Help - £200 bill for 2 weeks of electric in new flat!

[swiftt]

Moved into a rented flat a month ago. 2 bedrooms, 3 old storage heaters in total throughout the flat. Have had to use electric convector heaters to boost the heating in the evening - one on for maybe 1-2 hours most evenings, storage heaters on always. I work Monday to Friday 9-5 so only home evenings and weekends. 2 loads of washing done a week. Water heater switched on for an hour at night to do dishes. Submitted meter readings on 31st December to new energy supplier with an E7 tariff. Was projected £55 a month DD. Have just submitted meter readings on app, just to gauge how much I’m using - £227 for the period 31/12 to 16/01! I could cry. £400 a month? That’s almost the same price as my rent. I cannot afford this. What do I do? Switch all the storage heaters off and freeze? I really don’t feel like I’ve been using electric excessively so I’m really worried. I’m pregnant and absolutely dreading next winter when I have a baby here too - I think I need to move!

Can you double check that the readings weren’t submitted round the wrong way? I.e. highest usage should be the cheaper rate?

Also check that the rate clicks over to cheaper at the time it’s supposed to.

We had a similar property but with higher than average usage and our bill was around £130 a month so I think you need check with the supplier and try and find out what might be wrong.

Why do you need to turn the water heater on? We hardly ever needed to do that and we were a family of 5?

Get back in touch with them ..... do not accept this.... it is clearly wrong! We have a detached 3 bed house and pay £25 a month for a family of four .... kids at home all day so everything on! Lots of washing every week!

Our night storage heaters plus day rate electric came to £130 per month in the winter so I would say something is definitely wrong.

@Tulipvase

We had a similar property but with higher than average usage and our bill was around £130 a month so I think you need check with the supplier and try and find out what might be wrong.

Why do you need to turn the water heater on? We hardly ever needed to do that and we were a family of 5?

I would imagine she needs to turn the water heater on to heat the water ! Baths, washing up, cleaning etc

@stardust40

Get back in touch with them ..... do not accept this.... it is clearly wrong! We have a detached 3 bed house and pay £25 a month for a family of four .... kids at home all day so everything on! Lots of washing every week!

@stardust40 £25 a month electric for a family of 4? That seems very cheap, ours is more than that and we have solar panels.

Yep had the bill this morning! We do have a gas/electric deal and do have gas heating and cook on gas ..... but even so £400 a month is just outrageous!

My experience of economy 7 and immersion heater is that the water heats overnight and is then stored for use during the day.

As I said, family of 5 and we didn’t need to ever use the water booster. TBF, we didn’t have many baths as used a shower. I guess it could also depend on how big the immersion heater is.

@stardust40

Get back in touch with them ..... do not accept this.... it is clearly wrong! We have a detached 3 bed house and pay £25 a month for a family of four .... kids at home all day so everything on! Lots of washing every week!

£25 is extremely cheap, do you mind saying who your supplier is and what tariff. Do you have readings through a smart meter

I'm amazed it could be that low

The immersion heater for the water isn’t on the cheaper circuit, and only has one on and off switch so I can’t heat it overnight. I just switch it on after work til I do the dishes, then switch it off again.

Have realised now that I’ve got the day and night readings the wrong way round! But that means I also gave them the wrong readings when I moved in. Will phone on Monday to try and get it sorted. I’ve calculated the usage for the month to be around £200, still a lot but it’s winter I guess so hopefully it would even out with less usage in summer. I’ve also switched one of the storage heaters off cos it’s constantly red hot even with the input set to minimum, so think something is up with it! Thanks all.

Make sure you chase it We rent very similar to you regarding rooms and heating. we have to do a wash load a day 6 days a week (DP is keyworker so uniform needs doing) 3 electric storage heaters like yours on 4/5 hours a day maybe more we average £120 p/m in the summer in was £80 p/m

I just switch it on after work til I do the dishes, then switch it off again.

