Sky High Electricity Bill
Comments
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Thanks Hengus. Our renovations are literally pulling everything back to the brick walls and starting again (there was half inch polystyrene insulation before we got or hands on it). We've re-framed our camp out room, there's 100ml insulation on the gable and two end outside walls and 50ml insulation between the inside wall.
I don't expect a call from SSE RE and engineer visit date and time until next week, so we've bought ourselves time to investigate.
Thank you for your time. My heart is still in my stomach, but hopeful this is a meter issue, not anything we've got running up this cost.
I'll report back the outcome if you're at all interested.0 -
From your figures you have used 14530 Kwh or an average of about 100 Kwh per day.
You say that your husband checked the meter tickover - are you on E7?
An E7 meter will show at least 3 readings, one for day rate, one for night rate and one which is the total of day and night.
Which or what reading(s) have you been supplying?
What tariff are you on?
Are you being charged domestic or commercial rates?
Has it always been a domestic property or are you converting commercial premises, such as a pub?0 -
Hi D_M_E, I don't know about the E7. Husband sent me a picture of the meter this morning, all it says on it is Single Phase Watt Hour Meter, a sticker with the meter number and the digital display.
There is an analogue meter beside it that the old brick filled storage heaters were connected to. We'd never used them, they were the first thing to be ripped out and that meter has sat at the same reading ever since.
When SSE moved my meter outside I don't know why they didn't remove that old meter, I just found out this morning that we're still being charged a standing charge for it. I will deal with this when I have got to the bottom of the running meter.
It's not commercial premises we're renovating, just a run down house that an old man didn't keep particularly well before passing away.
I've just brought up our last annual statement here. It tells me that we used 608.86 kWh in that period, which is between July 2016 and July 2017.
Our charges are £17.59/kWh with the standing charge £25.76/d.0 -
Once you've got this problem sorted - find a new supplier/tariff - you are on a very expensive tariff.Never pay on an estimated bill0
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Typo (I'm under stress LOL) it should read 17.59 pence, not pounds !!!55357;!!!56900;0
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Your latest figures indicate an average usage of less than 2 Kwh per day - was this on the old meter and was it all your usage?
Also, I wonder if your bill includes an estimated reading for the meter no longer in use?
You need to get that meter removed and save the daily standing charge going forward - your quoted unit rate and standing charge are expensive to start with without paying extra for an unused meter.
Your new meter - is there a button - could be grey - beside the display?
If so, what happens when you press it?
Does the display have a small number in one corner of it, and if so, does it change if and when you press the button - if any - next to the display?
I agree that you need to switch as soon as this is sorted as your charges are not cheap.0 -
Sorry for the delayed response.
D_M_E - there's no button on the meter at all.
I've worked out what the problem is (was) and unfortunately, we are liable for the cost.
When we bought the house there was the storage radiators and also an oil boiler with immersion water tank. Those were hooked up to a reduced night rate meter and everything else was hooked up to the standard meter.
We hauled the storage radiators out when we moved in, so all that was left was the water tank.
Because we're overhauling the entire house (back to brick work, framing, insulating, wiring, plasterboarding), The old RCD unit and meter was inside the front door, we've put in a new RCD in a cupboard elsewhere in the house and hooking to that as we do each room and unhooking the old. Eventually there will be nothing left connected to the old RCD and we can heave it. There meter was also inside the front door, so I arranged for that to go outside. The meter was moved on 28th December.
Now, I don't know how or who, but the night rate meter was completely disconnected on that date and the water tank was connected to the new standard rate meter. I was unaware of this until this week.
The hot water tank was as old as the hills and literally took a couple of days to heat up, so we kept it on 24/7. Yes, the bill was high by doing this, we knew it would be, but it was a (relatively) short term plan because our intention is to install an air source heat pump. Back in February, the element gave up completely and we had a plumber in to fix it, who told us about the unvented tank. To be honest, the fact that this new tank is mains fed sold it to me. Showers from the old tank was gravity fed and taking a shower wasn!!!8217;t pleasureable or relaxing, particularly after a weekend of grafting in the house. New tank was installed on 21st February.
