£10 a day on electricity

[Spoodee]

That's what I'm hitting now. On a smart meter and they won't let me change.

Large family, but small terraced house.
It's so stressful.

Are they on?

You need to do an individual appliance check like a pp daid, even with pp meter £10 a day, WITH solar panels is crazy!

Unless you have debt you are also repaying.

Yes 😂

They're run through local HA and we get a call out if they stop working in their database.

No debt at all.

Actually, I read only this week that some suppliers can remotely change a smart meter into a prepayment meter and they intend to roll this out. I've never had a smart meter and never will have.

Energy firms remotely swap homes to prepay meters

Horror smart meter warning after 150,000 Brits switched to more expensive plans remotely

@Spoodee See the link in my last post (above). You may have been changed to a higher tariff without knowing.

Something has to be wrong if it's £300 a month with no debt, no heat. Mine is forecast to be less than £150 in January, it was less than the government payment for October without heat. There's only two of us and we are low users, but I don't see how anyone could hit £10 without heat, medical equipment running 24/7 or similar.

Immersion heater in 24/7 for water? Can you buy one of those plug things or turn everything off and one thing on at a time to work out what it is? Old fridge? That’s still high

That seems like a lot with no heating. I've got 4 kids. I used to wash every day, got that down to 3 times. Kids re wear their uniform. I looked up the kW for each cycle and found my quick wash is the least. Anything not too dirty goes in the quick wash max spin at 30. School trousers and skirts etc.I air my towels and bedding and wash them less and only on good drying days. Stuff goes on the line then hung up to finish in the side window or finished in the dryer. Heating is minimal.

So on day when I do two washes and 1 hour tumble dring my bill would be about £4.50 with no heating 30 minutes of oven use. PC, consoles, tv etc

My immersion is 100% off unless it's a bath night in which case it heats up with the heating

Unfortunately this is where you have to make a choice - keep your animals and accept that your electricity costs will be high or rehome your animals.

I get it, it sucks, it's unfair, it's absolutely not OK that people should be in this situation but this is the point that the country is at.

But the heatmat is costing 11p over 24 hours from an online calculator so it won't make much difference?!

I don't know how the online calculator would figure that out tbh. Anything that uses electricity to produce heat is very expensive and I can't think what technology would make a heat pad any different.

It won't be the only cause of the high bill but will be a major factor.

TBH this is what we are all facing now and we who can't afford it are in deep shit. If you're on a prepayment meter they won't change it. Prepayment meters are more expensive. The only thing I can think of for you is not to use the heat pad. I'm sorry you're going through this, I am too but that's no help to you. X

Could you have made a mistake in the calculation? 11p a day is a trickle of electricity and agree that's not got to help you reduce costs.

What's the wattage? Assuming on 24/7 and if the house is cold it would need to run continuously as losing heat all the time? I read a 300w heated airer costs 10p an hour so 11p a day sounds low.

Go on mse on the energy forum they will help you work it out.

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/energy

A quick google indicates a pet heatmat can use about 30w of energy an hour f(on high setting) so for 24 hours that's not even a Kw. It's most likely tumble dryer and any gaming PCs. (They can be high energy users ime)

Pet heat mats of the type you will have in a vivarium etc really dont use a lot at all.

Are the PCs and Consoles left on standby? Switching them off at the mains has had the biggest effect on our energy usage. Nothing else has made much of a difference.

The spiders are in a cabinet so the small area stays heated rather than them being imnt he open room. It's a 39w heatmat

I'll get them to do that. I'm going to switch everything off at the mains tomorrow and see if that helps.

Also going to call the HA to check the solar panels.

Photograph your meters, send them into your energy company, ask them to check the meter is configured correctly. Check the MPAN, that is the number above your barcode on the meter, is the same one that appears on your bill.

This will show you that it is your meter you are being charged for.

Were you there last year? What was the usage (not the cost), what is the usage for the same period this year, what's changed.

Make sure they have not set a debt on the meter, though it should show when you toggle the buttons on it. Turn everything off in the house, I mean everything, is the meter moving? Plug back in the fridge/freezer, how much are they using?

Before you use another appliance, check the reading, check it after.

Something is chewing up the electricity or there is a mistake, you need to try to figure out which. Call the energy company too, to ask for financial assistance if you can't afford to top up the meter. See if they can offer anything

I've done a calculation for a 39watt heat map and it's 32pence a day but you will be on a slightly higher rate so a bit more than that. It's amazing how much everything adds up. There's probably no 1 thing that is costing so much but even just down 1 laptop this week and monitor its noticeable on my daily usage. 20p here, 50p there can all add up

Agree with starting with heating.

Also look at your oldest appliances. They are likely to be the most inefficient. Eg a large old plasma TV might use up to 250W. If that’s on for long periods for gaming then it’s a lot more than your heat pad. The heat pad probably doesn’t use 39W all the time, it will cycle on and off a bit like an iron or a fan heater.

An really old fridge or freezer is much less efficient than a new one. It’s fairly easy to put the model nos of appliances into google and find the instruction books that give consumption figures.

Old appliances bought before the EU rules on standby usage changed can use a lot more than new ones - but that’s not where your main problem lies.