Bill's Big

August 1, 2006 6:29 AM

Why is our electricity bill so high?

Our quaterly bills are always high, this one came in at over £260 -- that's for two of us! We live in a pokey one bedroom flat. We have a TV, a fridgefreezer, an immersion heater, a kettle, a toaster, an oven... the usual. The readings given on the bills always match the meter readings -- we'd originally blamed the fan-heater for bumping the price up, but the fan-heater hasn't been used of late.

I called EdF and they checked our meter -- our meter checked out okay. No one I know has bills this high. The payment is due. Have we really used this much electricity? Is there anything I can do before I write the cheque?

posted by popcassady to Home & Garden (23 answers total)

All these appliances, what's their wattage?

Go check, and come back with a list if you will. I don't know much about electricity in the UK, but regarding the water heater - have you tried turning the thermostat down? That can make big differences to your water bill. Also, is the water heater set to heat during off-peak times? If the timer on it is out of kilter, that may be an issue. Some TVs can draw down significant amounts of power even when "turned off". Some fridgefreezers are surprisingly inefficient. Do you only turn lights on when you need them? Are your next door neighbours running 6000w sodium lamps to grow weed, wired into your circuit? These are the questions you need to ask yourself.
posted by Jimbob at 6:38 AM on August 1, 2006

Sorry, it will make big differences to your electricity bill, not your water bill.
posted by Jimbob at 6:38 AM on August 1, 2006

I'm on EDF too. We received a bill for £540 for two quarters, but it was estimated. We took a reading and knocked it down by £100. It doesn't seem that high to me.

Are you on electricity only, or do you have gas too? We use storage heaters in our small but high-ceilinged Victorian flat and it bumps up the price.

If you're on Economy 7, try taking advantage of the lower prices overnight by using your washing machine then. Also switch everything off at the mains.
posted by randomination at 6:44 AM on August 1, 2006

This is quarterly, right?

The number you're looking for is probably units used. The cost/bill is a reflection of that, but what you'd really like to cut is the number of KWH sucked up.

If you're truly serious about it, Thinkgeek sells the 'Watt's Up Pro', which will tell you just about everything you need to know about how much juice each of your items is using.

There are cheaper ones, but I've used the Watts Up Pro and it's quite nice.
posted by unixrat at 6:44 AM on August 1, 2006

Do you have electric heating (storage heaters)?

Our electricity is about £20 per month, and I leave computers and lights on all the time. Importantly, though, our oven, heating, boiler, etc, is all gas, which is significantly cheaper (although it can be £40 a month for gas during the winter!).

My parents discovered an old chest freezer of theirs was sapping the juice big time, you may have a similar situation.

Turn off EVERYTHING, then check out your meter and see if it's still going round (or flashing, if it's digital). If so, there's somethng you don't know about sucking up your juice. Turn things on one at a time and see what gets it hopping. If all else fails, get an electrician.
posted by wackybrit at 6:45 AM on August 1, 2006

Wow, that is pricey. My house (2 bed terrace) is probably half that!

Is your central heating electric as opposed to gas or oil?

I'd second checking your thermostat on the immersion - you don't keep that on all day do you? If so then there is your problem.

Immersion water heaters are notoriously bad when it comes to eating up your electric bill.

You could find the difference is because your friends have oil fired heating or similar. So they are paying for oil while you are just paying the one bill?
posted by twistedonion at 6:46 AM on August 1, 2006

Response by poster: We have storage heating but we haven't used it since January.
posted by popcassady at 6:48 AM on August 1, 2006

First you must absolutely learn to read the electric meter... if you have a spinning disc on the meter (or something that increments while you watch) learn what those amounts mean. Once you are absolutely sure you know how to read the values, then experiment. Try turning off everything in the house and see how much power you are drawing.

Also consider the possibility that someone is stealing power through a hookup somewhere or through an adjoining wall.

We had this problem when I lived in Austin... I shut everything off I could find and was only drawing like 10 watts. I turned on our air conditioner and it instantly went up to 6500 watts. Some simple math showed our air conditioner was always on and was doing us in. Fortunately that energy hog got replaced.
posted by rolypolyman at 6:48 AM on August 1, 2006

As rolypolyman said, someone may be diverting your power supply. Hire an electrician to check everything out and to find where the electricity is being used.
posted by JJ86 at 6:51 AM on August 1, 2006

You might also want to have someone check the wiring and ensure that nothing that's running through your meter is actually ending up in someone else's apartment.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:53 AM on August 1, 2006

As several other people apparently said while I was reading other threads...
posted by jacquilynne at 6:54 AM on August 1, 2006

As a long-term solution, you might have a look at the insulation on your flat. Many power companies will do a free evaluation of your insulation to tell you if you need to replace it, and i'm pretty sure the UK government will subsidise replacing it.
posted by ukdanae at 6:57 AM on August 1, 2006

FYI, when you do shut off everything you will still be drawing a lot of 'stand-by' power from a number of electrical devices such as computers, TV, VCR or DVD, and don't forget those AC/DC converters. Most of them draw power even when not connected to the device they are supposed to power.

