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Original poster

To think wtf is using all this electricity?!?

197 replies

Porthia · 23/02/2022 09:27

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!

OP posts:
SugarAndCoffee · 23/02/2022 11:46

Oh phew that's a Relief!

RedToothBrush · 23/02/2022 11:49

@Porthia

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

Think I’ve removed identifying info

Your previous bill was an estimated reading

Have previous bills been estimated?

Its possible you are playing catch up here and your bill was done off estimates and this time you have had a reading so you are catching up on several years of useage.

Original poster
Porthia · 23/02/2022 11:52

Yes I think that’s at least partially the case @RedToothBrush!

I would have sworn that I submitted readings but for whatever reason they aren’t there. Possibly I have mis-remembered or they didn’t upload properly. Either way I guess nothing I can do about that now except learn to make sure readings are submitted properly but at least it means that we don’t have some mystery appliance consuming a year’s worth of electricity in a month!

OP posts:
BarbaraofSeville · 23/02/2022 11:53

Why did they use an estimate when you supplied a reading?

As it's likely that they've gained financially from this, by charging you at a higher rate when you should have paid the old supplier at a lower rate, it's worth complaining and asking them to recalculate your bill using the correct reading.

Original poster
Porthia · 23/02/2022 11:53

It does still seem high nonetheless but perhaps not so stratospherically high

OP posts:
Original poster
Porthia · 23/02/2022 11:55

@BarbaraofSeville they used an estimate because they had no record of the reading I uploaded. Not only that but the estimate they used was lower than the one on my final bill from my last supplier.

So the fact it was an estimate is one thing but not much I can do about that now, I just put the readings into their online form so I have no record of them myself (lessoned learned there!!) but I have got them to refund the bit that was lower than the final reading from the old supplier - I was effectively charged twice

OP posts:
positivevibesonly22 · 23/02/2022 11:58

@SugarAndCoffee

That's 2 months and the first reading they just guessed. So I'm guessing they estimated wrong.
Yes. The first reading was grossly under estimated. The amount for the second month would be more accurate per month going forward.
SeasonFinale · 23/02/2022 11:59

The bill shows the estimate as the first reading which was far too low compared to the actual reading. When did the old company go bust. I suspect it isn't one month but covers from October until now which cover the period the company went bust. Did you keep a mitebof what the meter said when they went under?

spagbog5 · 23/02/2022 12:02

We are in an old 5 bed detached house with 4 people living there and 2 working from home plus a swimming pool that I put on to filter one hour a day and a bathroom with underfloor heating and we have only used 870 units of electricity this month( statement came in this morning)
So something sounds very wrong with your meter / usage.

L0bstersLass · 23/02/2022 12:04

@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.
That's not right. The reading on the 14th was 75409.

Usage since then is 202 kWh - this is high still well above average.

RedToothBrush · 23/02/2022 12:08

@Porthia

Yes I think that’s at least partially the case *@RedToothBrush*!

I would have sworn that I submitted readings but for whatever reason they aren’t there. Possibly I have mis-remembered or they didn’t upload properly. Either way I guess nothing I can do about that now except learn to make sure readings are submitted properly but at least it means that we don’t have some mystery appliance consuming a year’s worth of electricity in a month!

We had a not dissimilar problem years ago. Just the other way around where they gave us a whopping estimated bill but the meter was much lower. We didn't spot the e for estimate straight away and thought we were going nuts and had a massive heartache over it. They kept sending us estimates and it was a right pain to keep correcting rather than be constantly hundreds of pounds in credit with them.

I know lots of people hate smart meters, but in the end several issues with bills pushed us over the edge. We've had no issues since switching with our billing.

We have a smart meter now, and I love it. It really does mean you can keep an eye on usage. We have it in the hall, set to display our current live useage - it means everytime i walk past i have an idea of how many appliances / lights are on. It also means im more likely to spot something is off. The tv in our bedroom eats electricity even on standby but our newer one downstairs does not. Upstairs one is now always switched off at the wall which we simply wouldn't have done without a smart meter.

The display went on it a while back for a few months and it drove me crazy, not being able to keep track of what was running or whether lights had been left on upstairs.

It really has affected our habits for the better. Even DS is really good with lights (unlike his cousins who left EVERYTHING on constantly when they stayed). Our useage is way below the average for house size / number of people living in it.

