Another high electricity question!

zmd1201 · 4 April 2018 at 7:52PM

Hi all,
I've been a lurker round on the forum for several months and so I have seen how useful all your advice is and so was hoping you could all give me some please! I recently moved from a 1 and a box room flat to a big 2 bedroom flat with my partner. We have received a bill for 508 KW electricity for 5 weeks (actual not estimated)- in our old flat we used the same amount over 4-5 months over the same time of year so I am very confused and would appreciate any advice to determine if this is reasonable or if there is any other reason.

Our consumption is as follows:

- Dishwasher about 4 times a week
- 8 in 1 slow cooker type thing for porridge 5 times a week and occasional slow cooker / rice cooker usage (1 per week?)
- Washing 2 a week
- No tumble dryer
- Nearly no ironing (one shirt every 3 weeks?)
- Believe the shower is gas, there is no "electric" box in the shower
- Don't drink tea or coffee, just use kettle for cooking.
- Cooking (admittedly not every night as we eat out a lot..., every other night for about an hour) with a gas hob
- No TV - we use one laptop that is not charged over night.
- 1, sometime 2 phones is charged over night
- We have heated towel rails - only one of which is turned on for about 2-3 hours in the morning.
- I also have a feeling that we might have halogen lights - would these make up the difference and if so does anyone know how I can tell the difference?

It is the addition of the heated towel rail and dishwasher that is different to the old flat.
Our gas and hot water are central heating and we have had several problems recently with the boiler breaking down. It is a combi boiler but as far as I am aware I didn't think that heating or hot water from gas would have any impact on the electricity? (Sorry if this is stupid!). We had quite a high gas bill at my old flat because our insulation was terrible, but our gas has been significantly lower since we have moved as the flat has much thicker walls and insulation.
Please let me know if you have any advice. I am contemplating buying a energy monitor to help, but given that I am really trying to pay off my credit card bill (the credit card is in the freezer in a block of ice – who knows if it will survive) I would rather avoid the £50 spend unless it “pays for itself” in the long run!
I would rather not assume that the initial meter reading is wrong or that the meter is faulty until I am sure that I am not just missing a big electricity item that I was unaware of!

I've also been charged 17p a KW on a "move in saver" which is nearly 5p a unit more than there standard tariff.. but that is a separate battle I feel!

Thanks so much in advance:)

zmd1201 · 4 April 2018 at 7:54PM

I also forgot to mention that I have been making the effort to wash at 30 instead of 40 as I heard that this is a big difference in usage, and finally that we have a dyson that we use about twice a week.

CashStrapped · 4 April 2018 at 8:41PM

I assume you gave an accurate opening reading, and are basing that calculation from ab up to date reading.

One thing to immediately check with a flat is that the MPAN/ MPRN number on the bill correlates with that on the meter.

A further check, especially in flats with communal meter areas or recent conversions is that the meter you think relates to your flat, does actually relate to your flat. Even if the mpan/mprn match, it may have been assigned incorrectly.

So, you need to do a quick and simple check.

1) Turn all the power off in the flat (you can do this at the consumer unit/fuse box) just make sure any sensitive equipment is turned off first. (take a torch with you!)

2) Check the meter you think is yours. It should not be recording any use. If an old analogue meter, the disc should not be spinning. If it is a digital meter, the red light should not flash.

3)Wait for a bit, and again check no use has been recorded.

4)Then, turn the power back on and start a full kettle boiling. While it is heating, go and check the meter again. You should now see the red light flashing or disc spinning and use being recorded.

5) Repeat if you wish.

----

Back to your use. The main contributors to high electricity use will often be anything with a heating element.

While your boiler was on the fritz, did you use any portable heaters? This would/could have more than contributed towards a high energy bill for the period in question.

The main culprits for high electricity use is anything with a heating element that is on for an extended period.

---

Also, as a side point, without a tumble dryer, please please please do not start drying your clothes on the radiators, especially in colder months. It is bad for the property and you will end up creating a lot of condensation, and in the worst case scenario, mould. It is a classic tenant mistake.

zmd1201 · 4 April 2018 at 9:56PM

CashStrapped wrote: »

I assume you gave an accurate opening reading, and are basing that calculation from ab up to date reading.

One thing to immediately check with a flat is that the MPAN/ MPRN number on the bill correlates with that on the meter.

A further check, especially in flats with communal meter areas or recent conversions is that the meter you think relates to your flat, does actually relate to your flat. Even if the mpan/mprn match, it may have been assigned incorrectly.

So, you need to do a quick and simple check.

1) Turn all the power off in the flat (you can do this at the consumer unit/fuse box) just make sure any sensitive equipment is turned off first. (take a torch with you!)

2) Check the meter you think is yours. It should not be recording any use. If an old analogue meter, the disc should not be spinning. If it is a digital meter, the red light should not flash.

3)Wait for a bit, and again check no use has been recorded.

4)Then, turn the power back on and start a full kettle boiling. While it is heating, go and check the meter again. You should now see the red light flashing or disc spinning and use being recorded.

5) Repeat if you wish.

----

Back to your use. The main contributors to high electricity use will often be anything with a heating element.

