£1800 electricity bill over 9 months?

[Inazuma]

Actually the issue has been in dispute since April last year when we realised the meter had sky rocketed.

I would be inclined to believe that we were at fault but those first two months where the bills were normal followed by the huge jump which didnt really die down in summer makes me think otherwise

 

[Glaucus]

Does the rate not stay the same irrellivent of usage?

Yes, but if you use little you'll want a very low or zero standing rate, but price per kwh is higher. If you use a lot you want cheapest kwh and expensive standing charge. So no one tariff fits everyone. Just because I'm on x tariff which is good for me, doesn't mean it'll be the best for you.
And that's before you look into cheap price at night and expensive during the day for electric immersion heaters.

And 500w is very low for an electric heater. There are some that low, but I wouldn't say they are that common.

As to what you can do, not a lot as you didn't take readings and didn't sort it out at the time, when problems could have been found, which leaves you with trying to argue the toss and going something must be wrong due to the other readings and hope they cave in.

 

[Vanquish-Storm]

Yes, but if you use little you'll want a very low or zero standing rate, but price per kwh is higher. If you use a lot you want cheapest kwh and expensive standing charge. So no one tariff fits everyone. Just because I'm on x tariff which is good for me, doesn't mean it'll be the best for you.
And that's before you look into cheap price at night and expensive during the day for electric immersion heaters.

And 500w is very low for an electric heater. There are some that low, but I wouldn't say they are that common.

As to what you can do, not a lot as you didn't take readings and didn't sort it out at the time, when problems could have been found, which leaves you with trying to argue the toss and going something must be wrong due to the other readings and hope they cave in.

Ah thank you very much sir. Something I need to look out for then, I was completely oblivious to a standing charge. Moving to my first house soon so I will be trying to dig out the best deal for me.

 

[413x]

What spec were both the PC's? If they are both high end and get used a lot it will add significantly to the bill.

Not a chance. You would know if you were using it that much. It would have to be on 24/7 at full utilisation to do that kind of damage

 

[Tefal]

Unfortunately we had to rely on our concierge to get readings and he wasn't the most reliable man to respond to requests.. But we did get a few. I've just made this table with a summary of the reads.

BTW we were billed a sum of £180 in January based on their estimate of our usage - I think - from Nov-Jan.

when you say concierge had to do the readings is a a block of flats or apaprtments or soemthing?


Does he live there? are you maybe paying for another flat/him as well?

 

[Inazuma]

Not a chance. You would know if you were using it that much. It would have to be on 24/7 at full utilisation to do that kind of damage

Indeed. Although for the record, he was using a gaming laptop and I am on a PC with a 600W power supply.

when you say concierge had to do the readings is a a block of flats or apaprtments or soemthing?

Does he live there? are you maybe paying for another flat/him as well?

Purpose built block of flats. He was there mostly as a receptionist and repair man.

Looking increasingly likely I will have to foot the bill. As I said, this has been in dispute since April last year when we were still living there. They have previously sent engineers to look at the meter but have never kept me up to date about their findings despite repeated requests.

 

[Xire]

Seems a bit obscene, we pay £112 a month for Gas and electric and im in a 3 bed flat in London with 2 other guys that have PCs/Servers/TVs on all the time.

 

[Jono8]

That is a lot of kWh you are using 1400 units a month based on that spreadsheet!

 

[DampCat]

Apologies for the hijack but I've just inherited my first electric boiler and have noticed some things here that worry me. People have they they turn it off every day? Like totally off? I've noticed when it's off it takes hours and hours to heat water enough for a shower. Is it cheaper to leave it on, or turn it off and use boost when showering?

Edit: the other option is timed boost, but don't really know why I'd use that.

 

[chaparral]

Do you think it's possible for the bill to have reached about £1800 in 9 months?.

Seems about right

I pay around £200 per month for my electricity bill..

 

[gothic_hobbit]

Plasma TV's take a lot to run.

Do you have one of those ?

 

[Sunbed]

Seems high. Me and gf paid £714 for a years worth of electricity last year. That's in a 2 bed flat in Manchester. Even if your thermostat in your hot water tank is set too high, it shouldn't be using that much electricity because they are usually quite well insulated and stop heating once they reach the set temperature.

 

[Dj_Jestar]

2,329 units per month for four months?! What were you doing? Lighting Heathrow Airport?!

 

[Bossk128]

Is high. Mind you when i was at uni, everybody wanted their flat warm enough to mooch about in shorts, bare feet, and t shirt all through winter. Leccy is much more expensive now!!

 

[zipp0r]

i'd say it was the electric heating and not being energy conscious with everything else, NOT the water heater. i had electric water heating and left it on 24/7 and it never used obscene amounts of electric! 3-4kw for a full tank(bath) and maybe 1kw at most per 24hrs for keeping it topped up.
you had electric room heaters fgs! they use a ridiculous amount of electricity.

Apologies for the hijack but I've just inherited my first electric boiler and have noticed some things here that worry me. People have they they turn it off every day? Like totally off? I've noticed when it's off it takes hours and hours to heat water enough for a shower. Is it cheaper to leave it on, or turn it off and use boost when showering?

Edit: the other option is timed boost, but don't really know why I'd use that.

leave it turned on 24/7 and ignore the BS in this thread.

 

[UTmaniac]

The water immersion is the biggest electric drain after our storage heaters, hence they come on for the final ~90mins of our economy7 cheap night electric (might need a re-heat for a bath).

Keeping an immersion on 24/7 to maintain the thermostat set temp is a massive waste of electric. Normally, each time you use the hot water, the immersion is topped up with cold water, which will lower the temp and need heating.

 

[Behemoth]

I bet the concierge has read the meter wrong, if thats the case its no wonder the meter reading is high. If it were me I'd making sure I was reading the meter myself and makeing sure I was reading the right meter !

I don't supposed the concierge has transposed the meter readings at all ? e.g he read someone elses meter.

 

[finga]

Your water tank has had the boost on permanently, if youve always had hot water at any time of day, this is what it is. They usually come on at night on economy 7 and you have the boost for if you need it.
Years ago me and the wife ran up 3600 quids worth of debt when we moved into a flat with no gas, it was the boost left on from previous tenant, unfortunately we had to foot the bill but eon put us on a payment plan whereby we paid 150 a month and any surplus came off our debt, it took 4 years to clear!
If you have underfloor heating this makes it even worse depending on your floor type, there are 2 kinds, one is good and the other is very bad, seems most newish builds get the bad type! Cant remember the exact terms but ones under floor and the other is under tile or something, incredibly uneconomic.
Check your boost on the tank.

 

[FerretBoy]

Plasma TV's take a lot to run.

Do you have one of those ?

Yeah 300w is roughly 3p an hour...

 

[Jono8]

Your water tank has had the boost on permanently, if youve always had hot water at any time of day, this is what it is. They usually come on at night on economy 7 and you have the boost for if you need it.
Years ago me and the wife ran up 3600 quids worth of debt when we moved into a flat with no gas, it was the boost left on from previous tenant, unfortunately we had to foot the bill but eon put us on a payment plan whereby we paid 150 a month and any surplus came off our debt, it took 4 years to clear!
If you have underfloor heating this makes it even worse depending on your floor type, there are 2 kinds, one is good and the other is very bad, seems most newish builds get the bad type! Cant remember the exact terms but ones under floor and the other is under tile or something, incredibly uneconomic.
Check your boost on the tank.

How does this even happen? Did you not start to realise something was up after your first bill?