I'm pretty sure ours isn't linked with a mobile connection.

Original poster
Porthia · 23/02/2022 12:08

Yes, the errors with the original readings definitely don’t explain everything!

I will have to do some more detective work I think!

I did have underfloor heating on for 24 h this week as we were going to use the room. Have turned it off and am going to buy some sort of energy efficient heater!!

OP posts:
Original poster
Porthia · 23/02/2022 12:10

I am going to see if I can get a smart meter too!

OP posts:
Curlewcall · 23/02/2022 12:14

@Porthia I did just that when I moved into my current home. Then discovered the underfloor electric heat mats in my bathrooms had cost me £90 in the first 10 days.

They have never been on since Shock Shock

80sMum · 23/02/2022 12:20

We were switched to Shell Energy when Green went out of business at the end of September last year.

With Green, it was easy to keep track of usage and they used to produce monthly bills. Shell is a different matter! I find their bills very confusing, as they're not actually bills, but more like a statement - so they show previous month's usage as well as the latest month and the total charges, rather than just those for the month.

I'm not surprised that the OP made a mistake and thought she'd been charged nearly £1k for a month's usage. I had to read our bill several times before I figured out our actual charges!

teraculum29 · 23/02/2022 12:26

It's shell. I had them 2years ago and never again. Our bills were were way too much think £300 a month, when with current supplier are half of that. I have no idea how they were calculating our bill but it felt really off.

They previously been called First Utility. There was (maybe still is) a facebook group "First Utility rip us off" (or sth along those lines) (then changed the name to shell) not sure if the group still exist but I read a lot of a horror stories including them.
That group had also quite good info how to approach electric companies and not to be be fob off.

Bunty55 · 23/02/2022 12:28

[quote Curlewcall]@Porthia I did just that when I moved into my current home. Then discovered the underfloor electric heat mats in my bathrooms had cost me £90 in the first 10 days.

They have never been on since Shock Shock[/quote]
Thank you for this !
I have underfloor heating in my bathroom. It was installed when the new tiles were laid and it seemed like a good idea but I have never felt the need to use it and now I won't.

RedToothBrush · 23/02/2022 12:28

[quote Curlewcall]@Porthia I did just that when I moved into my current home. Then discovered the underfloor electric heat mats in my bathrooms had cost me £90 in the first 10 days.

They have never been on since Shock Shock[/quote]
We have an undersink water boiler and underfloor heating in the bathroom.

We switched them on to see what they used on our smart meter.

For some strange reason we don't use them. We would like to save the planet for our son!!!

crosstalk · 23/02/2022 12:41

Are you rental or owning OP ? If rental the managing agents or owners should have done a check on all facilities and you could go back to them. If owning, the previous owners should have done the same.

sillysmiles · 23/02/2022 12:56

@Porthia no chance when you were uploading your readings from your previous supplier that you took photos of the meter? I tend to take photos rather than writing stuff down, but it means you might have old photos of your previous readings.

userxx · 23/02/2022 12:57

@gingercat02

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
Who is your supplier if you don't mind me asking?
Feelingstuckkkk · 23/02/2022 13:00

Glad you have managed to figure some of it out OP.
Back in November our boiler broke, this coincided with the entire house having covid in stages so effectively we couldnt have anybody in the house for 6 weeks to fix it. During this time we had mini heaters plugged in all day because we were freezing and the immersion on 24/7 as we were too ill to even remember to turn in on and off as and when needed.
Our usual bill of about £80 a month was just over £400 for those 6 weeks and i thought that was bad!
Absolutely dreading the increase due april!!!

userxx · 23/02/2022 13:00

Have you downloaded the shell energy app on your phone ? This might give you more of an indication if it's a half decent app.

BeeMSE · 23/02/2022 13:03

Wow! At that rate it would pay to have solar panels fitted and get a SEG deal with Outgoing Octopus. They cut my electricity bill in half. Even on cloudy days they were producing considerable amount of energy. Enough to export back to the grid and get paid for it.

cakeorwine · 23/02/2022 13:03

@gingercat02

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
That doesn't really help as you've not said how much energy you have used.

People all have different rates for what they pay - it sounds like you might be on a good deal at the moment.