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!

Gas I don’t feel quite so worried about. It was high but we are getting more insulation put in plus it’s the most expensive time of year for gas as it’s obviously when the heating is on. In the summer I am expecting the gas usage to be much less so hopefully it will even out across the year.

I also know what is using the gas as it’s literally just the boiler. So I feel like it’s more within my control. With the electricity I feel panicked because it’s just disappearing and I don’t feel like I have as much control over what’s going on!

Even dishwasher runs two-three times a day doesn't equal all the electricity spent on "entertainment" at our home

@BearOfEasttown yes I know - that’s why I said I hadn’t clocked that at first (when I wrote my op)

I agree you should check your opening read. Our supplier also went bust and we moved to Shell Energy, our final bill from the old supplier showed a closing read of 510 and our opening read with Shell was 0! I also got a massive shock when I got my first bill until I realised I was being double charged.

Op, we were with Avro but found that we could access our old online bills even once they'd gone bust. Have a google search to see if you can access your old bills; for us it was a different URL to the usual customer one, but still within Avro's site.

Did you turn everything off, including the server, and check the meter isn't still going up? That's really step 1. Then turn back on things that might be high usage and check them individually. The server alone can easily be using 2000 kWh per year, move whatever it is to the cloud to reduce the cost.

@Porthia if it makes you feel any better my bill that arrived in January was also monumentally high and I panicked. We have been more careful with electric - but also run the heating/hot water and cooking off a woodfired Rayburn so I was really confused about where this electric was being used. Also a detached house so not the neighbours stealing it.
When I calmed down and logged into my online account I noticed they had 'cancelled' the previous month and consolidated two bills. It was very unclear and when I phoned to query it it they said it was because the previous bill was estimated - this is bollocks, they've never done this before and we've been with our company for nearly 10 years!
I am absolutely convinced they did this as that planned to up our DD to a ridiculous amount and this bill made it look like we were using that amount.
So I cancelled the DD and am now going to just pay exactly what we use each month instead.

How long have you lived in the property and have you done any previous readings yourself to see where the estimated number came from?

Do you have any old bills or other information?

Problem seems to be related to the 71.. reading on 18/12. It's likely that this is plain wrong, or you've been underpaying for months and you've only just caught up now. Or someone has started stealing your electricity in the last couple of months, but that sounds unlikely if you're detatached.

Imagine if you had two or three electric cars in your household.

My sisters bill were similar in her new build house. Turns out the builders has left the emersion heater switched on . So she had effectively had water boiling constantly for months!

@Porthia

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??

Maybe your MIL mining for BitCoin when she stayed? 🧐

All joking aside, I hope you get to the bottom of it soon.

Assuming that photo of your meter is from today, you have used 1068 units since your customer reading on 14/02, i.e. in 7 days. That seems nuts and would indicate a faulty meter.

Two things

1. As the poster above has said, meters can be faulty

1. My supplier also went bust, I was transferred and received a large bill. I made a complaint due to some other matters actually, but during looking into my complaint THEY spotted that after a couple of actual readings had been received it was clear that their starting estimated reading was inaccurate. Your estimated reading looks like it is also inaccurate. They corrected and refunded straight away.

The complaint process (and escalating to the ombudsman - can’t remember who it is) is really simple and I’d recommend using it.

We had a fish tank with a air, heat and lights. When we got rid of it our electricity went down quite a bit.

Two friends who have fish or reptiles have high electricity bills.

Have you got any of these?

@Ringsender2

Assuming that photo of your meter is from today, you have used 1068 units since your customer reading on 14/02, i.e. in 7 days. That seems nuts and would indicate a faulty meter.

The reading on 14/2 was 75409 not 74543 and that was 9 days ago, not 7.

Dh is an electrician and he suggested buying an energy monitor from somewhere like Amazon. You need one with a CT sensor/clip/clamp and they are about £40.

You attach that to the cable on the electricity supply which is all explained in the instruction leaflet.

Then you can see how much you are using and compare that to your meter and the readings. That will show you if the meter is working correctly.

HNRTT but do you have LED bulbs throughout? If not, an easy though small saving with some upfront cost. Might take a little urgency out of turning off the lights.

I was with Green Network Energy and lost all my prior bills when they went bust as I'd been accessing them online.

Always download your bills and save them on your own computer!

I'd call the electric company. They can fit an additional meter to check that your meter is running correctly. Also you can buy something you put between plug and socket to measure usage of each appliance but I'd go faulty meter, faulty underfloor heating, faulty immersion.

I'd turn everything off and watch the meter and see if it still moves. If so try turning off immersion at fuse box plus any underfloor heating and see if it still moves.

I got my bill for my three bedroomed house this morning OP, it's £146 for gas and electricity. I'm with EDF.
My son got a bill for a £1000 too, can't remember who he was with , he lives in a tiny one bed flat in a block.
It turned out his energy company undercharged him for a whole year then sent him a £1000 bill, he has now changed energy companies and his bill is back to £75 a month for an all electric home.
Could this have happened to you?

Do you iron OP?

I have always ironed. I find it relaxing and enjoyable. It also costs a lot of money!
I stopped doing it when the mention of the high energy bills we are all facing began. It was not enough to reduce the electric bill we have just paid but the next one will be much less I am sure.
I only iron now if it is absolutely necessary . Everything gets folded and put away. Nobody in the house has even noticed :(

4 bed house,working from home. We have a dryer we use 3/4 times a week. £160 per month gas and electric

Ok so a bit of an update.

Thanks again to all those who have commented, I’m going to look into the energy monitor etc.

Also no ironing, fish or reptiles here.

However, I spoke to my energy supplier and not only was my starting reading an estimate (not sure how since I was sure I submitted readings but they have no record of them) BUT the reading was also much lower than the one on the final bill from my old supplier. So I should be getting a refund for that.

I don’t think it totally explains everything but it definitely helps!

Sadly nothing I can do about the starting reading being an estimate now. It means we are probably paying for electricity that we potentially used when we were on a fixed rate before. But I should get something back at least and hopefully this also
Means that going forward it’s not going to be quite so insanely high!

First month shows reading type as E - so it's estimated.

Second month shows C - customer. It's much lower so I would assume it's more accurate reflection of your usage.