£100 electric bill!

I get around · 29 Dec 2009 at 12:35

10 mins in the shower, is that it?

Dude you need at least 15 to have a proper clean, washing hair it's 20-30mins. Then 10 minutes with a hair dryer at least.

Wicksta · 29 Dec 2009 at 12:39

£100 is definitely too much, I leave my immersion heater on 24x7 due to a problem with our boiler, never turn our two Sky+ boxes off, leave lights on, 2 computers left on 24x7 and we're only paying about £60 for a 4 bedroom house.

Get a 'Current Cost' meter and then go around turning things off and check the display, much easier than the plug in style electricity monitors. I graph all of my electricity use with one.

http://www.currentcost.com/

Buckster · 29 Dec 2009 at 12:41

jeez - not sure what we're doing then

1 PC, 1 effecient new gas boiler, never use imersion heater, TV and amp are on many hours a day though (42 inch Plasma + high end av receiver)

we pay £90 a month

colinuk · 29 Dec 2009 at 12:42

3 people in the house, 3 bed semi. 1 laptop 2 computers, 2 tvs, cable, radios. heating is gas as is our cooker.

Bills come to about 260/3 months so about £75 a month for gas/electric. yours does sound a little high, unless your on one of them energy plans and using the electric at the wrong time of day?

Colinfr

SideWinder · 29 Dec 2009 at 12:43

Just found the November bill. Apparently my Mum is with E-on:

227kWH = 22.84p - Primary units
893kWh = 8.71p - Secondary units

Although a fan heater had been used as the boiler was being replaced over a 1-2 week period.

Buckster · 29 Dec 2009 at 12:45

eek at those rates, and assuming PC is on for about 7-8 hrs a day - my PC alone would be about 14 a month ! just in electricity (240W idle)

alexakasloth · 29 Dec 2009 at 12:46

£100 for 3 people does seem very excessive, we're paying about £40-£50 for a 4 bedroom student house.

Knubje · 29 Dec 2009 at 12:46

If you are with British Gas, as I am, you can get an Energy Smart device which you plugin and it monitors how much you are using at the time.

I'm sure there are plenty of other devices you can get from independant electrical retailers. Essentially my house is never running over 1kw/h use at any given time. Most of the time with TV, PC and a few lights on it's doing about 0.7kw/h.

My direct debit for Eleccy is £33 a month and Gas is £40. I have just moved in to my 3 bed house since buying it however, so I assume in the winter I will be paying a bit more but it will balance out over summer.

I am gas heated and gas cooking but everything else is electric.

I suggest getting a meter that will read your useage. This will help track down where the house energy is going. Your brother isn't boiling a full kettle of water every 10 minutes whilst taking his 3 hour shower by any chance is he?

dirtydog · 29 Dec 2009 at 12:47

SideWinder said:
Just found the November bill. Apparently my Mum is with E-on:

227kWH = 22.84p - Primary units
893kWh = 8.71p - Secondary units

Although a fan heater had been used as the boiler was being replaced over a 1-2 week period.

That is about 50% more units in one month, than my last quarterly bill (13 weeks). Although I live alone, all my water and heating is electric too. (also my PC is on 24/7)

So it sounds high, and it isn't just because people are using the shower etc. unless there is something wrong with it to make it guzzle energy more than it should.

Oxide™ · 29 Dec 2009 at 12:48

After researching how to cut my energy bills, I've just recently swapped from my British Gas Price Protection 2009 plan.

Now pay £15 for Gas from Ebico and £32 for Electricity from Ovo Energy monthly (both of which is my annual average usage)

Saving me £10 a month - Gooooooooo me :cool:

Gittins · 29 Dec 2009 at 12:51

OP How often does your mum use the kettle, washing machine and dryer?

RobH · 29 Dec 2009 at 12:52

An electric shower uses cold water and it heats the water internally which is why they use so much electricity. If the shower is being fed from the hot water out of the boiler than it shouldn't cost anything to run apart from the cost of the water and the gas to heat it. Likewise a power shower relies on the water being heated externally so they don't cost as much as electric showers to run but do use more water.

Buckster · 29 Dec 2009 at 12:53

actually I got a letter from Southern asking to check out our meter - to see if its reading incorrectly or not - butI think we just genuinely use a lot of electricity

I mean average house on here probably has a PC and a Console

+ a Plasma and maybe an av amp ?

I've measured my PC at 220W Idle (eek), and I think my Plasma is about 350W on average, and I reckon my AV amp is about 350-400W on average. If all those items are on for say 10 hrs a day total .. thats already 10kW per day !!

99% of gas boilers use an electric pump ? anyone know how much juice they use ?

Simi · 29 Dec 2009 at 12:55

Sounds like you're getting estimated usage bills, might be worth calling them and doing a meter reading over the 'phone to get a real usage bill.

SideWinder · 29 Dec 2009 at 12:56

Gittins said:
OP How often does your mum use the kettle, washing machine and dryer?

Mum just said "4 times a week" she uses the washing machine. That is a LOT for 2 people no? :eek:

Kettle 5 or 6 a day. No dryer but yes to a dishwasher.

I feel like a parent having to sort out 2 teenagers.

alexakasloth · 29 Dec 2009 at 13:01

SideWinder said:
Mum just said "4 times a week" she uses the washing machine. That is a LOT for 2 people no?

Kettle 5 or 6 a day. No dryer but yes to a dishwasher.

I feel like a parent having to sort out 2 teenagers.

Not really, i'd use the washing machine a couple of times a week, at least once for clothes, then sheets etc as these can get messy.

sly1 · 29 Dec 2009 at 13:01

I was paying £142 a month and had been for 2 years untill I checked it and the elec company owed me £390 over payment now its £90 a month which is still a lot

FatBoyObese · 29 Dec 2009 at 13:02

I've seen the talk about other appliances but no one seems to have talked about cooking........is this by gas or leccy......If it's leccy then that can have a very big impact on a domestic bill.
Immersion heaters are a killer on the leccy too as are fan heaters ect.

On the 'Being in credit with your supplier' front.....I rang up my supplier to find that I am, wait for it, £555 in credit and this was after they had sent me a letter saying that I ought to up my payments slightly.......I told them they ought to..........well I think you can guess

I pay around £90 a month for leccy and gas and I have a 4 bed house with big mental PC, old and greedy tv, fish tank, 10.5kw electric shower which gets approx 1 1/2 hours use every day,washing machine and tumble drier both of which are used at least 3 times a week in the winter months 2 laptops, ps3, Wii, and other various games consoles and we are in credit with both suppliers....

If it were me I would A, get a power monitor or B, get the leccy board to check the meter is accurate and not overcharging.

One other thing to check is that the bills are not done by estimated usage.....get a current reading from the meter and call the provider and check it is up to date.......If they do an estimated reading they always 'Go Large' and if this has happened on the last few bills then it is going to have a snowball effect.

gumbald · 29 Dec 2009 at 13:03

Anyone use one of those Envi monitors or such? Worth the £40?

loopylou · 29 Dec 2009 at 13:03

SideWinder said:
Mum just said "4 times a week" she uses the washing machine. That is a LOT for 2 people no?

Kettle 5 or 6 a day. No dryer but yes to a dishwasher.

I feel like a parent having to sort out 2 teenagers.

Not at all, 1 load for bed sheets / towels, 1 for whites, 1 for darks and 1 for colours.

Sounds reasonable.