Oh my god oh my god oh my god, have just received an elec bill for £800 for 3 months!!

[Pawslikepaddington]

There are two of us in a 2 bed house!! Oh my god!! [reaches for brown paper bag]

I can't "spend my way" at all now-homeless shelter and candles for us is the way forward I think! Paying more for elec = inability to pay my rent. I can't afford to live in this country any more!!! The woman I am speaking to can't even understand what I am saying, argh! I am going to explode with stress!

But surely they charge up overnight at 4p an hour or something-they don't draw any daytime elect at all do they?

In theory you are correct but look at your night meter readings what does it come to? Have you got different day & night rates on your bill?

I think it's possible that they had an inaccurate first reading for when you first moved in - if so then essentially you'd be paying for electricity before you moved in.

Yes, night is charged at 4p, and day is charged at 16p. Oh no! And apparently they have to have it all in a lump sum unless I stay with them at this house!

There's no way I can challenge that though is there? As I have moved out now? So can't do a see how much elec I am using each month thing.

I am currentluy goingthrough a similar thing with British gas who sent me a bill last quarter got £3,500!

They are taking ages to sort it out so I have paid a lump sum - good will type thing - so that I don't end up with two bills to pay at once.

I have paid what I believe bill should be approx based on previous bills 0 but as you have not been there long perhaps that is not an option.
I would still pay something regardless of them saying you have to pay it all

so what is eating the electricity, day time or night use?

Have you got a very inefficient oven & frige & freezer, tumble drier? How is your water heated up?

you've not been using the emergency immersion have you?

Um, fridge was AAA rated, dryer and washer AAA rated, all bulbs were energy savers, dishwasher 3 years old but a bosch, so prob not AAA but not DDD either. TV was always on standby (runs over and switches it off!). I used a lot more day energy than night energy though. I do put the dryer on for towels and jeans, so once every two days. Lights I have dd's night light on, two lamps with energy saver bulbs in, tv on from 9-10pm. Cooker was barely used . DAB digital radio on for two hours a day. Storage heaters charged up over night, argh what else? This is so helpful, thank you sleigh girl!

If you joined from another company then they MUST have started with an actual reading

Check ALL the bills and paperwork from that time

The average bill is around 1000 per year I think now

so if you had your heating on all summer it would have pushed that up a lot

Hot water was on gas, which came in at a grand total of £15 for three months!

what company and tarriff is it?

Oh god, I can't find any paper work-I think it may have gone missing, along with my driving licence! I feel so stupid with this heating-how could I have left it on? Stupid woman, you stupid stupid woman!

It was Southern Electric's Economy 7 no standing charge. Oh god, I don't have £100 a month to spend on electric, we are stuggling as it is.

Have ordered an energy emitting checker-I can't believe how stupid I have been.

aww I don't think I can offer much positive advice

Leaving electric heaters on all day and all through the summer is the problem here

TBH you are lucky it is not higher

paws, I think other posters might be right about the problem being when you changed suppliers. I had this around 4 or 5 years ago when I changed suppliers and a year or so later had a MASSIVE bill. On further investigations it turned out that the old company had given the wrong meter reading on the changeover. Even though I'd been giving actual readings for 18 months the company had ignored them as they were going on the meter reading give by the old company. When it all came out I had a massive bill but argued that they should have been using my readings over the months. In the end, they gave me 18 months to pay it off. worth checking if you have old paperwork or even contacting your old supplier to see if they have a note of the changeover reading.

I've had a quick look at your tariff and it is 25% higher than competitors

So it is quite a pricy tariff - not just usage

Get them to check your economy 7 timer,
we got a bill for £1400 for 6mths last yr- turned out the timer was faulty and they had been on 24/7 even tho i thought they were only drawing at night.

they fitted a prepayment meter and it takes our debt at £15 per week, then current use is on top of that. I spend £30 per week on elec. have done since mid nov. before that we didn;t have heating on at all and it was £25 per week.

www.edfenergytrust.org.uk/ they might be able to give you a grant towards the bill. i've applied but havent heard owt yet.

HTH.

Thank you all-the heaters aren't drawing elec 24/7-they draw it between midnight and 6am, and then emit it during the day, so have nothing to do with the day usage. My night energy totals £8, and the day energy totals over £400! That cannot be right

I am not with an EDF energy customer, so don't qualify for their grant, but it was worth a look. If it is the heaters then would I be able to charge the university for it do you think?

I am not with an EDF energy customer, so don't qualify for their grant, but it was worth a look. If it is the heaters then would I be able to charge the university for it do you think?

£400 for how many days??????????????????????

You don't leave your pc on standby as well as TV do you because that is more or less the same as leaving them on?

You def don't have an electric emergency immersion heater in your water tank?

sounds like your heaters might have been set to turn on and heat up during the DAY rather than at night?