Electric costs, usage and provider

Guest2

Guest2

Guest2

Soldato
Joined
6 May 2009
Posts
20,368
We have just had our bill from Scottish Power and its rather steep to say we have never had the heating on (apart from hot water and showers and we don't have gas)

~3 months (01/03/16 - 26/05/16) £270
Daily usage - 23.10 units / 23.10Kw.
This works out at £3.10 a day / 13.4p per Kw
2 people in a pretty small 2 bed apartment

The strange thing is from 04/07/15 - 31/08/15 the daily usage was only 9.83 units :confused: We have nothing different in the house than last year so what the hell could be tanning the extra 14Kw a day!?
 
9.83 sounds very low for 2 people living in a flat. Has it always been based on your own supplied readings or has there any been estimated?

I live in a 2 bed apartment on my own, never use the heating, replaced all my lights with led lights and I use 12.5kw/day (this down from 14.3 a year ago when I hadn't replaced all the halogen lights). Do use my dishwasher twice a week though.
 
2000kWh average UK p.a. for a small house/flat (source).

So 5.5kWh per day which is exactly what we use on average (2 people, 2 bed terrace).

Might be worth investing in an energy monitor so you can see what's consuming so much energy? Also maybe take daily electricity meter readings for a bit.

There's not an immersion heater on permanently is there?

Edit: just realised OP is electricity only (no gas) so above probably doesn't apply.
 
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Are you on an E7 meter? Is your night rate working properly? We had an issue with our timing switch before so we were having to heat the water during the day and it cost way more. Someone from the DNO (which happened to be SP Energy Networks) came out and replaced it, they also refunded us the difference that we'd overpaid by.
 
4 bedroom detached house, with oil heating here, use electric shower, kettle, dishwasher daily, washing machine and tumbler drier almost every day also. We use approx 12/14 units per day on average. Led lighting helps considerably and the appliances are reasonably energy efficint.
Heating is oil though.
 
SilverTongue said:
Actual reads or estimates?
Click to expand...

Actual

We live in a large complex of flats (around 600 rooms total) Meters are locked away so have to get readings from security. On the meter it says Type 5196A... CI 2 2004, Z21 M04.

The electric water heater is on all the timeand shows 'overdrive' I would have thought it doesnt heat more than needed so hot water always comes through hot. We had a few issues with it when we moved in so have left it on this
 
Is it worth maybe changing to monthly direct debit payments instead of paying as and when they request us to get a meter reading every few months?
 
Guest2 said:
The electric water heater is on all the timeand shows 'overdrive' I would have thought it doesnt heat more than needed so hot water always comes through hot. We had a few issues with it when we moved in so have left it on this
Click to expand...

The immersion heater is on all the time? That would be a big chunk of your usage
 
Freakbro said:
The immersion heater is on all the time? That would be a big chunk of your usage
Click to expand...

Indeed, when you say it doesnt heat more than needed what it is actually doing it heating a massive tank of water, and keeping it at the high temperature all the time.
It isnt like gas which boils the water as needed.

This will account easily for your increase from 10 to 22 units of usage per day.
Immersions left on are bad.
 
Guest2 said:
Is it worth maybe changing to monthly direct debit payments instead of paying as and when they request us to get a meter reading every few months?
Click to expand...

Who are you with? I'm with Eon and they charge £35 extra a year on your standing charge if you don't pay by direct debit so definitely worth it for me.
 
Yeah, leaving the immersion on will eat a lot of energy. If you're having problems with the immersion heater and are having to leave it on, it sounds like you need to get it looked at.

Switching to a monthly DD isn't going to help on that front.
 
Yes, it'll be on a thermostat. If the thermostat isn't working properly it could well stay on all the time/too long. Having overdrive on is going to make things worse as well.
 
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