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.

[userxx]

@PigletJohn

btw I have solar panels, and they are not a good investment in purely financial terms.

Also, they produce most of their power on sunny summer days, when you have no need of heating, so will not save you much there. In your case, since you are all-electric, you would save money on hot water in summer, maybe an average of a pound a day in summer.

And they attract pigeons. Lots of pigeons.

[ThatDreamSheep]

We moved into a elextric only property and our first quarter bill was through the roof. Turned out the timer on our water heater was broken so it was running constantly. We now just turn it on for an hour in the afternoon so there's water for the kids bath and for washing up, the shower is electric so doesn't need the hot water. That has made a huge difference. We also have plug in radiators and only turn on the one for whichever room we are using at the time, haven't bothered with timers. It did take us best part of 18 months to pay the bill off though!

[Lexilooo]

@starbrightstarlight8888

So I've left the immersion on a timer the last couple of days, set to twice a day which is the same as the previous owners.
I had a shower and my son had a bath both in the period that the timer was on. My dp had a shower 30 minutes after the timer had gone off and his shower was cold.

What's going on? Surely it should still be hot by then?

Your shower runs off the immersion? That's unusual, they don't normally advise that. Showers use a lot of hot water and immersion heaters struggle to supply enough hot enough water fast enough. Normally in an all electric house you'd have an electric shower, the advantage of an electric shower is you are only heating the water you need not a full tank.

[MyAnacondaMight]

@starbrightstarlight8888

So I've left the immersion on a timer the last couple of days, set to twice a day which is the same as the previous owners.
I had a shower and my son had a bath both in the period that the timer was on. My dp had a shower 30 minutes after the timer had gone off and his shower was cold.

What's going on? Surely it should still be hot by then?

It didn’t go cold in the time - you simply ran out of hot water. So the bath used up all the hot water, and then it did not have enough time to reheat before the timer switched off.

My immersion heater would take about an hour from cold to heat the tank, and that would do two showers comfortably. If we had guests we would need to factor in some reheating time between showers. You just have to learn how long the tank takes to heat up, and how much hot water that gives you. A 10kw immersion heater would cost £1.50 (assuming 15p unit rate) if left on for an hour.


Also worth checking your electricity tariff, and switching to one with a high daily fee and lowest possible unit charge. If you’re using c.2000 kwhs each month, then switching from 18p per unit to 12p would save you £120 a month straight off.

[Cherry83]

@yetanothersenmum

As you've only recently moved there should be an EPC which would include expected costs. Does this shed any light? What did the assessor predict it should cost to run the house?

This was my first thought. What was the energy efficiency rated as? Did that give you any cause for concern? I sympathise OP, years ago I moved into a rental where electricity bills were £350 a month. Electric water heater. Turned out there was a hot water leak so immersion heater was constantly on trying to maintain temperature.

My other thought was, what temperature are your room thermostats set to? I have mine set to 22C for all of daytime but friends have theirs set to 18C and timed to come on twice a day for 2 hours only so they have much lower heating costs.

[TravellingTilbury]

It's interesting that some posters have commented on electric showers as I've recently thought about these as an option. Given my 100% electric house has all the hot water coming from the (electric) immersion heater, if water demand is low, is it worth installing an electric shower in the future? While electric showers use a lot of power (haven't investigated so don't know how much), at least they would only be used for the odd 5 mins with no wastage. Hmm, food for thought.

It's no consolation OP but at least a few of us are dealing with /have had similar problems.

[PigletJohn]

The amount of electricity used to heat 50 litres of water from cold to hot is the same whether you use an electric shower to heat it at the time, or an immersion heater to heat it in advance.

However the electric shower is only capable of delivering a small number of litres per minute.

[TravellingTilbury]

Thanks for explaining Piglet.

My unvented immersion takes over an hour to heat water (and the hour isn't long enough really) so I'd wondered whether a quick 5 min burst of an electric 10KWh power shower could be an alternative. I don't know much about electric showers (I prefer baths anyway) so it's a learning process. I miss the combi boiler for instant hot water!

[Lexilooo]

@PigletJohn

The amount of electricity used to heat 50 litres of water from cold to hot is the same whether you use an electric shower to heat it at the time, or an immersion heater to heat it in advance.

However the electric shower is only capable of delivering a small number of litres per minute.

