Electric meter... wtf?!

[Eifla]

One person living alone in a one bed flat.

Pre-payment card meter, no gas at the property.

Work 8-5 Mon-Fri so not even home all that much! No tumble dryer, no bath, no dish washer, nothing left on stand-by but do run two oil filled radiators for a couple of hours in the evening.

Meter check and no fault, no debt on it.

Currently putting £45 week (about £180 / mth) in the meter and E-On tell me this is considered an average / reasonable amount.

AIBU to think that’s bullshit?! Can’t keep up with how hungry the bloody meter is!!!

How do you get hot water? Not using an immersion on you?

Sounds like you are paying off a previous tenants debt

I would want a smart meter but if you have your immersion on 24/7 that would be about right!

Have you checked your Tarriff? When I had a pre-payment meter I switched to Economy-12. They can be money hungry when used at the wrong time x

Is there a shower?

What price per unit is the electric?

That CANNOT be right! Our bills for our three bed (albeit small) terraced house are approx £1000 for the year, gas and electric combined. You’d be paying over double that for a one bed flat you’re barely in!

How do you heat your water?

What size are your radiators (ie 2kWh etc) and how long do you use them for?

Are they your only form of heating?

I work for a utility company...

Do you have storage heaters? Are you on an economy tariff? How are you heating hot water? But no that doesn't sound average? You could even save money moving supplier by doing a price comparison.

I know those oil filled rads do eat electricity, I'd be shocked at that much for an hour though.

I don't know how relevant it is but two of us in a semi 3 bed house and we paid £60-£70 a month for gas and electric.

We have an electric only one bedroom flat.
It's Me, my DH and DS.
We use £100 a month and I'm currently a stay at home mom so have the tv, internet, talktalk box on constantly. I'm crap at remembering to turn lights off, we have a tumble dryer we use 4 or 5 times a weeks.
And we have 2 storage heaters on constantly at the moment because of the LO. We're on economy 7 so the storage heaters are tumble dryer is mostly put on at night to save money.
The water for the bath heats up early in the morning to save money, but if it's gets too late in the day or I've done lots of washing up we will put the "boost" on to reheat the water. It seems you are being overcharged unless the oil radiators are massively expensive, I can't say I know much about them.

14.15p per kWh.

Oil filled rads are 50Hz/1500w - yes only form of heating. I have storage heaters but don’t ever turn them on.

Yes there’s a shower. Water is immersion but not on 24/7, on timer to heat couple hours in evening only for hot water for shower.

Definitely no previous tenant debt.

Think that was all the questions!

Second the immersion heater questions. If that's how you heat the water, be sure it's on a timer or only used as needed. Surprising how many tenants have one on 24/7 without realising till they get a shock bill....

Sorry OP, just seen your answer. Mystery then..

We only recently had our gas c/h put in, and before that were spending £10-15 a week on the meter for moderate use of the immersion and plug in radiators.

Yours sounds waaaay too high.

Look on your bill

Is there a monthly standing charge ?

What rate are they currently charging you per KW ?

Use these sites to find cheaper rates per KW

Find a supplier where you can give them regular meter readings yourself, some suppliers you can do this via their online account so that you only pay for the electric that you use

www.uswitch.com/gas-electricity/ppc-rev/new/electric/?ref=ppcgoogle~gen-ppc~005537~energy&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI783iiMvk2AIV6p3tCh1gawStEAAYAiAAEgKy1_D_BwE

www.ukpower.co.uk/home_energy/compare_electricity

energycompare.citizensadvice.org.uk/

www.moneysupermarket.com/gas-and-electricity/

You will find more on the internet if you google find cheaper electric supplier

When I was single I lived alone in a one bed flat and used £5 electric a week! Now I have myself and 4 kids and live in a 3 bed house i use around £17 a week so that definitely doesn't sound right. (On a meter aswell)

There's something wrong. I assume you can take meter readings on a pre-payment meter, have you confirmed that you are getting the amount of electricity you are paying for?

My electroc bill is £45 a month OP £45 a week sounds like day light robbery!!

That couldn't be right... family of 4 here in a 3 bed semi £40 per month

Ithe storage heaters will be cheaper than plug in oil filled radiators especially if you go on an economy overnight tariff

For my three bedroom flat occupied by three people, with central heating and hot water on 18 hours a day, I reckon in this cold weather I'm consuming 500kwh per week, at your rate of electricity that would be £71 a week.

£45 still sounds high to me.

That can’t be right!

There is me, Dh, 2 toddlers, 1 newborn in a 6 bed house and our electric bill is roughly £220-£250 every 3 months. I have a tumble dryer, electric shower, dishwasher, TV/radio/laptop on a lot as I’m home with dc, stuff is also left on standby.

I thought oil radiator things weren’t too expensive to run these days? They certainly wouldn't cost your bill to run!

What if you changed supplier to see if that makes a difference, for whatever reason it could just be a mess up with e on?

That’s way too expensive. I have my own battles with npower - grrrr

Can you check your account online?

If you have no debt on the meter and they are adamant there isn’t a fault I would change supplier.

Are the oil filled heaters the kind you plug into sockets? They must be consuming most of your electricity, if they are plug-in ones you can get a plug-in monitor and measure what they are consuming.

www.amazon.co.uk/Floureon-230V-250V-Consumption-Calculator-Analyzer/dp/B01DSQ30FO/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=energy+monitor&tag=mumsnetforum-21&ie=UTF8&qid=1516386713&sr=8-5

Erm, we pay £71pm for gas & electricity for a 4 bed semi household of 4-5 (one at Uni) so that seems extortionate to me!

I would do as pp's have suggested and check your usage against a switching site.

Ithe storage heaters will be cheaper than plug in oil filled radiators especially if you go on an economy overnight tariff

Maybe not if you wait until the following evening to use them? Not sure they hold onto their heat for that long. OP would probably be paying to heat that flat while they're not in it.