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

[user1488481370]

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.

I'd also get a smart meter so they can't pull that stunt again!

@ponkydonkey

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

Well it’s your own fault if you don’t either provide meter readings or call to arrange a meter reader if you’re unable for some reason.

You nor them know when the energy was used, just that it was.

Iv’e had a larger than expected electricity bill for my rental flat ( currently unoccupied) and the only thing I found was a very frosted up, old freezer which I have now condemned .

Well it’s your own fault if you don’t either provide meter readings or call to arrange a meter reader if you’re unable for some reason

You nor them know when the energy was used, just that it was

I did provide meter readings. They have acknowledged that it was their mistake and they didn’t apply my meter readings to my last bill (April).

I know I have used the electricity, that’s not my issue. It’s that I provided meter readings, they didn’t use them for whatever reason, and so my direct debit was incorrect. They actually dropped my direct debit in may, I phoned to query as it seemed too low, they said it was right, I manually increased it against their advice to be safe, and I have still ended up owing £1400.

We are really monitoring ours. We've used 36 units per day over the past 25 days .... our house is bigger, but only two adults, and we only put the immersion on for 1hr per day. Heating is by log burner (rural). So x30 units per day doesn't seem too bad ...

@Shouldbeworkingnotreadingtalk

so where is all the electricity going?

do you have electric heaters?

About £200 a month?

@ThePoisonousMushroom ensure they are charging you those units at the relevant rate, am so angry on your behalf

I've just had my monthly DD reviewed due to changing rate etc., I've chosen to increase exactly so we don't up in arrears or get a massive jump in April when the capped rate increases.

[quote RandomMess]@ThePoisonousMushroom ensure they are charging you those units at the relevant rate, am so angry on your behalf

I've just had my monthly DD reviewed due to changing rate etc., I've chosen to increase exactly so we don't up in arrears or get a massive jump in April when the capped rate increases.[/quote]
I hadn’t actually thought of that @RandomMess so thank you, I will check.

@PigletJohn - I think it's our crappy, inefficient freezers. We try and live self sufficiently on a smallholding. So grow and store our own food. I've got x6 in total. (Yes, cringing as I write this) ...

assuming these have a 13A plug, you could use an energy meter (watts meter, VA meter) of the plug in type such as
uk.rs-online.com/web/p/energy-meters/1785370

or
uk.rs-online.com/web/p/energy-meters/7975459

there are unbranded Chinese imports at half the price on ebay, but I can't vouch for them.

I looked at another reputable supplier but they had none in stock.

This device is suitable for measuring a single appliance's usage. Most energy meters will measure the entire house or building's usage, which is not what you need.

Plug each appliance through it for 24 hours, one at a time, and note what it uses.

OOI, at one time I had an old FF given to me by an aunt.

When I scrapped it and got a modern one (twice as big), my electricity usage dropped by over 200kWh a year

@PigletJohn

assuming these have a 13A plug, you could use an energy meter (watts meter, VA meter) of the plug in type such as uk.rs-online.com/web/p/energy-meters/1785370

or
uk.rs-online.com/web/p/energy-meters/7975459

there are unbranded Chinese imports at half the price on ebay, but I can't vouch for them.

I looked at another reputable supplier but they had none in stock.

This device is suitable for measuring a single appliance's usage. Most energy meters will measure the entire house or building's usage, which is not what you need.

Plug each appliance through it for 24 hours, one at a time, and note what it uses.

We have a rogue amount of power we can't locate. We've tried those things and measured everything in the house and garage and greenhouse, but we are still an irritating little bit adrift of where we think we should be. We had a smart meter put in, but the monitor that they gave us is not much cop, it's not responsive enough. It's not much in KWh but it's definitely enough to annoy the engineers in the house, who don't like things they can't explain. We've just changed an old fridge and freezer for a new one, but monitoring the old ones didn't show anything odd, so I doubt that will clear it up. The engineers are not giving up on this one, though....

