Energy Suppliers

[Megahurtz400]

Can anyone help explain why me electric bill is so high?

I live alone in a 2 bed flat, just had a bill through for £152 electric only.

I spend 10 hours a day out of the house, spend most weekends away too, haven't had any of the electric radiators on since the winter. Also submit monthly readings.

For the past five months since the news about the price cap increase came out, i've been pretty religious at turning all devices off at the wall when their not in use.

Have two beside lamps with smart bulbs in them, rarely boil the kettle, I even switch the hot water off when i'm away for a night so it doesn't heat up a tank of water for no real reason.

I knew prices would be going up but this seems ridiculous.

It's hard to compare to pre price cap as I had a housemate move out in March who worked from home and spent most weekends at home too, so don't have a reliable comparison.

Can anyone recommend a reliable plug in monitor so I can actually see if there's some small device running the bill up so much, or am I wrongly assuming that £152 is way too much electric for a 2 bed flat that is empty 70% of the time?

 

[jonneymendoza]

Can anyone help explain why me electric bill is so high?

I live alone in a 2 bed flat, just had a bill through for £152 electric only.

I spend 10 hours a day out of the house, spend most weekends away too, haven't had any of the electric radiators on since the winter. Also submit monthly readings.

For the past five months since the news about the price cap increase came out, i've been pretty religious at turning all devices off at the wall when their not in use.

Have two beside lamps with smart bulbs in them, rarely boil the kettle, I even switch the hot water off when i'm away for a night so it doesn't heat up a tank of water for no real reason.

I knew prices would be going up but this seems ridiculous.

It's hard to compare to pre price cap as I had a housemate move out in March who worked from home and spent most weekends at home too, so don't have a reliable comparison.

Can anyone recommend a reliable plug in monitor so I can actually see if there's some small device running the bill up so much, or am I wrongly assuming that £152 is way too much electric for a 2 bed flat that is empty 70% of the time?

£152 ? per month?

 

[HungryHippos]

Can anyone help explain why me electric bill is so high?

I live alone in a 2 bed flat, just had a bill through for £152 electric only.

I spend 10 hours a day out of the house, spend most weekends away too, haven't had any of the electric radiators on since the winter. Also submit monthly readings.

For the past five months since the news about the price cap increase came out, i've been pretty religious at turning all devices off at the wall when their not in use.

Have two beside lamps with smart bulbs in them, rarely boil the kettle, I even switch the hot water off when i'm away for a night so it doesn't heat up a tank of water for no real reason.

I knew prices would be going up but this seems ridiculous.

It's hard to compare to pre price cap as I had a housemate move out in March who worked from home and spent most weekends at home too, so don't have a reliable comparison.

Can anyone recommend a reliable plug in monitor so I can actually see if there's some small device running the bill up so much, or am I wrongly assuming that £152 is way too much electric for a 2 bed flat that is empty 70% of the time?

Look at your bill, check the previous reading and the new one are both actual reads and not estimates.

If they're accurate, then take the unit count and the number of days, see how many units you're actually using per day roughly.

If it looks high, and you can access the meter easily, then take a reading roughly every 24 hours and see what your actual daily usage is like.

Based on this you should be able to see if the bill is ballpark correct.

You haven't stated the time period of the bill in your post.

 

[dlockers]

Can anyone help explain why me electric bill is so high?

I live alone in a 2 bed flat, just had a bill through for £152 electric only.

I spend 10 hours a day out of the house, spend most weekends away too, haven't had any of the electric radiators on since the winter. Also submit monthly readings.

For the past five months since the news about the price cap increase came out, i've been pretty religious at turning all devices off at the wall when their not in use.

Have two beside lamps with smart bulbs in them, rarely boil the kettle, I even switch the hot water off when i'm away for a night so it doesn't heat up a tank of water for no real reason.

I knew prices would be going up but this seems ridiculous.

It's hard to compare to pre price cap as I had a housemate move out in March who worked from home and spent most weekends at home too, so don't have a reliable comparison.

Can anyone recommend a reliable plug in monitor so I can actually see if there's some small device running the bill up so much, or am I wrongly assuming that £152 is way too much electric for a 2 bed flat that is empty 70% of the time?

With electric hot water that doesn't sound too bonkers.

