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Using too many units of electric. What on earth is the cause of this?

60 replies

user1488481370 · 18/10/2021 11:49

We’re in a small two bed house with four kids. We’re not often in the house during the day as my partner works outside and three of my four children are at school or nursery. We have a heat pump tumble dryer which is on occasionally we bought the heat pump version because we thought it will be more economical.

We only turn the immersion heater on as needed (We use electric to heat our water as opposed to gas) and are very limited in the way of electricals we only have one telly in the whole house and all of our main appliances are at least A rated.

We recently had our metres read and it turns out that we’ve been undercharged and have since received a bill for over £2000 which is extortionate. They reckon that we are using almost 30 units a day we were also out of contract which wont have helped. I will also add that that amount isn’t just for our house but for next door which is empty and a couple of sheds which are to do with my partners business put those bills are very small in comparison to the house bills. Any ideas what I can do to try and find out what is causing this because there’s no way that we are using more than a five or six bed house would use I don’t think it’s possible.

OP posts:
ZealAndArdour · 18/10/2021 11:51

Has your husband got a secret cannabis grow in the empty house next door?

BigPyjamas · 18/10/2021 11:55

You'll need to do a process of elimination: turn everything off, wait, see if meter moves. If not you know it's something in the house.

You can buy a thing (technical term escapes me) from Amazon that sits between the item and the plug. This tells you what it uses in KwH.

We had a similar problem and it turned out to be a water heater for an ensuite shower. I've also realised that washing at 30 is much better than 40. Our appliances are old and use too much electricity but they'll be changed soon.

Good luck.

mogsrus · 18/10/2021 11:55

Take readings everyday for a start at the same time, 9am to 9am or whatever.

whosfarted · 18/10/2021 12:14

I got a bit confused in the OP but do each houses have their own meters or do you just have one main one at yours for both houses and sheds?
Are you sure there isn't anything left on in any of the other buildings? The heating isn't coming on and off throughout the day is it without you realising?
But if your meter is just solely for your house and the reads are high you'll have to do as another PP suggested and turn everything off and then see if there's anything still using electric?

EvilRingahBitch · 18/10/2021 12:16

It's high, and you should check it, as pp said, but it's not bonkers high for a household with 6 people using an electric boiler. Presumably you do a lot of washing and have a lot of baths with four children. Heat is what costs money so washing at 30 degrees would help. Average electric use is calculated including the overwhelming majority of houses which use gas (or oil) heating so you'll be more than double the figure for them.

Seeline · 18/10/2021 12:21

What does your DH do in the sheds?
Heating, electrical equipment, power tools?

Check that nothing is on in the empty house.

Do you leave appliances on standby?

What do you use for heating?

Seeline · 18/10/2021 12:23

Also - when was your meter last read if you've underpaid by £2K? Has that covered any of the lockdown periods, because I'm guessing your normal usage would've increased considerably over that time.

VenusClapTrap · 18/10/2021 12:25

The tumble drier and immersion heater are the most likely culprits.

RandomMess · 18/10/2021 12:28

Immersion heaters are so expensive.

Presumably you don't have gas at all?

Do you have economy 7 electric, if so heat your hot water overnight - hopefully it has a timer on it?

Plotato · 18/10/2021 12:38

When we bought our house our metre was incorrectly recording our usage - we knew because not a single thing was plugged in and we were using a generator for building work related stuff (can't remember why). The energy company didn't believe us for ages and kept asking if we'd forgotten we had something like a fish tank plugged in - the house barely had floorboards and walls so we found it pretty amusing, if mildly annoying. It did all get sorted in the end and the metre was shown to be faulty but it took a long time for the energy company to agree to test it - presumably lots of people claim they can't possibly use the amount of energy they do but are mistaken. Just worth baring in mind that it can happen.

Chumleymouse · 18/10/2021 13:03

Six people use quite a bit of electricity I would think ….. bathing, washing clothes etc….. and if you have been underpaying for however long? Then it can all add up .

Just check it everyday to see many units you are using per day …….then narrow it down with a process of elimination ……. It won’t be lights or tv. It’s usually the things that create heat than burn through the units.

