Utilities bill - does this seem high?

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Since moving into our current one bed flat we've had ecotricity as our electricity supplier (not our choice). Since April, we've been charged around £1,000 for our elec. There are only two of us living in the flat and we're generally out for the majority of the day. Ecotricity have our estimated annual consumption at 7,907kWh (around £122 pm).

Does this seem a lot, considering everything above? I've googled annual consumption and most companies have estimated actual houses at around 3,000-4,000kWh. We don't have gas, but the current amount, about £120 pcm, just seems a lot and it's more then we've ever paid before. I'm intending to switch over the sainsbury's elec but am curious!

I think there's something wrong or you have a seriously rip off tarring going on. I've a large 4 bed house, 3 small kids in all day. Tumble dryer on every day pretty much and expensive yard lighting on every night. It costs us £70/month.

Yes that seems a lot, we pay £92 to Sainsbury's energy for gas and electric. We have a 4 bed detached house, there are 3 of us, work from home some of the time, and are not shy to put the heating on.

When do you have your heating on, Jaxing? That sounds very low.

Have you actually monitored your electricity consumption? We live in a 4 bed barn conversion and don't spend that on gas and electricity combined! We had really high bills after moving in to our property and it's because we were on a flat rate from the supplier! We switched to a cheaper company and halved our bill.

Dont forget elec is more expensive than gas, so if your elec only it will come out more expensive.

Have you tracked your usage? Do you have storage heaters and are you using them correctly? What about your water heater, how long do you have it on for? Electricity is more expensive than gas.

Depends on what your heating and hot water is. An electric system rather than GCH will always be more expensive.

Do you have an economy 7 tariff too?

Are you Electric only? Do you have an Economy 7 meter? Do you use storage heaters? Do you have prepayment meters? Did you carry over a debt from a previous property or supplier? Do you have underfloor heating or and vivariums etc? Have you been billed to actual reads or estimates? No one can tell if that is high just from the information you have given.

We're about to switch companies as I thought repeatedly that it was way too high. There is an air circulation thing in the flat that is on all the time but this is on low (converted office building, so we only have two tiny windows) as it can't be turned off. How can we monitor electricity consumption? Also, as we're in a block of flats, can the landlord be sneaky and somehow get the whole building's elec put onto the tenants?

For the last 3 years we've used around 11,000 kWh per year (we've got owl intuition which keeps a record). That's for a 5 bed detached and we are in some of the time during the week due to working from home etc. That doesn't include heating or oven which are gas.

We use about 5000kwh per year electric but also have gas central heating. 7/8000kwh doesn't sound unreasonable if you don't have gas too

Are you Electric only? Yes, did say in the OP i think.
Do you have an Economy 7 meter? No. Not an option in our rented flat I believe.
Do you use storage heaters? No.
Do you have prepayment meters? No.
Did you carry over a debt from a previous property or supplier? No we didn't - we were with British Gas before who I now believe are wonderful compared to the bloody awful Ecotricity.
Do you have underfloor heating or and vivariums etc? Nope, nothing that exotic.
Have you been billed to actual reads or estimates? Actual reads unfortunately.

The only things I can think of are the air circulation system (which I will go bananas over if it's causing this, fucking useless thing) and an immersion heater boiler that I currently can't figure out if it can be turned off as I know that immersion heaters aren't good for bills.

I live in a tiny 2 bedroom cottage, no gas, only me and the dogs. My electricity is £1400 a year, that's for lights and usual appliances and electric radiators, no immersion.Yours does not sound far out to me. I do swap suppliers. but only notice nominal diffrence. Libraries in our area hire electricity monitors? Or you can buy for a few quid on eBay - you just boring rammer and clip on supply wire.

• programme! Not boring rammer!

Could be the immersion heater as that's like leaving the kettle boiling all day. Is there a timer?

What sort of heaters do you have then? I always thought it was storage heaters with electricity

I'm the immersion is on all day, that's what will be doing it.

If you are not turning off your immersion heater that is what will be doing it.

3-bed mid terrace here (plus attic room) - our annual leccy usage is around 4000kwh, but we have gas CH.

3900kwh on top of that for heating/hot water, in a 1-bed flat where you're out all day, sounds like a lot. Def investigate the immersion heater!

How much are you actually using? What do your meter reads show?

And if you pay the bill, you choose the supplier, even if you are renting of one of us evil bastard landlords. Do a compare and get switching asap.

If that includes your heating/hot water/oven, I think it sounds about right, I'm afraid.

Does sound a tad high. Our 200 yo 5 bed with very high ceilings doesn't cost much more that! Our bill usually fluctuates around £150-200.

OP you asked about my heating but I've an oil AGA that does our cooking and hot water (so no immersion) and our radiators are also run by oil.

My electric is actually £30/month but was £70 before I got solar panels installed.

You need to speak to your LL about the immersion heater and how to set it so it only comes on when you want it on, also about whether or not you can control the heating or not.

It is high, I used to work for an energy company. The standard 3,330 units has been churned out for electricity consumption for the last 18 years despite the huge increase in tech in people's homes.

After speaking to your LL I would want someone from the energy company to come out and see your set up meter wise to look to reduce your consumption.

The energy company I worked for did this if we couldn't work out why the bill was as high as it was. We went through a list of questions, like the ones you have been asked and then tried to determine what was eating electric.

Can you access the meter at all? If you work in a pair, one of you stands in front of the meter (easy now to keep in contact with mobile phones) the other person goes round the flat and turns off and unplugs everything. Then you see if the meter is still running and if it is, time how many units it is turning over. With that information the energy company can then send someone out if the meter is still whirring away. ie is it feeding anything other than your flat

Sometimes in commercial units to save money supplies aren't split off even though flats are created.