Electricity help

[eve2022]

I live in a 1 bed flat, pretty small, all electric. Immersion heater for water. Eco 7 meter.

My provider is saying over the summer I have used 300 - 350 kWh per month. It seems too much? I seem to use a lot more at night when rates are supposed to be cheaper, but I am sleeping?

I work 5 days a week and am not in the flat. Have storage heaters but they haven't been on as its summer. Only electric used constantly is for the fridge/freezer and wifi. Nothing on stand by. Immersion is on a timer. Sure I use lights at night and the cooker, shower, but i'm really mindful of making sure I don't over do the electric use, so how am I using all this energy?

Your immersion heater probably heats water to keep in a tank. It should be set to run in the Economy 7 hours. It will probably be 6 KW or 3KW- that is the number of KW it uses an hour.

Having a 3kW boiler on for a total of 100 hours would use 300 KW and if a 6KW boiler was on for 50 hours that would use 300kw. It's likely you used that much if you've been turning it on every night. It would take,say,2 hours for the water to heat.

I found in the warmer months,I only needed to use the immersion heater every two or three days. The water kept warm enough to use for that length of time.

I'm in a two bed flat and ours is 250kwh in summer months and I've been off work so home most of the time. I would make sure the storage heaters are off at the plug socket. It's probably your water heater overnight that's costing the most so you might want to get it serviced to check it's running properly and efficiently. Do you have a smart meter so you can see when your usage goes up and down?

Also, does your water heater have a boost button? Check that's not left on constantly because it's very expensive (DH made that mistake for the first year he lived here ..😒)

@ItsDinahI have a feeling the immersion has been set on a timer to heat for about 4 hours every night which could be causing the rise in kwh over night? I have no idea what else it could be. The timer and boiler looks pretty old, and the timer itself is a bit complicated and came with no instruction.

Storage heaters are definitely off - I switched them off on the electrical switch board.

I also submit day and night reads every month so nothing estimated.

I really recommend getting a smart meter display. I can see exactly how much my usage goes up when the water heater turns on.

@Bluesky2507 where do you get a smart meter display from please?

We are waiting for smart meter installation from our energy supplier but I have no idea how long it will take to get one installed.

Is there an off the shelf gizmo that can be bought from a DIY store? I attempted an Amazon search not long ago, but reviews were mixed m, various items were available which made it more confusing and I didn't understand how the device was supposed to be working.

@Branster from your energy supplier when you get the smart meter installed. I would chase them up as you should have a smart meter by now.

Thank you. That's a good idea - I'll contact them to see what's going on.

4hr immersion every night sounds a lot to me. Do you need it on so much? I turn ours on for 30-40 min every morning and it does 2 showers.