Electricity meter reading far too high

[starbrightstarlight8888]

I moved house last month and took a meter reading of 3957, I then took one exactly a month later and it was 8192. This can't be right can it? That means a monthly electricity bill of around £700.

We don't have gas, we are electric only. We've had new radiators installed so they are brand new and efficient. We've still got electric underfloor heating in the kitchen and lounge which could be inefficient I suppose but not to the tune of £700per month.

We live in a detached bungalow, not a mansion.

British Gas are useless. They say it could be a meter fault but hey can't send anyone round to check until lockdown is over.

What do I do? We are accruing a bill of £25 per day at the moment.

Heating is on in the mornings and evenings only. We don't use a tumble drier or dishwasher. Washing machine is on a few times a week, nothing excessive. There's nothing I can think of that is costing a lot of electricity and certainly not £700 per month!

We are taking hourly readings and the meter is showing as using between 6 and 20 kWh per hour.

[Rillington]

Immersion heaters are well known for using a lot of electricity. If your company won't come out I would complain to the ombudsman but I would think it's right x

[BarbaraofSeville]

I think seeing as the supplier is being unhelpful and the OP is apparently racking up a bill at an alarming rate, in the first instance, I'd spend a few days using the immersion heater a bit more conservatively and see what difference it makes, both to cost and availability of hot water.

However, now that the weather's warmed up a bit, you've introduced another variable as the heating load will be lower this week than last week (providing you're somewhere where the weather has been like this).

Plus check that the thermostat is working and the temperature isn't set too high. If it's a modern system and well insulated, it should be off a lot of the time. Is there some sort of rating on the boiler or name that you can google specifications for.

[BMW6]

I used to live in an all-electric flat with an immersion heater. I was also told by plumber who replaced leaking tank that more cost effective to leave immersion on 24/7, I did and he was right. My electricity bill reduced.

Of course, as PP has suggested the thermostat in the immersion may be faulty.................

[BammBamm]

I also agree with what PP's are saying about a faulty thermostat on the tank. We have also discovered a hot water leak which was continually draining our tank which could be causing it, although maybe less likely.

[Outbutnotoutout]

What happened when you turned everything off.

Slightly overinvested

[NotDavidTennant]

It's still ticking over 6kwh per hour in the middle of the day when there's no heating on.

What power rating is your immersion? They are usually 3kW or 6kW. If it's a 6kW one then that alone would explain 6kWh power usage.

[Pastelpainter]

Hope you get it sorted soon op!

[TravellingTilbury]

Sorry, haven't read the whole thread but sympathise because I've had a similar problem.

The house has modern radiators and a modern 99% efficient boiler - but the boiler for the radiators is 9kWh. Electricity is 15p/ hr (plus 5% VAT) so the boiler for the heating is about £1.40/hour. So just a few hours of heating the rads is costing £10-£15 hours a day.

My hot water is via an unvented (electric) immersion heater but it's only 3kwh so I time it to come on for an hour a day - 50p, which is fine - I'll 'boost' for an extra hour if needed.

I've found the my little plug in Dimplex electric heater (non oil) is great if you are sitting in one place as it is 0.7kwh so about 10p/hour and throws out a surprising amount of heat. (Argos sell them.)

I sympathise!

[starbrightstarlight8888]

I turned the immersion on to timed only for the last 24 hours and I've still used 108 kwh in 24 hours. That's still a massively high amount.
I'm going to turn everything off at lunch to see if the meter still goes around but I'm sure it can't be right.

[TheSpottedZebra]

But surely that depends on how long the timer was on for!
Just switch it off!

[QueenPaw]

That's a crazy amount. I use about 7kwh a day

[Chewingle]

@AndTheMillions

Omg we had this !!!!
It was too high I repeatedly called British Gas and they wouldn’t come out to check it I begged them.

In the end I changed companies and b gas are still pursuing me for the debt. It’s been disputed and they won’t investigate despite the fact I had told them I asked and asked for it to be checked they were useless

@AndTheMillions

So after you moved did the meter stabilise to a more normal rate?

[starbrightstarlight8888]

Exactly, it doesn't sound correct does it?
I can't just turn the immersion off totally, I need it to heat the water. Surely if its on timed then I should be using around average kwh. Most people have theirs on timed. My point is that even turning the immersion onto a timer then my usage is way way above average so it can't be the immersion causing the massive electricity usage.

