Can you look at my bill ? (Pics)

[Winternights22]

Hi when did the 2nd rise in gas/electric go up ? I have been really careful with my gas /electric. I'm doing nothing different to what I was doing a few months back. Even with the rises my cost seems to have had a massive leap . I have shown 2 pics just to get peoples opinion of the leap. Does the leap seem a bit much ?

Honestly check the actual bill. Not the app. The actual PDF bill you get every month. It will probably all be clear on that.

Some of it could definitely be the immersion - incoming water will be colder and it'll take more energy to keep it up to temperature now. When we had an immersion heater there was just the two of us and an hour a day used to be sufficient.

A small amount, but you'll probably be using lighting, tv and play stations more now it's dark in evening and you're more likely to be in.

Do you have an electric cooker/hob? If so, you're probably using them a bit more now without realising - in summer it's often salads, quick cooking meals and some leftovers are ok cold - in winter it's a different matter.

If you have a gas boiler I would switch off the immersion heater and set the boiler to come on and heat your water for an hour or so each day. That would be far more efficient.

Good point about school aged children.
Half term in Oct leads to more use and hols in Aug. At school nearly all Sept...
Could explain the difference.

But she said she has a gas boiler for hot water?

Im not getting it though. I have lived here 7 months. In all that time I have used the emersion heater. So it's been on constantly all that time. Its not like I had no emersion heater on say in September so bill was 100 pounds then turned it on in October and bill went up to 177. I have had it on the whole time.

Have had kids home for holidays and it's still never been that heigh.

But on a positive note my boiler is now working just got it sorted 10 min ago. So at least I can turn the emersion heater off.

Are you sure it's an immersion heater? Because you are crazy to keep it on constantly. That's like keeping a kettle boiling for 7 months. It's a HUGE waste of electricity and totally unnecessary if you have a properly insulated water tank.

I do have a combi boiler I have just been extremely dumb for the last 7 months. Thinking my water was being heated via the boiler but it was from the immersion heater. Gas engineer Came about 20 min ago and sorted it for me.

Although turning the emersion heater of will make my electric lower . It still does not explain the jump to the 171 . if it's not hit that heigh in 7 months. I guess I will see

I did not know it was an emersion heater till yesterday. All this time I thought my boiler was heating the water then I realised the boiler was not kicking in . Thought something was wrong with it . And turns out it has had no pilot light on all this time. And it explains why my gas was extremely low

It does if it's thermostat controlled. Knock off when the temperature reaches a certain point, then come on again if the temperature drops. I'm sure last month was colder than September, so it probably stayed "on" for longer. A quick google says an immersion heater costs roughly 70p per hour to run. So that times whatever number of hours it was running, times 31 days...is a lot.

I am trying again!
In Sept you used £49.84 and 168 kWh. That works out as 29.67pence per kWh.
In Oct you used £170.46 and 317 kWh. That works out as 53.77pence per kWh.

The capped rate for each kWh of electricity is 34p. This came in on 1st Oct.
Look at your actual bill. You will not have been charged £170.46 for your used electricity but 317x 34pence = £107.78 PLUS standing charge (capped at 46 pence per day (might be less) £14.26) . PLUS Vat at 5%. A total of c £128.14. If you have been charged more than that then they have not applied the cap correctly..

If you have used an immersion and used more water in Oct (cos kids at home, more washing up, more showers etc) it will use more electricity as every time you take hot water out of the tank cold water will flow in (which is colder than the water coming in in Aug and Sept) and the immersion will immediately heat that water up to the thermostat temp. You will never run out of hot water. But it costs more.

And like someone said above the immersion will continually keep a full tank at the thermostat temp and overnight the tank will cool down (more so the colder it is in your house). So it will keep kicking in even over night. Unlike gas heated water which is only heated when the gas is on.

What do you mean about other being colder fo you mean as in heating? I have not had that on.

Anyway the emersion is off now so. So see how it gos.

If your house is cold, the water will cool faster, so the immersion heater will switch on to bring it back up to temperature.

If you have a combi why would you have an immersion heater?

Do you have a hot water cylinder? If you do then it's not a combi boiler you have as that heats water on demand with no need for a hot water cylinder

Do you have feeder tanks in your loft? This would be another sign that you don't have a combi boiler

Either it's a legacy immersion from an old system (kinda weird that it would still work I guess but perhaps if no one ever bothered removing or fiddling with it) or it's actually a system boiler setup, not combi.

I have a combi boiler and an immersion heater.

I have no idea whats in the loft apart from something to do with the solar panels. I don't have access to the loft

Is that your hot water cylinder?
What boiler do you have?

If you pay monthly then it might be retrospectively ie our October bill was for gas/electric used in September so this month is the first we'll see the hike. Just in case it makes a difference.

If your immersion was on all the time your bill would be £500 a month - that isn't it. But <faints> at the thought of it having been used for 7 months non stop. It can't be that.

Wait, you have solar panels and you used this much electric???

You haven't answered the questions about the spacing of your readings.

The immersion is likely your electric eater. The October useage is not much higher than August (probably accounted for by it working harder to keep your water hot as the external temperature drops). It's September which is unusually low.

Do you have a statement showing your full year's useage? Look at that and divide it by 12 to see if 300kwh is about average.

Your other issue is separate to this in that your unit price appears to be above the price cap. You need to check your bill to see if they have credited in some way over and above the £66 rebate

So you also have solar panels? Proper ones (not just pre-heat the water ones)?
If so, was September sunnier than August and October? Looks like that is the case sometimes

www.statista.com/statistics/322602/monthly-average-daily-sun-hours-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/

I'm in council and I don't save money via the solar panels it gos straight to grid and the council get the savings.

What do you mean the spacing of my readings?

Just as a comparison, my electric cost doubled in Oct but usage wasn’t double due to the increased cost.

Are you sure you don't use any energy from the solar panels? The council may get any feed in rates from the excess, but I think it would be unusual for the property not to use any energy from the panels first. That would explain why your bills were relatively low for having the immersion on all the time