Electricity bill

Can you see something moving or figures rising on your meter?

If so I would be tempted to trip my consumer unit off just to see if it keeps turning/rising.

Who is your electric supplier?
 
we just got an electricity bill of about 70 quid for 3 months, between 3 of us, and there's always tv's / pc's on - 160 seems extortionate.

We also got a gas bill at the same time for 3 months for approx £460 - we rang them up and gave them the reading we had and it was reduced to 70 quid - i'd advise ringing them to see if there's an error on their part.
 
£160 is a rip off. I would day £40 up to maybe 50 ish is more resonable if you use washer/dryer lots, electric heater, and tv for a while.

I pay £30, for me and the mrs, we only have hot water on for an hour before we get up on economy 7 rate, plasma on from 6-11 along with PS3, her laptop, my pc occasionally, and my power hungry integrated amp..

But we do live in a 2 bed flat and have energy saving lightbulbs, but most importantly is that the PS3 + Plasma combo provide the heating :D
 
Anewbe4u - Meant to mention last time, does your flat have its own circuit board - the box with a bunch of miniature circuit breakers in? (small trip switches that control a certain circuit)

If not, then its a dead giveaway that your electric is being half-inched!

If so, try turning off each circuit in turn, seeing what doesnt work any more - leave off all those which have no effect on what you're not using.

Or, turn off mains electric while you're out for a day/weekend.

If it affects the flat above, or the hairdressers - you'll know soon enough! :p
 
matt_fsr said:
Anewbe4u - Meant to mention last time, does your flat have its own circuit board - the box with a bunch of miniature circuit breakers in? (small trip switches that control a certain circuit)

If not, then its a dead giveaway that your electric is being half-inched!

If so, try turning off each circuit in turn, seeing what doesnt work any more - leave off all those which have no effect on what you're not using.

Or, turn off mains electric while you're out for a day/weekend.

If it affects the flat above, or the hairdressers - you'll know soon enough! :p
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We have the trip switches yeah. I think the meters for upstairs and the the hairdressers below will be in the same cupboard. I can prob monitor how much is used by them too to see if something fishy is going on.
 
For three students in a student house that may be about right. for a quarter, but for a month that is too high (unless you left a heater on or a couple of heaters on for a week or so)


Do you all also use an electric shower ? With the washing machine, tumble dryer going (i'm assuming they are heating the water and it's not hot plumbed)

Also, the house probably has no or few energy saving bulbs, and the appliances are cheap energy inefficient makes with poor ratings. They may also be old and things like leaving the fridge open, and leaving things turned on will affect the bill.

My mate and his wife just got a bill for £270 for 3 months. But that was due to 4 dehumidifiers running for a few weeks solid.
 
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divosuk said:
For three students in a student house that may be about right.

Do you all also use an electric shower ? With the washing machine, tumble dryer going (i'm assuming they are heating the water and it's not hot plumbed)

Also, the house probably has no or few energy saving bulbs, and the appliances are cheap energy inefficient makes with poor ratings. They may also be old and things like leaving the fridge open, and leaving things turned on will affect the bill.

My mate and his wife just got a bill for £270 for 3 months. But that was due to 4 dehumidifiers running for a few weeks solid.
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Hi,

We're not students :) No shower just a bath but obviously that's probably worse! All our bulbs are energy saving.

There are certainly things we could cut down but nothing major.
 
Another random thing to check, make sure your fridge and freezers are working ok IE not stuck on all the time. Go back over your old bills and make sure the meter readings tally up.
 
My last quarterly bill for gas/electricity was over £500!

Had a look at the meters myself and the readings actually seemed ok, however I just can't fathom how we managed to use that much. Only me and the Mrs. living here. The only thing I could possibly put it down to was her having the heating on almost 24/7 over winter, as she can't stand even the slightest cold and saying "put on a jumper" is like speaking French.
 
Switch off everything in your rooms etc and then go and see if the meter is moving or new type digits changing.If it is you are paying for something else also..lol..... Does seem a tad high

Although the plug in heaters are expensive....if used hour upon hour.
 
I have a similar problem, my parents are paying 150 a month and they have no heating in the house. Something wrong somewhere, gona do a full audit of the house with one of those plug power monitors and see what it comes to.
 
sorry if i've misunderstood, but you're paying £150 a month, you're not actually being charged that much if you've not had the meter read since january, if you take a reading and submit it you should end up heavily in credit and they'll just stop taking payments until it's used up
 
Thread revival! Umm, well its kind of been sorted now. After 20 odd phone calls I actually spoke to some one who was helpful, turns out we had been underpaying for ages, so they bumped our bill up which to £160, it was meant to go on for 2 - 3 months but of course they didn't stop it so they sent me a check for the money I paid over and the bill is now £80 a month which is much more manageable.
 
Is that £80 a month just for electricity? Still seems very steep.
If you ever want to make sure you aren't leaking power, you can get an "owl energy monitor", its dead easy to install and tells you your power usage at any given time and how much that will be costing you per hour.
 
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