@BlueMongoose years back we lived in 1930s house that had the dining room and lounge knocked through with a steel under a supporting wall, the old electric cables had degraded and the steel was live, I have no idea how much that must have cost over the years.

[quote Daftasabroom]@BlueMongoose years back we lived in 1930s house that had the dining room and lounge knocked through with a steel under a supporting wall, the old electric cables had degraded and the steel was live, I have no idea how much that must have cost over the years.[/quote]

That's very disturbing from a safety point of view, at least.
We should be okay with the wiring, as we had it completely rewired before we moved in!

Can I jump on to ask a question of @PigletJohn and others? Sorry if it’s derailing or a bit dim, but hopefully useful for others!

Are all “units” the same, across everyone’s houses and meters? I have been trying to get on top of (and reduce) our gas and electric usage and it has gone down a bit but I’d love to be able to compare it with others. It’s knowing whether we are low, high or average users that will help me know whether we can/should go further or if it’s not worth chasing tiny amounts….

FYI we are averaging 19 units a day for 3 people; this includes hot water which is an immersion heater (but brand new and “apparently” quite efficient) but not central heating which is gas. It’s gone down from an average of 22 per day (measured over 12 months)

on an electricity meter, a "unit" is a kWh, which costs around 17p

On a gas meter, a "unit" is most often (if modern) one cubic metre of gas, which contains about* 11.2kWh of energy, and costs around 4p per kWh

Some very old gas meters still work on cubic feet, and the bill is calculated using kWh of energy per hundred cubic feet)

(prices are currently in a state of flux, so check your tariff, online or by looking at your energy bills)

You will notice that a kWh of energy from gas costs much more than a kWh of energy from electricity, so it is more economical to use gas for heating and hot water if it is possible.

* the kWh per cubic metre is calculated more accurately, as shown on your bill, but you can get a "near enough" figure by looking at your bill and dividing the number of kWh charged, by the number of cubic metres supplied)

@PlinkPlankPlunk

p.s.

you say you use an immersion heater for hot water.

If you have a hot water cylinder, and a gas boiler, it is usual, and much cheaper, to let the boiler heat the cylinder. Turn off the immersion heater except for those infrequent occasions when the boiler is not working.

What colour is your cylinder?

You cannot add gas units and electricty units together.

Thanks @PigletJohn that is really helpful to know. And yes, I meant the electric on its own is 19 units per day; gas has also come down a bit (as now heating only) but I can’t really compare properly how much for another few months.

The water heater is silver coloured (the big ?tank bit) with a white other part (pump maybe?) Yes, I know how I’m sounding and in my defence I was dealing with some other aspects of a large house renovation when it was put in…

I might be able to attach a photo. The hot water is off at the boiler and it is all coming from this electric arrangement. Which was quite fortunate when the boiler broke last month and required a new PCR and gas valve. I now have to decide whether, having replaced those bits, we should let the old boiler limp on or replace it in the summer ready to use next winter…

Hot water arrangements @PigletJohn

oh, it appears to be a Gledhill unvented, so yet, it is very efficient and pretty sure to be plumbed to your boiler.

I can't see the immersion heater caps. You might have one, or one near the top and one near the bottom. Turn them (it) off.

You could lag your pipes better, and secure it with vinyl tape.

Reading with interest. Ours is too high.

the round white thing is an expansion vessel. It contains a balloon of air which will squash or expand to accomodate expansion of the tapwater as it heats. It is white to indicate that it is stainless steel and safe for drinking water (radiator ones are red, and not)

@PigletJohn

oh, it appears to be a Gledhill unvented, so yet, it is very efficient and pretty sure to be plumbed to your boiler.

I can't see the immersion heater caps. You might have one, or one near the top and one near the bottom. Turn them (it) off.

You could lag your pipes better, and secure it with vinyl tape.

Thank you And I will look again at the lagging. We just redid the outside ones (running from outhouse with boiler into the house) and are hoping that has made/will make a difference too!

It’s a very old house with conservation constraints so sometimes difficult to do what seem like purely practical jobs but you do just have to think around the problem…