 

[Megahurtz400]

@jonneymendoza Yep, 8th May - 8th June

@HungryHippos Thanks for the advice, will get a spreadsheet going. Bill is just for one month!

@dLockers Will check i've got the water heating system set up properly this evening, im 99% sure i've got it set to heat water between 4am-7am which usually gives me enough hot water for a shower in the morning and lasts long enough for a shower in the evening.

 

[jonneymendoza]

@jonneymendoza Yep, 8th May - 8th June

@HungryHippos Thanks for the advice, will get a spreadsheet going. Bill is just for one month!

@dLockers Will check i've got the water heating system set up properly this evening, im 99% sure i've got it set to heat water between 4am-7am which usually gives me enough hot water for a shower in the morning and lasts long enough for a shower in the evening.

Thats high.my bill is similar to yurs but i wfh and i game during the evenings and cook dinner/lunch sometimes using the oven

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Yep as soon as electric water heating was mentioned I was there you go.
Electric water heating is going to be about £1 per hour now (assuming standard tariff, 3kwh element)

Thats certainly the thing to look at first. Is the tank lagged, and well lagged? Thats the simplest thing you can do and will have the biggest impact.
Second is only heating when you need it, ie if you shower morning heat it then and try not to reheat until following morning, but that will only help a little to reduce loss in temp.

 

[HungryHippos]

@jonneymendoza Yep, 8th May - 8th June

@HungryHippos Thanks for the advice, will get a spreadsheet going. Bill is just for one month!

@dLockers Will check i've got the water heating system set up properly this evening, im 99% sure i've got it set to heat water between 4am-7am which usually gives me enough hot water for a shower in the morning and lasts long enough for a shower in the evening.

Standing charge on new cap is like £0.45 per day, and new unit rate is £0.28 if on price cap.

For 30 days you'd be lookin at around £14 for your standing charge for electric.

That leaves £138 for usage.

£138 / £0.28 = 492 kwh of electric usage. That is roughly 16.42 kwh per day if true.

16.42 kwh per day is a lot if you're not there, farming crypto, or using a ton of electric.

Could be your water heater? Does it really need 3 hours? If it's an immersion heater it's basically a big kettle I think!

 

[Megahurtz400]

Thats high.my bill is similar to yurs but i wfh and i game during the evenings and cook dinner/lunch sometimes using the oven

What is your monthly bill if you don't mind me asking?

I play games a few nights a week for max of two hours, but just seems crazy money considering i'm awake and in the house for less than 24 hours per week total.

 

[Megahurtz400]

Yep as soon as electric water heating was mentioned I was there you go.
Electric water heating is going to be about £1 per hour now (assuming standard tariff, 3kwh element)

Thats certainly the thing to look at first. Is the tank lagged, and well lagged? Thats the simplest thing you can do and will have the biggest impact.
Second is only heating when you need it, ie if you shower morning heat it then and try not to reheat until following morning, but that will only help a little to reduce loss in temp.

I've been meaning to try this cold water showering fad anyway, seems like nows the time haha!

 

[jonneymendoza]

What is your monthly bill if you don't mind me asking?

I play games a few nights a week for max of two hours, but just seems crazy money considering i'm awake and in the house for less than 24 hours per week total.

i cant remember but its someting along the lines of yours the last time my missus moaned about our electricity usage lol.

i also have a 5.1 surround sound home cinema with a 42inch 1080p tv and we watch one or two episodes a night of something.

I cook a lot as well so there's that and i have a proper semi auto espresso machine and a seperate coffee bean grinder i use too in the morning's.

In my office i use either my desktop gaming pc(specs in sig) or my work laptop macbook pro attached to a 30inch 4k monitor.

I have a rasbperry pi 4 device always on connected to two 2.5inch hdd as that is my home server .

 

[Megahurtz400]

i cant remember but its someting along the lines of yours the last time my missus moaned about our electricity usage lol.

i also have a 5.1 surround sound home cinema with a 42inch 1080p tv and we watch one or two episodes a night of something.

I cook a lot as well so there's that and i have a proper semi auto espresso machine and a seperate coffee bean grinder i use too in the morning's.

In my office i use either my desktop gaming pc(specs in sig) or my work laptop macbook pro attached to a 30inch 4k monitor.

