Norman_Castle
    Norman_Castle Posts: 11,871
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    There's a mystery switch in my kitchen that I'm wondering, could it be an immersion/water heating switch and I'm just paying to power that 24/7?
    Try turning it off.
  • anniecave
    anniecave Posts: 2,441
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    Try turning it off.



    Assuming it is a hot water immersion, it may take a while for it to go cold. If you turn it off before you start a shower, then leave it off for a few hours after, it should definitely start going cold after this, assuming that's what it is. You could probably have it turned on overnight and off during the day and this would save you some kwh's.


    It will likely be your main heating source (the panel heaters) during the winter that are using up most of your energy though.
    Indecision is the key to flexibility :)
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