£1200 electric bill over winter
Discussion
I have a feeling I'm paying too much for my electricity so hoping someone could reassure me that they are also paying this amount of leccy!
I live in a privatley rented 2 bed house with an economy seven meter. The house is heated by three night storage heaters all are rated as follows:
Living Room 2.55kW
Kitchen 1.70Kw
Landing 1.70Kw
Other electric guzzling electrical appliances I have in use are:
Fridge freezer
Hot water tank with imersion heater, on every night
32" TV (CRT)
I switched on the night storage heaters beginning of November and left them on until the end of April for the first time and my electric bill is just shy of £1200 for November for this period (approx £100 from previous quarter) ..... Is this the true cost of electricity for a single person who works away from home during the day, living in a small 2 bed house running 3 night storage heaters?
All meter readings supplied to electric company and are not estimates.
Any comments appreciated.
I live in a privatley rented 2 bed house with an economy seven meter. The house is heated by three night storage heaters all are rated as follows:
Living Room 2.55kW
Kitchen 1.70Kw
Landing 1.70Kw
Other electric guzzling electrical appliances I have in use are:
Fridge freezer
Hot water tank with imersion heater, on every night
32" TV (CRT)
I switched on the night storage heaters beginning of November and left them on until the end of April for the first time and my electric bill is just shy of £1200 for November for this period (approx £100 from previous quarter) ..... Is this the true cost of electricity for a single person who works away from home during the day, living in a small 2 bed house running 3 night storage heaters?
All meter readings supplied to electric company and are not estimates.
Any comments appreciated.
£200 per month does sound excessive - irrelevant how many people in your house though, it's what's left on that's important. If you're away, do you need the immersion on every night, also are the night storage heaters charging up for too long? Check the basics as well - make sure the heaters are charging up from 10pm to 4am & not vice versa (trust me I have seen this). On the plus side, I bet your gas bill is really low
Check out the BBC Watchdog web site, as I believe a fair few companies overcharged customers who are on Economy 7 type tarrifs - not sure of the complete details, but worth looking into.
Ditto on the immersion heater, I wouldn't leave that on for too long!
Maniman
Ditto on the immersion heater, I wouldn't leave that on for too long!
Maniman
Edited by Maniman on Thursday 28th May 09:56
Do you need all three heaters on? I'd turn the one in the kitchen off. Likewise the immersion doesn't need to be on every night, since a well-lagged tank will stay hot for a few days. Stop all draughts - tin foil works well for plugging gaps in floorboards and stops mice getting in as well.
I'd also look at energy-saving lightbulbs wherever possible, and ensure you are using the lowest cost cooking methods. I've halved my domestic electricity bill from a few simple measures - see my blog.
I'd also look at energy-saving lightbulbs wherever possible, and ensure you are using the lowest cost cooking methods. I've halved my domestic electricity bill from a few simple measures - see my blog.
Landlord said:
Clips onto the supply, and wireless receiver takes readings.Updates within seconds. You learn what the house "idles" at - so you can see if it's unusually high for that time of day. Classic example is leaving lights on upstairs - at a glance the Owl shows there is a large drain.
Interestingly the whole "switch off standby" thing seems a load of crap. The amount you actually save is peanuts.
Even has 2 tiers for tariffs, so you can plug in the different rates and see how much the missus' hairdryer is costing you...
Might seem a novelty, but useful for keeping track on bills. Since Christmas it's been accurate to within £5 for our leccy bills.
A couple of points which may be worth considering:
If you are using an immersion heater to heat your water it will not need to be on all day everyday. I have ours coming on 3 times a day for 45 minutes, this gives enough HW for at least one bath a day for my little lad who likes big deep baths to play in, washing up several times a day and car washing.
With economy seven / off peak electric you (certainly in times past) got the night time rate at a discount, but the daytime rate was higher than standard rate. If you have the immersion heater on 24/7 then you could be bumping your bill up, so it would be worth checking that the cylinder thermostat is working correctly, or alter the temperature setting.
It would also be worth checking the timeswitch control of your off peak heating supplies, if they are incorrectly set you could be running your storage heaters on expensive day time rate electricity.
If you are using an immersion heater to heat your water it will not need to be on all day everyday. I have ours coming on 3 times a day for 45 minutes, this gives enough HW for at least one bath a day for my little lad who likes big deep baths to play in, washing up several times a day and car washing.
With economy seven / off peak electric you (certainly in times past) got the night time rate at a discount, but the daytime rate was higher than standard rate. If you have the immersion heater on 24/7 then you could be bumping your bill up, so it would be worth checking that the cylinder thermostat is working correctly, or alter the temperature setting.
It would also be worth checking the timeswitch control of your off peak heating supplies, if they are incorrectly set you could be running your storage heaters on expensive day time rate electricity.
After weeks of arguing with Scottish Power which has come to them "advising" me to have a pay as you go meter installed or "get my electricity cut off", this was whilst I paid the best part of the bill in the meantime.
By this time I had enough and relented and started the process of them putting a PAG meter. During the process it was dicovered by the only person with brains at Scottish power that my night meter was on the same rate as my day meter ..... f
king hell, could have checked that before this all kicked off. Turns out my bill is half what it should be!!!!!!
Now, do I continue with the install of the meter as they appear to want me to and should I pay for the visit of an "agent" that turned up unannounced while I was out to discuss my options at the cost of £30 odd quid?
By this time I had enough and relented and started the process of them putting a PAG meter. During the process it was dicovered by the only person with brains at Scottish power that my night meter was on the same rate as my day meter ..... f
king hell, could have checked that before this all kicked off. Turns out my bill is half what it should be!!!!!!Now, do I continue with the install of the meter as they appear to want me to and should I pay for the visit of an "agent" that turned up unannounced while I was out to discuss my options at the cost of £30 odd quid?
Don't believe anything they tell you. My mother's house was all-electric and when her quarter-on-quarter bill trebled in a year (and I knew perfectly well her usage was unchanged), the correspondence went like this:
'The bill is 3x more than last year. Are you sure this is right?'
'Yes'
'We have just received a red bill. Please investigate my request.'
'The bill is correct'.
'She is now getting threatening letters from you. If you want me to tell the local media how you're threatening to take a blind old lady with dementia to court, carry on.'
'Oh hang on, sorry, the meter readings were the wrong way round, how silly of us, it's only £xxx after all.'
'The bill is 3x more than last year. Are you sure this is right?'
'Yes'
'We have just received a red bill. Please investigate my request.'
'The bill is correct'.
'She is now getting threatening letters from you. If you want me to tell the local media how you're threatening to take a blind old lady with dementia to court, carry on.'
'Oh hang on, sorry, the meter readings were the wrong way round, how silly of us, it's only £xxx after all.'
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