I have a rasbperry pi 4 device always on connected to two 2.5inch hdd as that is my home server .

Theoretically mine should be significantly lower than yours then, as the place is empty with nothing but the fridge and water heater on (timed) for the majority of the time.

 

[HungryHippos]

Hot water from shower itself shouldn't be insane. Even an electric shower that is like 10kw would need to be on for a while to really ramp up costs, 5 min shower with electrically heated water is not going to be cheap but not the kind of price you're seeing.

 

[UTmaniac]

Can anyone help explain why me electric bill is so high?

I live alone in a 2 bed flat, just had a bill through for £152 electric only.

I spend 10 hours a day out of the house, spend most weekends away too, haven't had any of the electric radiators on since the winter. Also submit monthly readings.

For the past five months since the news about the price cap increase came out, i've been pretty religious at turning all devices off at the wall when their not in use.

Have two beside lamps with smart bulbs in them, rarely boil the kettle, I even switch the hot water off when i'm away for a night so it doesn't heat up a tank of water for no real reason.

I knew prices would be going up but this seems ridiculous.

It's hard to compare to pre price cap as I had a housemate move out in March who worked from home and spent most weekends at home too, so don't have a reliable comparison.

Can anyone recommend a reliable plug in monitor so I can actually see if there's some small device running the bill up so much, or am I wrongly assuming that £152 is way too much electric for a 2 bed flat that is empty 70% of the time?

We're on a two year fixed electric only that ends June '23, £100pcm for two of us, with my better half pretty much always at home because of Long Covid for 18+ months. ~495kWh Apr and May.

Check immersion is only coming on for last ~60mins of E7, make sure any storage heaters aren't incorrectly wired in and using day time rate even at minimum setting, only boil kettle for what you need above minimum line, only turn the cannabis plant lights on overnight etc.

 

[Troop]

Get a timer for the immersion heater, set it to be on for 1 hour, that will give you 1 full tank of hot water that you can use through the day.

That's what we do.(uses 2kw per day that way)

 

[Megahurtz400]

Hot water from shower itself shouldn't be insane. Even an electric shower that is like 10kw would need to be on for a while to really ramp up costs, 5 min shower with electrically heated water is not going to be cheap but not the kind of price you're seeing.

It's not a combi boiler that heats hot water on demand, it's a pressurised tank system I think, i'll get some photos taken this evening and make a thread as I think I need some advice how to program the timer.

Get a timer for the immersion heater, set it to be on for 1 hour, that will give you 1 full tank of hot water that you can use through the day.

That's what we do.(uses 2kw per day that way)

It's all fully wired in to the main circuit I beleive, i'll check for a plug but don't think I could stick a timed plug on it unfortunately.

Thanks for all the advice so far guys!

 

[Buffman]

Is it worthwhile fixing electric costs yet or still pay the variable rates at the current cap? I could afford an increase (I heard its 50%?) but would rather pay less if I can!

Currently paying about £200 a month for both gas and electric

 

[Troop]

It's not a combi boiler that heats hot water on demand, it's a pressurised tank system I think, i'll get some photos taken this evening and make a thread as I think I need some advice how to program the timer.



It's all fully wired in to the main circuit I beleive, i'll check for a plug but don't think I could stick a timed plug on it unfortunately.

Thanks for all the advice so far guys!

If you have an on/off switch for the immersion heater, get an electrician to fit one of these .

Horstmann Secure ELECTRONIC 7 Immersion Heater Controller Economy 7

You don't need to be on an eco tariff as it just works as a timer that you set as you want it, plus it gives you a simple boost switch if you need more hot water.

Will save you a fortune on hot water costs.

Link to what we use (timer)

Secure Hortsmann Economy 7 Timer | eBay

Two year back up.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[HungryHippos]

Is it worthwhile fixing electric costs yet or still pay the variable rates at the current cap? I could afford an increase (I heard its 50%?) but would rather pay less if I can!

Currently paying about £200 a month for both gas and electric

If you fix now you will immediately pay more, but later in the year you could wind up paying less, it's all a bit of a gamble.

 

[413x]

I don't personally see the point in one year fixes. They are so forecastable you are probably not going to be better/worse off.

2 year is also a gamble as it's hoped that prices will come down next year. But... The advice was similar back in October.