Just got first energy bill and there must be something wrong with the meter!

[misscph1973]

I just got my first energy bill from E.ON, for new house, been here a month. Apparently I used 900 Kwh electricity in a month! In the old house I used 1200 Kwh in 2 months. Now the only difference I can see from the old house, is that we now have an electric cooker, where as int he old house we had an electric oven but gas rings. Can that really make such a difference? or can electricity leak? What do I do?

I am definitely switchins provider anyway, as the price per KW is far to high anyway, but it's the 900 Kwh in a month that worries me. I have tried to call E:ON but there is so long waiting time that they just tell you to phone back.

PS I am quite sure the meter reading is accurate as I was there when the meter was read.

PigletJohn, its a Greenstar/Worchester. It does have seperate settings for heating/hot water and I have yet to go through the manual.

misscph, I'm going to send you a PM.

Waltons, pressing Like button ;)

that was amazing, he appeared within 2 minutes of being summoned!

Observe your electricity meter. It will have either a red blinking light, or a horizontal spinning disk. Observe how fast it is (how many flashes or spins per minute).

Go to your Consumer Unit ("fusebox"). Does it have about half a dozen breakers with switches, marked things like "B32" "B16" "B6" and "B40?" Do they all have a label saying things like "upstairs sockets" "electric shower" "downstairs lights" "smelting kiln?" Please report back what they are.

the boiler could be any of these They only eat gas (or, some, oil).

My fusebox does have named breakers/switches, like "upstairs lighting", "downstairs lighting", "cooker" etc and "hot water" being the most interesting one.

Bolier is either Greenstar 24i junior or 28i junior according to manual.

Just going to look at my meter speed!

proper LOL at "smelting kiln"

Right, about 3 red flashes per minute currently (only fridge/freezer and computers on).

Do you have different lights - lots more spotlights for instance?

I have a mix of standard bulbs (40-60 W) and energy bulbs.

Your meter probably has a label saying what a flash means, I have an idea it might be 10,000 flashes per kWh (about 15p) but I might be mistaken. Three a minute is not much. If you turn on your tumble drier I bet it will increase.

Now turn off all the breakers. The red light should completely stop flashing.

Turn on one breaker. Wait for a minute. Observe what the light does. Then turn it off and do the same with the next. Write down the result in your notebook. Try it again at a different time of day, for example when lots of lights are on.

Sorry you will have to reset you microwave clock and oven clock afterwards. Consider warning other occupants. If your neighbour, or the teen growing cannabis in your shed, complains, you know the culprit.

Energy saving lamps typically run for 50 hours or more on 1kWh (14p), so are not significant. Phone chargers use so little you can hardly measure it. Tropical fishtank heaters mount up.

An electric shower uses about 3kWh per hour (45p)

If you have an old fridge or an old freezer, it might use quite a lot. As they run 24x365 that can be costly.

If you have downlighters or spots they are probably inefficient. If you have external floodlights they are probably expensive.

A modern tumble drier uses about 4kWh (60p) for a full load of cottons, and about half that for a full load of synthetics. A modern washing machine uses about 1kWh.

p.s.

I bought my smelting kiln when I resigned from the Brinks-Mat warehouse at Heathrow.

Thanks, PigletJohn, this will help me find the culprit!

I do have 2 x freezer and fridge, but I don't think they use too much, as they aren't old or large. No tumble drier.

2 flashes (spins) exactly in one minute here. Running 4 computers (1 desktop, 3 laptops), fridge/freezer, set of cordless phones and 3 x 40w bulbs. Fridge/freezer is fairly new, so energy efficient.

Will check what a spin on our meter is later - off out now, but from memory I think pigletjohn is right on 10,000 spins per KwH for our meter.

btw I was quite wrong about electric showers. Typically 12kWh per hour (£1.80).

Was thinking of an immersion heater which is 3kWh (45p) during the time it is heating (but not all the time it is switched on)

I just put a curry on, noted the meter reading before I started. I can already see that the electric hob is very power consuming. So miss my gas hob!

Don't have an electric shower, but thanks for info anyway, it's good to know what I could have spent!

Is it electric heating or gas heating ? Electric heaters tend to cost a fortune when on. But that is a big amount. Going by the 900kw a month then Over a year that is 10,800kw !

I've just had a look at mine and in the last year I've used just over 4000kw of electricity. We have gas heating/cooker. Our house is 4 bedroom semi with a living room and a family room, 2 electric showers, pc runs most of the day washing machine is on most days and since I work part time in evenings the tv or docking station is on most days as it's me in the house during the day. Plus during the last year we got an extension built so extra electricity used for builders tools etc.

Is there a neighbour with a similar property that you could ask about their electric bill ?

If the meter readings are correct then perhaps the meter itself is faulty ?

kitty, it is a gas combi boiler, so all heating and hot water is provided by that.

The intriguing bit is the circuit breaker labelled "hot water" ...

Any news on the "curry count of KwH", miss cph?

(How sad am I to keep nudging this? It's just that I just can't believe that anyone has higher electricity usage than us!)

kitty, as walton said.

*Waltons", I used nearly 3 kwh on the curry (simmered for 2 hours + rice cooked), which doesn't seem too bad. Now I am looking forward to seeing how many kwh I use when I cook a roast in the oven.

I just thought of another difference to the old house: We had hard floors in the downstairs which I always swept and mopped. The new house is carpeted all over (apart from kitchen and bathrooms). and I find myself hoovering 3 x weekly. Will check kwh consumption on next hoover.

"The intriguing bit is the circuit breaker labelled "hot water"

most likely the house used to have a hot water cylinder with an immersion heater. Anyway, turn it off and see if anything stops working. Very often an immersion heater circuit will get reused for something else. People who like having an airing cupboard will often put a small electric heater such as a Tubular heater in there, and sometimes remember to turn it off after washing day. The circuit is too low in power to run an electric shower.

If you find out it does something else, you can change the label. I expect the breaker will be marked B16, or possibly be coloured blue and marked 15A

So, 3kwh for an evening meal cooked for some time. Over a month you would use 90 Kwh for the same thing, every day. That is around 10% of your total usage. A drop in the vast ocean of 900 KwH, overall.

We do ca. 10 loads of fairly intensive tumble-drying each week, and according to pigletjohn's figures, which I am sure are correct, that would be 120 Kwh each month.

They roughly cancel each other out, but we are also cooking on electric, are totally profligate in other ways, and you are still using 50% more electricity than us.

My suggestion is this. Next time you and the kids all leave the house for a couple of hours, turn everything, and I do mean everything electrical off. The food in the fridge/freezers will come to no harm in that time. Read the meter before you leave.

When you get home, read the meter, and turn on the essentials.

Read the meter after a couple of hours. Switch on a few more things. Repeat, repeat.

after everything else, unplug the fridges for an hour, then back on, see what difference it makes. A faulty fridge can use quite a lot.

Electrical power almost all goes in heat, so if there is something using it, it will be warm.

Check the loft, garage, shed, fishpond, cellar, which might have anti-frost heaters.

Some great advice and anlysises from you, Walton and PigletJohn! Lots to be working on. I can feel myself getting a little bit obsessed with measuring already...