Electric Dec £387 WTF?!

[Happycroc]

I can’t even fathom how this is so much, our smart meter went in on the 6th Dec and we’ve been away from the 21st Dec. Before we left I switched off all the plugs which have things on standby (TVs etc). This is just electric as we have oil (don’t even get me started on that). One day was £28, I can’t even think why now but it’s terrifying!

How the hell?!!

You don't have an immersion heater that has been left on, do you?

@WannabeMathematician I really hope it’s wrong

@IClaudine I made sure it was turned off at the wall when we left

You need to switch everything off inc fridge freezer and switch back on one by one looking at the smart meter. If you can't get to the FF then do it by circuit at the fusebox.

My friend was a lodger and his LL was kicking off saying the other people in the house were using too much electric. They did this and isolated the LLs pond pumps, hot tub and American FF were the issue not saying that's what's happening here but it's good to work out what your energy vampires are in any case!

We're on a tariff with cheap overnight electricity and our smart meter can't tell the difference so the amounts are always off. We are billed correctly though.

Having said that, your consumption is absolutely massive. We have two EVs and charge them every other day. We have two freezers in our garage as well as a fridge freezer in the house. We do at least one load of washing per day (overnight!) and have been using the tumble drier to finish off. Our most heavy days are about 34kWh, nowhere near your 60kWh days! If we're not here and not charging the cars, our lowest is about 4-5kWh.

You don't live in a flat, do you? My son meter was recording the usage of the flat below and vice versa.

Are you 100% sure the imersion is switched off? With ours it is tricky to tell what is off or on. Can you look at your smart monitor flick the switch and see what it does to the current reading. I fail yo see what else would drain 10kw per day when you are not in the house.

My gas and electric is costing around 360 a month at the moment and we don't use many appliances. It's just expensive. I do use the heating a lot though.

My electric for the months of dec was around 340 on a five week month

but the average cost is around £60 a week or 240 a month - 4 weeks

I’m pay as you go so top up
weekly
use around 140kwh a week electric but over half of that is a hot tub that’s used daily and on 24/7

so you have something that’s similar usage to a hottub
usual culprits for that much electricity is an emersion heater left on unknown

My hotub uses around 12 -15 kwh a day sometimes more on the weekend if we use it more

E7 tarriff is generally much higher than SVR around 45.per kWh day and 26 p per night roughly

compared to SVR rate of 32.9

A couple more ideas to rule out. I have oil central heating but also have electric underfloor heating in my bathroom. Costs a fortune so I don’t use it. I also have a towel rail that can operate on the CH or on electric (so two controllers, one each side and an electric cable coming out of the wall to on of them).

Goodness me!!

I've just checked our usage for December and we very rarely go over 22kwh a day.

Big detached house with five of us (three older/ adult children) wfh.

You are going to have to get home and turn every single thing off at the wall. Re check your meter and introduce items back in one at a time.

That's a huge draw of electricity if you are also using oil.

If you look at those meter readings the most massive electric use was around the cold period of mid December.

Which implies the extra use is something to do with heating - either you have left your immersion tank on, or you have a thermostated electric heater somewhere.

Remember a 2kW electric heater left on permanently will use about £16.80 a day.

Do you have any towel rails that have been left on as they can cost a fortune to run

Ive just checked the loop app and for the whole of Dec up to today I’ve used £297 and 849 kwh
and that’s with a hot tub being used every day with 2 x3kwh heaters kicking in several times a day and that’s not being frugal and turning everything off
so slightly less than my above post

if you have a smart meter link it to the in house display or the app loop and it should show you where the electric spikes it’s usage

my gas for heating and hot water is seperate but apart from the two week cold spells it’s been around 60 a month

Electric underfloor heating somewhere maybe? You're going to need to go around isolating all your appliances, turn off circuit breakers etc until you find what's using the electric - getting off the E7 tarrif will save a chunk for sure, but your usage is still uncommonly high.

you’re all so helpful and have given us lots to look at tomorrow when we get home.

I really hope it’s wrong as some have suggested. I have been sat here thinking about our usage and I know that our average use was about 600kwh per month (except for when my dad visited and it shot up to about 1000kwh per month 🙄) but nearly 1400kwh, considering we’ve been away for 10 days, can’t be right (unless we have stupidly left the fridge door open or something!)

I’ve used 898 kwh so far in December. The cost of that is £260.59. We have two American fridge freezers and a chest freezer though.

You’re paying a higher daytime rate because you’re on economy seven but your usage is happening in the day, hence the high cost.

My was £435 but a friends latest bill was £710, she lives in a four bed detached but that’s ridiculous

Something must be switched on that’s using power. I’m in a 2 bed house, we have a large tv, fridge freezer, gaming console, mobiles and iPad charging, I use the washing machine (cold washes) and tumble dryer a few times a week. I mainly cook with my Ninja Foodi but do use the induction hob and small oven. So far this month I’ve spent £83 and used 190kwh. Good luck tracking down the culprit!

600 kWh a month for electricity is a lot.

The UK average is 2900 kWh a year!!!

The smart meter isn't connected to a neighbour with electric heatingor a weed farm is it?

Do you use electricity to heat water or for heating? That usage is very high.

The UK average is 2900 kWH a year.

So you need to do some investigations and quickly.

How did you not realise you were using a lot of electricity?

@BarbaraofSeville that’s a really interesting point. We have converted the garage to a small dwelling for my father which is on a separate supply but I wonder, could it be that the engineer maybe connected both to our smart meter. Don’t know how I would go about investigating that but it could be a thing

Is there anywhere nearby (neighbours garage for instance?) as well as your dad's SC home that could actually be a weed farm?!

Do you have instant hot water day and night? If so and you also have a hot water tank, whatever is heating the water must be on constantly.

I'm intrigued and need to be updated when you find out.
Costs for keeping warm are just ridiculous atm