Yes the electric used is the same to heat the same volume of water but with an electric shower it is instant, no waiting for the immersion to heat up, no running out of hot half way through your shower, no blast of cold because someone has used the tap. No wastage because you only heat what you need when you need it.


Lots of people are pretty down on electric showers and while they will never be as good as a decent power shower run off a combi boiler, if you buy the highest power one you possibly can they can deliver a decent hot shower with decent water pressure all year round. Mine is pretty old now but delivers a pretty respectable shower.


Trying to run a power shower off an immersion is a bit of a compromise. Even if you have a full tank of fully heated water at the beginning of your shower as soon as you draw water off the tank starts to refill with cold and it can't heat it fast enough to keep up with a shower so you won't have hot water for long and the water will begin to cool. Depends upon the flow rate of the shower and the size of the immersion as to how long you get. It is years since I looked at it properly but it just didn't look a good idea when I did the research.

[PigletJohn]

A typical vented cylinder is around 100 litres. A typical unvented cylinder (high pressure) is around 250 litres. It would take quite a long time, or a very high flow rate, to use all that up in a shower.

Because the hot water stratifies on top of the cold, and does not mix, your shower will not go cold until you have used up all the hot.

If you are lucky enough to have a modern cylinder heated by a modern boiler, it can reheat surprisingly fast, and the immersion heater is only needed on those rare days when the boiler is not working.

[TravellingTilbury]

Ah - I think the issue is for some of is who have an immersion cyclinder to heat the water every day because otherwise the water isn't heated by our electric boilers. I think! Still getting to grips with it.

[starbrightstarlight8888]

I've learnt so much on this thread, especially from @PigletJohn so thank you.

I've put the immersion back on full time today and there's not much change in kWh usage.

Does anyone know if oil will work out cheaper? We're thinking of having oil central heating installed.

[cautiouscovidity]

@starbrightstarlight8888

I've learnt so much on this thread, especially from *@PigletJohn* so thank you.

I've put the immersion back on full time today and there's not much change in kWh usage.

Does anyone know if oil will work out cheaper? We're thinking of having oil central heating installed.

Can you not reconnect the underfloor heating that you replaced with radiators. If the previous occupant was telling the truth about their bills, it sounds like this wasn't too expensive to run.

Oil central heating is expensive to install (we've just been quoted close to £9K for a replacement boiler and radiators for a 3 bed bungalow - we already have an oil tank). Oil prices fluctuate a lot (we paid 17.4p litre last spring, currently it's about 45p litre). But overall, we've found it compares well with our previous gas central heating in terms of cost and efficiency. Some years it's more expensive, other years it's cheaper.

[LadyGAgain]

So, we switched off the underfloor heating and looking at that smart meter monitor thingy it's halved our daily usage. Underfloor electric heating is NOT economic or cheap. Will now look to put in gas rads.
Thank you so much for all the discussion and talk. It's really helped. And is much appreciated

[LadyGAgain]

And yes, we are now cold. Lol.

[Juo]

@starbrightstarlight8888

I've learnt so much on this thread, especially from *@PigletJohn* so thank you.

I've put the immersion back on full time today and there's not much change in kWh usage.

Does anyone know if oil will work out cheaper? We're thinking of having oil central heating installed.

I have oil as there is no mains gas.Gas would be the cheapest I think.
It varies in price because the price of oil fluctuates. Last year it went down to a similar price per litre as we paid nearly 30 years ago. Its gone back up again but still less then it's been for years.
I have a multifuel stove which throws out a lot of heat and heats my water. However it's a filthy thing and expensive to run. I no longer use it and supplement with electric oil heaters. The increase in my electricity is much less than I spent on coal / logs.

[murbblurb]

Oil has been cheaper per unit heat than gas for some time, no guarantees for the future of course. You get more control as you can decide when to buy oil, unlike gas - although you can fix the price of that.

[Insomniacexpress]

@LadyGAgain. Thought that would be it! It’s only really economic when compared to ‘wet’ underfloor heating connected to normal boiler system. So disappointing though-love a heated floor.

[SpudsandGravy]

Sorry to hear this, OP. I had a similar issue but with water, in my last house. I was the only person in the house and yet the bills were just ridiculously high. Got absolutely nowhere trying to sort it out with UU. Fortunately I was in the process of moving, and so was eventually able to leave the whole bleeping nightmare behind. I hope you can get it sorted out