£100 electric bill!

SideWinder

SideWinder

SideWinder

Consigliere
Joined
12 Jun 2004
Posts
151,034
Location
SW17
As topic really.

I've come home for Christmas for a couple of weeks and I've just discovered that my Mum and brother are currently paying between £100-120 a MONTH on electric. I almost had a heart attack as my 5 bedroom 'Pay as you go' student house currently pay between £60-70.

Something to note, my Mum has recently got a new boiler - one of the best and cost quite a bit - so the bills will be going down. She is quite energy conscious but she is also quite soft towards certain things, ie my brother's usage.

'Student house'

Lectures are 2-3 days a week and last the majority of the time. 1 person works during the weekends.

- 5 laptops on the majority of the time
- 2 PS3s used a few hours a day
- Old TV on for around 8 hours a day
- LCD TVs (2 on for a few hours a day)
- Electric shower

'Family house'

Mum works full time throughout the week and brother attends college 4 days a week, a few half days.

- 1 laptop used the majority of the time by my brother
- Old TV but not sure about useage
- Xbox 360 and seperate TV for it

I am pretty certain pay as you go is more expensive.

My brother has had a tendacy to have stupidly long showers so i decided to time it and it came to 10 minutes before i had to get him out. And he's also been using a hairdryer for 5 minutes, again before i had to stop him. I don't know how often this happens but sounds like the majority of the time depending on what is going on. So i want to make him understand that the electric bill is NOT normal and actually it's causing problems. It's not a power shower by the way.

I don't know the wattage of the hairdryer (i can find out) but any ideas of how to work out how much it costs to run it per minute? Anything else that could be using a lot of electric? Anyone else think i'm flipping out for no reason? I know i don't live here anymore but my Mum doesn't have a top job to afford 1k a year on electric and my brother doesn't have a job due to college commitments and his general state of mind right now - getting over his depression.

After speaking to my Mum, it turns out the radiator in his room doesn't work for some reason and it needs to be fixed but i mean, come on. Apparently he has had the hairdryer on to "warm up the room" but i know he is a sucker for just using it to get warm, he loves his comfort warmth and its the same for the shower. I happily survived last winter with my housemates in a single glazed 'paper thin' wall house with temps. stupidly low throughout. It's called getting by.
 
Last edited:
Get an electricity monitor from an online retailer, the monitor clips onto the main feed into the house and displays the wattage being used to an LED receiver. I got an 'owl' unit for £30 and made me realise how much electricity was being used by devices just on standby.

http://www.theowl.com/
 
Ten minutes in the shower doesn't sound excessive, nor does using a hairdryer for five minutes?

As for working out the cost, find out the price per kWh and the wattage of individual electrical items and it is simple to work out.
 
dirtydog said:
Ten minutes in the shower doesn't sound excessive, nor does using a hairdryer for five minutes?

As for working out the cost, find out the price per kWh and the wattage of individual electrical items and it is simple to work out.
Click to expand...

Really? :confused:

And this is after i stopped him though, could be a bit longer, especially the hairdryer because eventually the hot water runs out. HE DOESN'T HAVE ANY HAIR.
 
We're going through about £100 a month now too because the heating is almost always on. This house is shoddy though so a lot of heat gets out whilst cold gets in.

Other than that, the washing machine, dryer, 42" TV, 32" TV and my PC are on all throughout the day.

EDIT: I'm in the shower each day for around 30 minutes. 10 isn't enough! I've also now realized how dirty that sounds. :(
 
SideWinder said:
Really? :confused:

And this is after i stopped him though, could be a bit longer, especially the hairdryer because eventually the hot water runs out. HE DOESN'T HAVE ANY HAIR.
Click to expand...

TBH if your house doesn't have gas, so all your heating and water is done with electric then £100 a month sounds about right, especially this time of year.

Also are you sure that is how much that is actually being used, or is it just that it is being paid by direct debit, and the provider is charging more than they need to - a common practice.
 
dirtydog said:
Ten minutes in the shower doesn't sound excessive, nor does using a hairdryer for five minutes?
Click to expand...

Agreed. I spend about 20mins in the shower usually, though I don't use a hairdrier at all. My gf does though.. easily a lot longer than 5mins, with straighteners too! Still not paying anywhere near that amount though. There must be something else awry.
 
SideWinder said:
Turns out our boiler/heating is GAS only.
Click to expand...

In that case it does sound too high. But check the actual unit usage and not just what they are charging, because electric suppliers do like to have people build up a large credit balance needlessly. (the way to avoid this is to pay the bill in full each quarter, and not use direct debit.)
 
My electric is 26 a month and gas 40 a month, The heating (gas) is on 24/7 set to 21oC

Plus baths and showers

Electric runs plasma TV, tumble dryer, washing machine, dishwasher, just about every other power hungry thing going

I'm well over 150+ on each in credit.

something is defo wrong.
 
Ah! So because you can do something/feel one way about something/have done something, everyone else has to as well! :rolleyes:

Electricity bill is horrendous, though it's got nothing to do with how your brother can't "cope with the cold" as much as you can.

I do believe £100 a month is utterly horrendous, though this is what's currently paid at my house, and there's nothing we can do about it, the electric company aren't willing to accept it's a problem. :rolleyes:
 
so the shower doesn't actually make any difference?
/facepalm
anyway. check you've not got any bar heaters etc. failing that you can get your meter checked over
 
I would start by turning everything off which uses electric, including the freezer etc. and make sure the meter isn't still racking up the units.
 
VeNT said:
so the shower doesn't actually make any difference?
/facepalm
anyway. check you've not got any bar heaters etc. failing that you can get your meter checked over
Click to expand...

Yup seems not, my mistake. :) Only makes a difference to the water bill and that's for another thread. :rolleyes:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom