To think wtf is using all this electricity?!?

[Porthia]

Just got our monthly energy bill. It was £958!
Of that £737 was electricity.

I have been making a real effort recently to switch lights and appliances off, reduce energy usage, turn down the heating etc.

But what the actual fuck?

We came off our fixed rate in November, our supplier went under and then the last bill was £600 which made me fall over so I have been making a conscious effort to reduce things.

I am actually in tears. How is it this much? It’s going to go up again in April. How can we pay £1000 for energy each month?

We don’t have any crazy appliances that I can think would be eating this much energy, in fact our washing machine has been broken so I haven’t even been using that the last month.

We have a tv, computer, oven, lights - and I try to switch off as much as possible. What the hell could be drinking that much juice???

And yes it’s based on actual readings

I hate this because I feel like this money is just being sucked out without anything I can do about it!

@neamchimpsky current supplier has only been with us since November because our old supplier went out of business. So I don’t think they have access to our useage history.

The prediction they have put on my bill is for a total cost of £2000 per year for electricity. Yet they are charging me almost £1000 in one bill.

I actually feel sick.

Is the immersion on constantly? They use absolutely loads!

@Porthia

DH does have a small server thing but def isn’t mining bitcoin. I guess it could be contributing though.

Ask your DH to check the processor and GPU usage on his server ensure it has not been Cryptojacked it is a real thing, more on it here :)

www.which.co.uk/news/2018/02/cryptojacking-how-your-pc-can-be-hacked-to-mine-bitcoin-for-others/ - Which?

@GeneLovesJezebel

We pay something stupid like that a month, detached house. I’ve been going round switching things off but DH would have the heating on and open the windows. He really doesn’t care and it’s very frustrating.

Ignore my post - it’s not that much !

You aren't accidentally including numbers after the decimal point when giving meter readings? Photos of meter might be helpful to show, as well as the bills (removing identifying info).

Yea that doesn't sound right at all. We are I. A detached four-best high users, tumble dryer, washing machine on every day, both WFH and gaming with powerful computers, and we are nowhere near that!

Electric shower? Hot tub? Tumble dryer on 3x a day? Do you know how many units it was?

Thanks all!

So we are with Shell Energy.
No previous debt as I paid off the last bill completely.
Usage was 3420 over the period.

Which is a lot I know.

Someone mentioned underfloor heating. We have gas-powered underfloor heating in most of the downstairs apart from one small room which has an old electric system. I have had it switched off most of the time but mother in law slept in there for a few nights so I had it switched on. I guess that won’t have helped but could it really have cost so much??

Ask DH to unplug his server when everything else is plugged in to calculate the difference of your usage. Unless he is running a website or someone is paying him for using it he can do it.

That's insane! There are 4 of us here, 5 bed house, 2 adults wfh every day and watching TV every bloody night, 2 teens gaming each night and we we use 280kw per month last month at a rate of 19.1p that's £57.

We have an all electric oven and hob (though use airfryer mostly).
A big fridge/freezer
Electric showers x2
Washing machine on daily or every other day

We rarely use tumble and dishwasher though.

Definitely check if you have the immersion heater switched on. Maybe someone has switched it on by mistake. You shouldn’t need it on if you have hot water from boiler.

Second generation smart meters don’t use mobile signal btw so you should be able to get one

Ok so I will look at immersion. Have made sure things like tv and computer are turned off at the wall, not left on standby.

Getting a new A rated washing machine next week so hopefully that will be ok.

Little electric underfloor heating is off but may need something else to heat that room… can anyone recommend a portable heater that is energy efficient.

Will mention crypto hacking to DH too.

I definitely didn’t add any numbers after the decimal place on the meter but double checking

That usage is 10x average. I hope it’s an error.

Do you leave anything on standby? Do you switch plugs off when you can? Just trying to eliminate causes.
Showers are a big user. We keep ours fairly short!

Sorry, x post re standby mode

Unplug everything and switch everything off (heating etc). Then switch things back on one at a time while watching the meter. It be that a faulty appliance is using way more than usual.

What does your bill say about usage in KWH?

I'm on my own in a two bed flat. Everything is electric as I have no gas. I use 10kw a day but I don't use the heating. Yes, it's cold but I can't afford it 😞. How many kw per day are you using? The only constant in my flat is the fridge. I switch off every appliance after usage, even the cooker. I have a quick shower a day - no baths. Laptop is switched off as soon as I finish work. I reckon it's your immersion heater. They swallow electricity.

My 4 bed detached bill for last month was £76 for Electricity and £68 for gas. North of England, DH WFH permanently, 3 of us at home
Something odd there OP

Here is the meter as it is as a screenshot of the bill.

Think I’ve removed identifying info

I'd be checking the last few previous meter readings were entered correctly before I did anything else. It's far more likely to be that than anything else I think.

Next most likely is probably a faulty meter.

That's around 3,500kWh in a month? 'Average' electric use in the winter months, without electric heating would be around 300kWh per month. So you're around 3,200kWh over - or over 100kWh per day over. More than 4kWh extra, every hour, 24 hours a day. That's far too much extra for it to be a server, or any single plug-in electrical appliance. Even if an immersion heater was faulty and kept boiling away unchecked for a month it wouldn't use that much.

Have you got electric heaters left on somewhere that you don't use? A garage, greenhouse, loft, shed etc?

I've just checked our last bill which was from 31st October to 11th January, so covers Christmas but no WFH. During that 72 day period we used 1225.8 kWh and paid 19.695p per kWh. Total electricity cost, including standing charge was £257.95.

To rack up an electric bill of £737 they're saying you're using 3,495 kWh in a month. We used (admittedly not WFH) 1,226 in over 2 months.

That cannot be right. I would suspect you have a faulty meter. As @neamchimpsky says - please call your supplier and say that you're concerned that the usage doesn't look right and you fear there may be an issue with the meter. It's not unknown for meters to be faulty. Our old work one was faulty for years and we didn't realise it. Luckily for us it was charging us for half units instead of full!

@Porthia

Here is the meter as it is as a screenshot of the bill.

Think I’ve removed identifying info

It's 2 months, not 1, and your opening reading was an estimate.