Electricity bill £300 in summer! Time for a new boiler?

[OwletteGecko]

I just found out mum is paying £300 a month for electricity (doesn't have gas). It's just her, one washing load a week, no extravagances at all. It's more than double my family of four with a tumble dryer, two loads of washing a day and a much older house.

She has a Nibe boiler and all the reviews say they are expensive and pretty shit. She's getting quotes to replace it and they are coming in at over £10k and say she needs electric radiators instead of the under floor heating she currently has downstairs.

Does this sound right? I'm at the very limit of my understanding on this other than knowing her bill seems crazy.

Depends how she's using her electricity and whether she's using it effectively/efficiently. Does she have her underfloor heating on all the time? Is she leaving her hot water on all the time? Does she have an economy 7 tariff and is using electricity on the expensive day rate rather than on the cheap rate?

The system apparently has to be on the whole time as it's a heat pump system. Lots of people have the same issues www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19511637. She's on the cheapest tariff but it's just hugely expensive. She's on a pension and can't afford £300 a month in summer. It looks like ripping out the system is the only option to reduce bills but she doesn't want to lose the under floor heating. It's such a mess.

www.lincolnshirehp.com/your-home/repairs/nibe-boilers/ there's a video on the link that shows how to use the boiler effectively. I wonder if she has the boiler in the wrong mode and that's why it's using more electricity than it should

Thank you @dementedpixie. She has it serviced every year (also quite pricey) and her neighbours' bill is the same. (I made her ask!) I think it's set up properly. It's just so expensive. We can help her pay to replace it. We'd quickly earn back the cost of a new boiler but just working out the best way to keep the UFH and have minimum disruption.

Would you be able to go and check the settings as if they are in the wrong mode then it will use more electricity than it should

Have you check with her supplier to make sure she's on the best tariff?

I had a similar situation a while ago at work and realised that they hadn't been updating the tariff each year so the supplier were just putting them on standard rates for a few years and it all started to slowly add up.

In the same place I also upgraded an ancient fridge that was eating electricity. Switching those 2 things more than halved what they were paying!

She does sound like she has an expensive set up. And electric is expensive generally.

Our house is 100% electric. We have a boiler for water only, that is on all of the time. For heat, we have electric panel heaters in each room. We also have open plan downstairs. We use our the tumble dryer on our washer occasionally. I WFH and we cook every day. Our bill is about £150 per month.

We are a family of four BTW! So we also have lots of baths, showers and the washing machine on daily. As well as millions of devices charging

Thanks all. She's on the cheapest tariff. I checked the settings as best I could and the Nibe engineer checked on the last service six weeks ago.

The price not a new issue. She's lived there 12 years but since my dad died I just discovered how much they've been paying. He was always on it so I imagine it was the least they could pay with the system.

From what I've read it does seem to be a Nibe issue. They are designed for better insulated European houses and can be pricey in British ones. I just need to know if we can replace it with a standard combi boiler or something else but keep the under floor heating. Her friends pay around £70 so £300 in summer is huge. If a new boiler is 5k it will pay for itself in less than two years so happy to do that but just need to know if it's possible. Thank you.

you can keep the underfloor heating and have it run off a separate electric circuit etc....they are expensive to run tho...if she switches to gas she may not need the flooring heating on at all.

I have a Panasonic unit a full air source heat pump though and for the whole of the last month used 8kwh to heat my water in summer I see very high efficiency. That is about £1. So your figure seems very high. Even in the peak of winter my 2 bed ex 1950s council house takes £130 of electricity on the worst month's. And that is EPC b rated.

What about an air source heat pump? She might be able to get a grant to help with the cost of installation too?

Why is the heating even on in the summer? We've had a heatwave! That much electricity must be producing a lot of heat.

Are you sure her meter is working properly? If you turn everything off does the meter stop? You can buy a gadget that measures the amount of electricity each plug is using we had a freezer which was broken compressor and it was costing a utter fortune. Turn the hearing off at the moment it’s not cold. Can you increase the insulation? Is she running an air con?

Electric underfloor heating is very expensive.

By the way, if she doesn't have gas now, and isn't going to get gas installed (even if that's possible it would cost a bomb) then electricity is the only feasible way she has to heat the place, and that's what's expensive. Electricity is a really pricey way to provide heat, about four times the cost of gas. Changing means by which the electricity gets converted into heat is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Is this something you can advise on @pigletjohn ?

it would be useful to know the actual meter readings (not the amount on the bill or the direct debit) over time.

Some of the old ceiling spotlights eat electricity, likewise fridges with dust on the compressors and poor door seals. Tumble driers with dirty filters old ovens etc. Is her house well insulated? All of these things add up to using a lot of electric. We have reduced our bill considerably by getting energy efficient appliances, replacing all the ceiling lights for low energy and installing electric rad valves so each room is heated properly. Our bills have reduced considerably.