While your boiler was on the fritz, did you use any portable heaters? This would/could have more than contributed towards a high energy bill for the period in question.

The main culprits for high electricity use is anything with a heating element that is on for an extended period.

---

Also, as a side point, without a tumble dryer, please please please do not start drying your clothes on the radiators, especially in colder months. It is bad for the property and you will end up creating a lot of condensation, and in the worst case scenario, mould. It is a classic tenant mistake.

Hi,
Thanks for replying! Yes I have an accurate reading.. I was hoping the landlord gave me an old reading, but the date of the picture shows it was the date I moved in! The meter is in our bedroom in a wardrobe so it should (!) be hours. I will double check the number though!

We didn't use any heaters as our heating worked but our hot water didn't, so we were just showering at our local gym. I also learnt the hard way at a property a few years ago about drying clothes so I am careful to do it properly now!

I've started researching the usage of our appliances, so am going to try and work out what I would expect us to use and go from there....

macman · 5 April 2018 at 10:40AM

OP, don't obsess about irons and Dysons. What matters is heating and hot water, these will account for the vast majority of your usage.
Bear in mind that you are looking at usage over some of the coldest weeks of the year, so your annual usage cannot be pro-rata'd up from that period.
Your combi boiler uses electricity to power it's ignition etc, but this is negligible.
What rating are your halogen lamps, and how many are there? The cost will be the kWh total usage (rating x hours) x your unit kWh cost.

matelodave · 5 April 2018 at 11:02AM

If you are sloppy about turning lights off and you've got halogen lamps then they can ramp up your costs.

Our kitchen had 10 x 50 watt halogens = 500w/h, now changed to 10 x 4watts = 40w/h, saving around 6p for every hour that they are on. It doesn't sound like a lot but say four hours a day, thats over £80 a year saved

CashStrapped · 5 April 2018 at 12:35PM

One thing I noticed on your opening post is you mention "heated towel rails" in a way that leads me to suspect they may be electric ones.

Can you confirm this?

If they are stand alone, retrofitted heating rails attached to the wall via a fused spur, this may be one contributor to your daily electric use.

As I said, anything with a heating element is likely to be a major contributor to an overall electric bill.

In your case the rails probably come on for the 2-3 hours per day and are quite possibly on permanently for that length of time. While not having thermostats that react to room temperature, they are probably restricted to stay at a specific temperature for that duration to give off a consistent low heat to dry any towels. So I can imagine them using enough electricity to impact a daily bill slightly. Maybe 1-3kwh per day.

If the heated rails are part of the central heating system, this does not apply.

----
As matelodave says above, halogens, if they are actual halogen (incandescent) bulbs, can add up if they are the 50w variety.

It is certainly worth swapping them out for LED varieties which have far more flexibility and options.

Traditional halogens are very focussed spots. They became very ubiquitous as a design trend but are often inappropriately used in kitchens, bedrooms etc. So if you have a house full of 50w (or even 30w) halogens, they can soon add up.

LED ones give you options of colour temperature, 2800 (warm) 4000 (cold) and beam angle. Traditional halogens only had a beam angle of 30degrees. LED ones can give a wide angle up to over 100degrees. Although some of the super wide ones can give off a bit more glare.

Something like this

---

Just be aware that if your halogens are low voltage type, you cannot just swap in LED bulbs. They require the transformer to be replaced with an LED driver, which is not always as easy as it sounds.

zmd1201 · 6 April 2018 at 6:54PM

matelodave wrote: »

If you are sloppy about turning lights off and you've got halogen lamps then they can ramp up your costs.

Our kitchen had 10 x 50 watt halogens = 500w/h, now changed to 10 x 4watts = 40w/h, saving around 6p for every hour that they are on. It doesn't sound like a lot but say four hours a day, thats over £80 a year saved

I've been testing the meter over the past couple of days and its definitely the lights - my meter went down by half on the day we didn't use the lights!

Thanks for all of your help - just got to get the LED Lights installed now!

BooJewels · 6 April 2018 at 7:39PM

If you can change to LED lights, they're significantly less power hungry and much, much better than they were 10 years ago for colour and even power consumption. I just swapped the first LED bulb to blow this week and the replacement bulb was 3w less than the original I took out.

We have spotlights, under cupboard lights and side lamps on in our kitchen all day and they're less than 30w an hour for the lot. When I first got them, I worked out that the power saving would pay for the fittings and bulbs in about 15 months.

CashStrapped · 6 April 2018 at 7:50PM

Those Enlight bulbs from Screwfix are really very good.

As I said, pay close attention to the beam angle and colour temperature.
4000k is a great colour for kitchens and 2800k-3000k is a good warm colour for cosy areas.

Also, the most efficient bulbs have a good lm per watt. Lumens (lm) is what you should start measuring bulbs brightness by. Wattage is not longer a good direct indicator.

---

As I said above, you do need to ensure they are not low voltage halogens as mains voltage LED bulbs will not be compatible.

Low voltage LED bulbs are also not compatible as they require their own driver (transformer for LEDs).

macman · 6 April 2018 at 10:27PM

You still haven't told us: how many lights, and what wattage?

Another high electricity question!

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free