Are you only using it for dishes and cleaning? If so just boil a kettle. I had no running hot water for years, had an electric shower and just boiled the kettle for anything else.

@Aposterhasnoname yes, have an electric shower so only need it for dishes and the odd bath. As I use it (the heated water that is) for such a short length of time anyway, would it really make that much difference cost-wise?

[quote swiftt]@Aposterhasnoname yes, have an electric shower so only need it for dishes and the odd bath. As I use it (the heated water that is) for such a short length of time anyway, would it really make that much difference cost-wise?[/quote]
It did for me. Huge, we’re talking 25 plus years ago, so I don’t remember the details, but it was a massive difference. Worth a try.

@Aposterhasnoname thanks, I’ll give it a go!

I worked for an energy company for 13 years, that projection is big but I would put money on it that it's not correct.

Stop using the plug in heaters, they eat electricity and I have seen bills in the thousands after folks have been using them.

Do you know how to use sTorage heaters properly?

The meter readings, did you take them on the day you moved in or did someone provide them to you?

Are the day and night reads the right way around?

Have you got an immersion heater for your water? Make sure it's only heating up on the night rate.

Sorry just seen your update! When you call them tell them your reads are transposed

fuelpovertyresource.org.uk/library/how-to-use-your-economy-7-tariff.pdf

Just dropping this here in case it’s of use to anyone!

You can get a timer fitted to the immersion very cheaply...in fact a competent diY er could probably ls do it

That would switch in on in the morning before the E7 tariff expired. I had similar donkeys years ago

Re: the water. I had an electrician out when I first moved in, as we were actually unable to locate a switch for the water at all, or even find the tank. Turns out it’s in the loft and the switch for it is like a light switch in the kitchen. We only realised it was that when he was trying to figure out what was using up electric as we watched the meter go up. It’s not on the cheaper circuit and he didn’t offer any sort of option of being able to do that, so I wasn’t aware it was an option? As I do use so little hot water (it’s on for less than an hour a day), I’m hoping it isn’t massively contributing to my high bill!

@AccidentallyRunToWindsor the storage heaters are set to a middle sort of level of input, minimum output until I come home from work in the evening when I turn the output up. It can still get quite chilly at the moment in the evening. The storage heater in the living room I believe is faulty and could be contributing to my high usage - it’s set to minimum input and output, but is constantly red hot - too hot to even touch. I’ve switched it off for now until I can get hold of my landlord to arrange someone to have a look at it. Even with it cranked up this high accidentally, I still find it quite chilly in the evening and do end up sticking the convector heater on for an hour or so. I don’t have the plug in one on constantly, more just for an hours boost every now and then. The storage heaters look absolutely ancient so I assume they’re not the most efficient either!

Does anyone know how I find out which hours are my night rates?

The map below shows guideline timings dependant on the area you live in, but these can vary - in order to check the exact timings that apply then customers should contact their local meter operator.

Area Area Name Normal E7 off peak times (GMT)
Guideline only - please contact local meter operator for exact timings

10 Eastern England
23:00 - 07:00

11 East Midlands
00:30 - 07:30

12 London
No standard off-peak, but off-peak will normally run for 7 hours at some point from 23:00 - 07:00

13 Merseyside and North Wales
00:30 - 07:30

14 West Midlands
00:00 - 07:00

15 North East England
00:00 - 07:00 or 00:30 - 07:30

16 North West
00:30 - 07:30

17 North Scotland
23:30 - 07:30

18 South Scotland
23:00 - 07:30

19 South East England
22:30 - 00:30 and 02:30 - 07:30

20 Southern England
23:30 - 06:30 or 00:30 - 07:30

21 South Wales Can vary
22 South West Can vary
23 Yorkshire
00:00 - 07:00 or 00:30 - 07:30

@PiscesScot ah thank you! I was confused as the timer thing next to my meter has day and night on it but it has totally different times so not sure if they’re relevant or what that is really!

The list of off peak rates below depends on what MPAN you're in, if you haven't had a Bill your supplier will be able to tell you which.