PigletJohn · 18/10/2021 13:29

30kWh per day would be one heavy-load appliance on for ten hours

conventional tumble drier (not a heat pump)
immersion heater
fan heater
kettle

nothing else comes close. TV, computer, phone charger, lights, appliance on standby, extractor fan are all so slight you won't notice them.

Even a washing machine only runs the heating element for about 10 minutes per wash, and the churning motor is trivial.

maybe you have an electric heater in a shed.

What colour is your hot water cylinder?

30kWh is enough for about 6 baths. But you might have a hot water leak.

You haven't got an electric shower, have you?

Please post a photo of your consumer unit(s) ("fusebox") with the lid open.

megletthesecond · 18/10/2021 13:33

Fridge or freezer seal leaking cold?

PoetryLaser · 18/10/2021 13:36

Are you a absolutely certain next door is empty? No comings or goings, humming noise, strange smells, chinks of light?

MatildaIThink · 18/10/2021 13:39

Thirty units a day is not that high for an electric only household with six people living in it.

An immersion heater is usually in the 2.5-3.0 kW range so even if that is only on for two hours a day (reasonable for a household of six, with showers, baths etc.) then that is still 6kWh on it's own. A fridge-freezer would use 1.5-2kWh per day. Other bit uses will be anything that generates heat or runs motors, a washing machine might use 2-3 kWh depending on the cycle, so that can add up over the course of a week.

You can just turn everything off, see if it drops to zero on the meter, then turn things back on one by one, if you want to test the fridge-freezer will be find for hours with no power so long as you keep the doors shut so that should not matter during testing.

What equipment is your husband using in the sheds?

TobyHouseMan · 18/10/2021 14:22

Heating a 200l Water tank from 8 Degrees to 60 will take 12 Kwh. If you pay 20pence a unit then that's £2.40 - or £850 a year.

If you can, use GAS to heat the water - it's cheaper.

Daftasabroom · 18/10/2021 14:43

30kWh is 10950 pa. That's ball park and about right if you don't have gas. Can you offer to pay back on monthly basis?

PigletJohn · 18/10/2021 15:22

@TobyHouseMan

you're right, but I work on a simpler figure. I assume a bath is 100 litres, and takes 100 minutes to heat with a 3kW immersion heater. Much easier to remember at 1 litre per minute, and pretty realistic

Amount of water 100 litres
Start temperature 12C
End temperature 55C
Heating power 3000W
Time: 1h 40min (equal to 100min)

bit longer in Winter, bit quicker in Summer

using 4.2kWh

Plotato · 19/10/2021 16:51

Are you any further forward OP?

ThePoisonousMushroom · 19/10/2021 16:53

Are you with Eon by any chance?

StroppyTop · 19/10/2021 17:00

@ThePoisonousMushroom Why do you ask?
I’m with Eon and wondering why my usage has gone up so much, as well as price increases

SylvanasWindrunner · 19/10/2021 17:01

Immersion heaters are very expensive. Our boiler broke and we had to use the immersion for a couple of week. Our electricity usage went through the roof.

That usage doesn't seem too unfeasible to me, though. We use more electricity than that and there's only 3 of us and we have a gas boiler.

Always a good idea to do frequent meter readings - we do ours every month. That way, if your usage starts outstripping your payments, it's easy to see early.

FTEngineerM · 19/10/2021 17:06

You don’t give enough info to establish whether it’s extortionate or not.

What date was the last accurate meter reading? Months, years ago?

ThePoisonousMushroom · 19/10/2021 17:09

[quote StroppyTop]@ThePoisonousMushroom Why do you ask?
I’m with Eon and wondering why my usage has gone up so much, as well as price increases[/quote]
I asked because I’ve just had exactly the same thing happen… an email to say they mistakenly didn’t charge me for usage last winter and my account is now £1400 in debit. I know 6 other people with Eon it has recently happened to too.
They have put my direct debit up from £120 per month to £340 per month!

ponkydonkey · 19/10/2021 17:40

Cheeky buggers are charging you today's prices for 2 years ago elec!
I'd query that