We received a bill mid January, which admittedly was higher than I was expecting, to the tune of around £500.00, but I (stupidly) didn!!!8217;t particularly question it because the bill before that had been an estimated reading, so I had assumed that the additional cost was just catch up from the previous estimate.
The old hot water tank was running 24/7 at the standard rate up to 21st February. I worked out it!!!8217;s daily usage from previous bills and worked out the cost at the standard rate and it!!!8217;s bang on the money.
Running the oil radiators as normal hasn!!!8217;t cost any more than what it normally does, it!!!8217;s literally that old tank being disconnected from the night meter that!!!8217;s caused it.
I!!!8217;ll be paying the bill this afternoon and I!!!8217;m switching suppliers. After doing some due diligence on rates, you guys are completely correct, I!!!8217;m currently paying 16.75p per kW and I!!!8217;m moving to a Supplier charging £13.56 per kW. Based on our average usage, we!!!8217;re looking to save around £122 per quarter. Probably a little more than that over the Summer months since the radiators won!!!8217;t be needed quite so much.
Roll on when we!!!8217;re in a position to install air source!
Thank you for all of your responses, I appreciate it.
Aria0 -
Hi,
I have received my electricity bill this morning for period January 19th - April 19th. It is £2,189.68.
As you may imagine, my heart collapsed into my stomach when I received it. I called my husband who nipped home to look at the meter reading, and since 19th April's reading (which wasn't an estimate) to today it has increased by a further 2,234 Kw. I estimate that to be in the region of £400.00 of electricity in 29 days.
I have called the electricity company who insist it's an oil filled radiator that's causing the issue. I have refuted that since it's never caused an issue before. They are sending out an Engineer to look at the meter to determine if it's faulty, but they haven't given me a date yet.
My heart still residing itself in my stomach, I was hoping any of you can suggest what on earth has caused this.
To give you background, we are renovating a 3 bedroom house, which includes re-wiring. As each room is being done, we're hooking new wiring into an new RCD unit.
Still connected to the old RCD unit is:
4 x pendant lights upstairs - rarely used since we haven't started up there yet and it's not habital to use as bedroom space etc.
1 x pendant light in the porch.
1 x pendant light in downstairs bathroom
1 x strip light in the kitchen
1 x cooker
Usual kitchen appliances...kettle, washing machine etc.
Connected to new RCD unit is:
4 x lamps in livingroom / bedroom (we're camping there while we renovate around us)
2 x ceiling pendant lights
1 x self thermostatically controlled hot water tank (3kw)
1 x oil radiator (the plugs in)
1 x TV
1 x sky box
2 x phone chargers
The hallway lights have been pulled and we've only just bought the new lighting for it, which isn't installed yet
The 2nd sitting room has just been plastered, so although we've pulled the old electrics from it (in February) and re-wired the room, they're not yet hooked up to the new unit until we paint the room. It's literally wired hanging from the ceiling and walls waiting for their fixtures.
We do not have a heating system. There's no gas in the area and the storage radiators that were there have all been disconnected a long time ago and binned (hence the need for the oil filled plug in radiator)
Lastly, we had SSE in on 28th December to move the electricity box from inside the front door to outside, so it was a brand new meter put in on that date.
We're literally living out of 3 rooms. We've come from a 'proper' house with all the mod cons and never ever received a bill like this there.
Please help me trouble shoot this through my tears
Sorry for the delayed response.
D_M_E - there's no button on the meter at all.
I've worked out what the problem is (was) and unfortunately, we are liable for the cost.
When we bought the house there was the storage radiators and also an oil boiler with immersion water tank. Those were hooked up to a reduced night rate meter and everything else was hooked up to the standard meter.
We hauled the storage radiators out when we moved in, so all that was left was the water tank.
Because we're overhauling the entire house (back to brick work, framing, insulating, wiring, plasterboarding), The old RCD unit and meter was inside the front door, we've put in a new RCD in a cupboard elsewhere in the house and hooking to that as we do each room and unhooking the old. Eventually there will be nothing left connected to the old RCD and we can heave it. There meter was also inside the front door, so I arranged for that to go outside. The meter was moved on 28th December.