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

The immersion is insulated to keep the water hot all day then turning it off for a couple of hours shouldn't mean no hot water

[Nearlyadoctor]

So when you turned everything off what happened?

[starbrightstarlight8888]

I haven't turned everything off yet. I ended up working through lunch yesterday so needed WiFi. I'm turning it all off in the next hour.

[Nearlyadoctor]

We had a similar issue ( although the bill wasn’t as high turned) turned off absolutely everything and then turned things back on one by one it was actually a faulty fairly old chest freezer that was using a ridiculous amount of power. Needless to say we got rid and bought a new energy efficient one.

[slashlover]

Just a quick question from when I worked for a power company, are you sure you're reading the meter correctly? I used to get people complaining about their power use and they were reading all of the numbers including the ones at the end so your 3957 to 8192 may actually be 395.7 to 819.2.

[dottiedodah]

The Immersion is wots done it! They are very expensive to run IMO .I would switch that off firstly and see what happens .

[LadyGAgain]

Just reading this is making my heart race. Our Bill just came through today. TWO GRAND in electricity since July. It's doubled since last year. I just don't know where to start. We have underfloor heating and have increased that by 2 degrees over the winter but it's off in the summer of course and is thermostat regulated. DH said that the only other thing we have done differently is he has a dehumidifier in an outside room but surely that's not £370 a month? We have a smart meter and it's attributing £8 to heating and £370 to appliances. We have a tumble dryer but it's the same as last year. Literally nothing else has changed. I feel sick.
Good luck on your quest OP. Please let us know what you discover. DH has just been made redundant so perhaps we can use this 'spare' time to work out what's going on. British Gas don't give a stuff of course.

[slashlover]

@LadyGAgain

Just reading this is making my heart race. Our Bill just came through today. TWO GRAND in electricity since July. It's doubled since last year. I just don't know where to start. We have underfloor heating and have increased that by 2 degrees over the winter but it's off in the summer of course and is thermostat regulated. DH said that the only other thing we have done differently is he has a dehumidifier in an outside room but surely that's not £370 a month? We have a smart meter and it's attributing £8 to heating and £370 to appliances. We have a tumble dryer but it's the same as last year. Literally nothing else has changed. I feel sick.
Good luck on your quest OP. Please let us know what you discover. DH has just been made redundant so perhaps we can use this 'spare' time to work out what's going on. British Gas don't give a stuff of course.

Do you take monthly readings and do you only get a bill every 6 months, I thought quarterly was the minimum?

[Iwantitidontwantit]

Hi op, as stated the bill could be correct as you have a lot of large use energy appliances. However your energy supplier should be helping you out more here. Once all appliances are off it will take a little while for any residual energy to come through. I would suggest contacting your supplier again and raising a formal complaint. They should give you a copy of their complaint handling procedure and it also starts the 6 week deadline for you being able to contact ofgem. Are you in England? Some energy suppliers are now sending engineers. First step is usually an engineer visit for a load test (depending on your meter type), this is where the engineer sends a set electricity load through the meter and checks what is recorded matches. After this, if you still not happy they can fit a check meter to check the accuracy of the meter. In the interim they should be offering energy advice and checking what meter type you have, standard/ economy 7 /economy 10. On the whole old electricity meters tend to under record, rather than over record but this definitely needs them to help you.

[FallenSky]

@starbrightstarlight8888

I turned the immersion on to timed only for the last 24 hours and I've still used 108 kwh in 24 hours. That's still a massively high amount.
I'm going to turn everything off at lunch to see if the meter still goes around but I'm sure it can't be right.

108 units in 24 hours is ridiculously high. Really interested to see what happens when you turn everything off.

[titchy]

@starbrightstarlight8888

Exactly, it doesn't sound correct does it?
I can't just turn the immersion off totally, I need it to heat the water. Surely if its on timed then I should be using around average kwh. Most people have theirs on timed. My point is that even turning the immersion onto a timer then my usage is way way above average so it can't be the immersion causing the massive electricity usage.

You can turn it off for 5 mins and then look at your meter. Given that's the obvious culprit I'm surprised you haven't got round to doing that

[titchy]

Just switching it to timed would only have an effect if the timer worked - big assumption! That's why you need to actually switch it off. Ideally at the fuse box.