It sounds to me like someone is drawing from your electric service. This is not uncommon in an older building. You may also be powering lights in the common area, and who knows what else.
posted by Gungho at 7:05 AM on August 1, 2006

We moved house last year (detached house in the UK) and had the same thing - we pay £85 a month now for combined gas and electricity.

Issues I've sorted out include:

- the house wasn't insulated
- our heating programmer's wiring was faulty so the boiler was constantly trying to keep the water hot
- we didn't have a room thermostat so the boiler was on constantly if the heating was on
- the combined wattage of the halogen lights in our kitchen, hall and bathroom is 1500W

I sorted out these problems, and i'm changing the halogen bulbs over to LEDs and low-energy versions, over time. LEDs would drop the wattage above to just 60W.

Hopefully the monthly costs should go down now.

Get one of those plug in power meters, like unixrat said - they're excellent for finding out how much each appliance is sucking up, especially on standby. Leave it plugged in for a week in each appliance so you get a good average, and read your bill carefully so you can convert the reading from the power meter into £. Maplin do one for £12ish right now.

Check everything one at a time and you'll soon find the culprits - it might be one big thing, like a crap fridge, or it might be lots of small things, like halogens, or appliances left on standby.

But I think we're all facing large bills now. Looks like the only way to cut them is to stop using all the power and get simpler again.
posted by dowcrag at 7:07 AM on August 1, 2006

Here in New York, the cost per kilowatt hour changes seasonally. I just got a big jump from the summer surcharge.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:33 AM on August 1, 2006

Of the things you mention, the immersion heater is probably the worst power drain: particularly if it's old and the element is covered in limescale. How often is it turned on? The oven is probably second, have you been doing a lot of baking recently? :)
posted by blag at 8:43 AM on August 1, 2006

I probably ought to have made it clearer earlier, but do make sure you're on EDF's Economy 7 tariff by the time winter comes round again.
posted by randomination at 9:07 AM on August 1, 2006

Your local Centre for Sustainable Energy or the Energy Saving Trust might have some useful advice.
posted by mbrubeck at 9:08 AM on August 1, 2006

I love Michael Bluejay's how to save electricity site. It's comprehensive and informative.
posted by jdroth at 10:19 AM on August 1, 2006

I agree that you should check consumption on your meter. I would take a reading in the morning before you head off to work, one when you get home and one the next morning. That will give you a baseline reading for a 'typical' day and for the block of time your flat is empty. Then repeat, but before you go to work, shut down everything you can and unplug everything. Then compare the numbers.

If the difference in power usage during the day isn't significant, then there's something leeching a lot power that you don't know about: that's your cue to hire an electrician or possibly a city electrical inspector.

If the difference during the day is modest or substantial, it should be giving you a cue on how you can save money. You should be able to take the difference in readings and multiply it by the number of days in your billing cycle and then again times the rate to figure out how much you'd save by doing that.
posted by plinth at 10:36 AM on August 1, 2006

Mate, I live alone in a two bedroom house and my electricity bill is about £10 / month. Admittedly I'm never, ever there and the place is pretty energy efficient but unless you're growing hydroponics it sound like your bill is a long, long way out.

Check your tariff. Make sure that you've switched to absolutely the cheapest one available. www.uswitch.com will help you to get the cheapest tariff you can find.
posted by dmt at 12:07 PM on August 1, 2006

I can't recommend a computerized/electronic thermostat highly enough. My electricity costs went down over 25% when I installed mine two years ago. It doesn't answer the immediate question of what the heck is going on with your bills, but it's worth looking into.
posted by wildeepdotorg at 8:05 PM on August 1, 2006

You definitely need to change away from EdF, where you are they are effectively the privatised version of the old regional electricity board, the pretty universal rule is that these are more expensive than other alternatives (primarily as they have established customer bases and can sit on the profits from them). Use the site dmt provides to find a cheaper option.

Still, your prices would have to be sky high to be running up a bill that size. Do you use a lot of hot water, e.g. daily baths? A check on whether electricity is going elsewhere might be a good idea. Can you also check with your neighbours as to the size of their bills?
posted by biffa at 4:21 AM on August 7, 2006