Now, I don't know how or who, but the night rate meter was completely disconnected on that date and the water tank was connected to the new standard rate meter. I was unaware of this until this week.
The hot water tank was as old as the hills and literally took a couple of days to heat up, so we kept it on 24/7. Yes, the bill was high by doing this, we knew it would be, but it was a (relatively) short term plan because our intention is to install an air source heat pump. Back in February, the element gave up completely and we had a plumber in to fix it, who told us about the unvented tank. To be honest, the fact that this new tank is mains fed sold it to me. Showers from the old tank was gravity fed and taking a shower wasn!!!8217;t pleasureable or relaxing, particularly after a weekend of grafting in the house. New tank was installed on 21st February.
We received a bill mid January, which admittedly was higher than I was expecting, to the tune of around £500.00, but I (stupidly) didn!!!8217;t particularly question it because the bill before that had been an estimated reading, so I had assumed that the additional cost was just catch up from the previous estimate.
The old hot water tank was running 24/7 at the standard rate up to 21st February. I worked out it!!!8217;s daily usage from previous bills and worked out the cost at the standard rate and it!!!8217;s bang on the money.
Running the oil radiators as normal hasn!!!8217;t cost any more than what it normally does, it!!!8217;s literally that old tank being disconnected from the night meter that!!!8217;s caused it.
I!!!8217;ll be paying the bill this afternoon and I!!!8217;m switching suppliers. After doing some due diligence on rates, you guys are completely correct, I!!!8217;m currently paying 16.75p per kW and I!!!8217;m moving to a Supplier charging £13.56 per kW. Based on our average usage, we!!!8217;re looking to save around £122 per quarter. Probably a little more than that over the Summer months since the radiators won!!!8217;t be needed quite so much.
Roll on when we!!!8217;re in a position to install air source!
Thank you for all of your responses, I appreciate it.
Aria
When did you move in?0 -
Roll on when we!!!8217;re in a position to install air source!
Aria
Glad that the puzzle has been solved. As an aside, I have just had an EPC done on my home. I was talking to the assessor about improvements that will raise an EPC rating as, at the moment, they seem to be somewhat bizarre. He did mention that he surveyed a house recently that had an ASHP installed a year ago which replaced an oil burner, and the EPC rating went DOWN as a result of the increase in electricity used by the ASHP.0 -
When did you move in?
February 2017. Don't get me wrong, we've always had high electricity usage because it's either that or be cold, but it had never been that high. That was a shock.Glad that the puzzle has been solved. As an aside, I have just had an EPC done on my home. I was talking to the assessor about improvements that will raise an EPC rating as, at the moment, they seem to be somewhat bizarre. He did mention that he surveyed a house recently that had an ASHP installed a year ago which replaced an oil burner, and the EPC rating went DOWN as a result of the increase in electricity used by the ASHP.
That's interesting, and it makes sense that that would be the case. We have done our own research on both GSHP and ASHP. We opted for ASHP because we don't have enough land to go with horizontal trenches and bore holes are too expensive for our blood.
ASHP is looking like we're going to be roughly £500 - £600 of electricity per year to run the machine. We are planning on installing solar panels and also a Tesla Powerwall to store as much of our own generated energy as we can. Our train of thought being that if the panels and the powerwall only generates / stores as much as the ASHP uses and the rest of our electrics resorts to the grid, then we're not any worse off financially. We won't have the expense of running oil radiators like we're making do with either.
We should receive an RHI on this too.
It's our grand plan at the moment and we will be arranging for 3 ASHP supplier / installers to come round and narrow down the costs. We know the exact cubic area to be heated, so we're reasonably confident our figures won't be too far off what the supplier may say.
We're not eco-warriers by any stretch of the imagination, not are we doing this for the RHI. We figured because we bought a house with no heating installed at all, we'd look at what options are out there while we have the opportunity. It's unliekyl we'd do it if it had a gas line or oil tank installed already. We're only 40, this is our forever home (though that changes daily, depending on how frustrated with the reno I am haha) and fossil fuel costs are only ever going to go up, we're just trying to help our future selves TBH.0
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