Oof, that is bad, and got no control over the fact the council went with some stupid electric boiler system in 2010 based on a 5p/kWh 'economy 2000' electricity rate being available at the time, and haven't changed it... Been a long running campaign by the affected residents it seems, eg:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.th...ost-5K-year-green-energy-deal-gone-wrong.html
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.falkirkherald.co.uk/news/falkirk-villagers-turn-heat-scottishpower-says-it-will-investigate-high-bills-1326929?amp
Still, story doesn't quite add up. Over £800/month bills. Let's say that means £850/month. That's £28/day. Bit less than the 'anything from £30 to £50 a day'. However, the rest of the numbers probably do check out, being as generous as possible on the cost side:
Can estimate usage with the current 21p/kwh cap (which applies to prepayment meters which they probably have as well as normal ones, and let's assume pessimistically that the energy company has been a ******* and put the off peak rate for their tariff (their tariff has a night time rate) up to 21p as well as the peak rate). Take off say £7 for standing charges, that means the household is using 21/0.21= 100kwh/day. Could take off 20kwh for cooking on an electric stove & oven and general use, leaving 80kwh/day. Let's say the boiler is equivalent to one of the larger ones in the current Thermaflow lineup (
https://thermaflowheating.co.uk/product/th12-330u-m3-electric-boiler/) , which takes 12kW, just under 2 hrs to fully heat up and gives 400l of hot water. 80/12 = 6.7 hours/day. Let's say that means one full tank of hot water / day leaves 4.7 hours for heating use per day on average. Must have the heating on all day on the £50 days though.
In most of the news stories the council has mentioned installing extra insulation etc, but I imagine the houses still aren't very well insulated, so an hour of heating in the morning and a few hours in the evening might well be required to keep the house warm in those periods.
Still, with some neighbours apparently paying a fair bit less can't help thinking the subject of the news story could save a fair bit of money by turning the heating down... Overall still a really bad situation the council has put some vulnerable tenants in though.