Electric bill since working from home

[VincentHanna]

Are you supplying the meter readings?

Just checked my usage - 2 people both working from home now (no kids) in a 2 bedroom house. 343Kwh


So your monthly usage looks insane. Are you sure the previous bills weren't 'estimated readings' which were less than they should have been, and they suddenly did an actual meter reading which corrected it?

 

[Diddums]

Yeah but remember this is the guy who posted about that huge fallout because he split the bill with his Mrs at M&S and went mad cause she ate the leftovers

Oh wow, really?

In that case he really needs to contact payroll and find out where he stands, this gross transgression can not be tolerated!

 

[Semple]

Just looked at our electric usage. 2 people/1 dog - 3 bedroom house. I WFH all the time even before covid19.

Last 6 months we're averaging around 230-240kWh. Fairly normal usage as well - TV/PC, oven/dishwasher/washing machine gets used a lot.

 

[Puzzled]

Is next door running an extension lead from your place?

That is a lot of electric to be using, has your hot water seemed hotter than usual? I'd get an energy monitor plug and find out what is using so much.

 

[Pho]

You can likely claim back £6 per week if you're force to work from home. Might be worth bearing in mind.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

Surely the lack of travel expenses cancels this out?

+1

 

[Guest2]

Immersion heater timings have not change - auto
Tariff is 'Vari-Fair'
I have my laptop (pretty low powered i7 HP Elitebook) and 2 screens on between 8am-4pm, along with Desktop PC - i7 [email protected], 2080Ti which sits idle most of the day

 

[Guest2]

+1

+0. I walk to work (or did)

 

[andy_mk3]

You running the shower all day on the hottest setting or something?

That does indeed seem like a lot. We don't even use 30kwh a day, and I have old rackmount servers running 24/7 as well as portable aircon all night.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

+0. I walk to work (or did)

How much do you normally spend on shoes?

 

[Vince]

I am pretty sure I don't pay that much on a 4 bed detached with 2 machines on 24/7. Seems a lot! I haven't even approached work as between me and the mrs we are saving approx 1k PCM in travel and expenses. When we are saving that much an extra few quid on electricity is not worth worrying about.

 

[cheesyboy]

Think we're using approx 80 units extra per month on electric with me WFH, and our son, 10, bing off school (daughter, 6, has gone back). £10-£12 or so. Approx 400 units/month for a house of 4

But I'm saving 800 miles/month of commute, which is about £80 in just diesel.

As for the OP: electric for hot water costs a fortune. We had to use it for about 3/4 months at the tail end of last year awaiting a new oil tank, and our usage more than doubled

 

[Zefan]

Immersion heater timings have not change - auto

You might want to make sure you know exactly what auto means. It isn't always what you expect it to be in my experience.

 

[.Lethal]

Yeah but remember this is the guy who posted about that huge fallout because he split the bill with his Mrs at M&S and went mad cause she ate the leftovers

Oh god I forgot about that thread

 

[UTmaniac]

You might want to make sure you know exactly what auto means. It isn't always what you expect it to be in my experience.

+1

If you have cheap night elec like Economy7, set the immersion to come on roughly for the last ~1 hour before the night rate ends (unless you get up early and piping hot water is essential), that should give you hot water for the day (besides maybe an evening bath).

We've used ~1450 kWh since 21st March, averaging under 11 units a day for the last 14 days.

 

[cyber69]

You can claim a certain amount of tax back if you are designated as a home worker and upto a certain limit where you won’t have to go from PAYE to self assessment tax. I claim up to the max already on my car mileage and if I wanted to claim more would have to go self assessment and I hate tax.

 

[Vince]

You can claim a certain amount of tax back if you are designated as a home worker and upto a certain limit where you won’t have to go from PAYE to self assessment tax. I claim up to the max already on my car mileage and if I wanted to claim more would have to go self assessment and I hate tax.

Once you are tied in it is a nightmare, used to have to do all my own tax and continued to do so for 5 years after I shut shop. Eventually they gave me a exemption but that only lasts x years before I have to do another return and I presume get exemption again?!

 

[Guest2]

You might want to make sure you know exactly what auto means. It isn't always what you expect it to be in my experience.

Thanks. Brainstorm moment... On 24th March the immersion heater did reset itself for some reason, but I checked the manual and defaults were set.

I had another look now and have set electric radiators from auto to off (even though all are off anyway) and also set the water heating from 07:00 - 09:00 and 17:00 - 20:30
defaults were 06:00 - 09:00 and 16:30 - 22:30??!

Also, the last time I provided metre readings was 3 months ago. Chances are this months usage is lower and the previous two have been higher, but appeared as higher this month based on estimate readings (then providing actual)

 

[cyber69]

https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home

 

[Worthy]

I had another look now and have set electric radiators from auto to off (even though all are off anyway) and also set the water heating from 07:00 - 09:00 and 17:00 - 20:30 defaults were 06:00 - 09:00 and 16:30 - 22:30??!

Also, the last time I provided metre readings was 3 months ago. Chances are this months usage is lower and the previous two have been higher, but appeared as higher this month based on estimate readings (then providing actual)

Sarcasm aside, does the immersion heat up water in a cylinder stored in the house? If it's relatively modern, that's still way too much. Mine comes on for 45 minutes overnight and there's enough hot water to last me all day. It takes way more than a day to cool down.