twice the electric?

[MrsC]

Two Sheds, you know my problems with bills and the companies who provide a 'so called service etc' As you know I check everything, recent BT bill as you know (which I shan't rant on about I promise!) It started 3 years ago with my electricity bill being abnormally high, I checked the meter number on the bill against the one installed in my house, it was different. It started off an 2 year battle with BG with me not paying a penny and then guess what, they admitted they had been wrongly billing me, refunded any charges and I was left with a 2.5 yr bill of £360 for actual gas I used plus a refund of overpayments on someone else's meter. Anyway, may be worth checking the meter number, they were billing me for someone elses meter.

[Hilary B]

Only comment I have is that for the same storage capacity a CHEST freezer uses a lot LESS electricity than an upright, they just tend to be a fair bit bigger!

[Pies]

Only comment I have is that for the same storage capacity a CHEST freezer uses a lot LESS electricity than an uprightr!

Thats because when you open the door the cold air doesn't fall out,that's why uprights need to be full not so critical in a chest

But you all knew that already

[Hilary B]

Thats because when you open the door the cold air doesn't fall out,that's why uprights need to be full not so critical in a chest

But you all knew that already

Well I did, and I dare say lots of others did too.
The thing that annoys me is our (Argos) fridge-freezer, which (and it didn't say in the catalogue) assumes you don't need any 'cold' if the 'room' temp is below 10 degrees C. Since we wanted it for a shed, that is VERY tiresome!
Sorry, wrong place!

[BFG]

Freezers aren't all that expensive to run. Especially chest freezers, as the cold air can't fall out of them when you open them like upright ones. I'd be surprised if that was the main culprit.

it's usually around the 10p mark per KWH. So taking that for an example, it's £0.10 * 238 (kWh/year) = £23.80

If you do want to measure it with a plug in meter, you need to do it over a few days or so to get a proper reading, as the compressor will only be on for short periods at a time and it could skew the results.

Heat or heating water is the one big area in electricity usage. If you're using a lot, it'll more than likely be an immersion heater, electric shower, fan heater, or something like that.

[BFG]

I have been puzzling over our huge increase in electricity costs since last June when we moved house - we actually changed to a lower tariff, the best rate one BG do. Still our electric used to be about £70 a quarter in the winter and £30-40 in the summer. Now its £60 a month summer or winter....??!!
The ONLY different item we have now is an electric shower...

Electric showers are relatively expensive to run and could easily explain the difference in your bills. They have to heat up a lot of water quickly and have high powered heaters in them. 8-10KW is normal for a basic electric shower. At 10p per kWH and a 10kWH shower, it'd cost £1 per hour to run.

If it's a power shower, it's worse still.

We've been duped into thinking that because (a quick, non power shower) shower uses less water than a bath, a shower is cheaper/greener. That forgets about heating the water, which is by far by the bigger portion of the cost.

If your water is already being heated by electricity, or you don't have an electric shower, a quick shower will be cheaper. But if, as is fairly typical, you have gas water heating and an electric shower, taking a bath is cheaper, as gas is around 1/3 of the price of electricity.

[BFG]

Well, I've found out why my night rate isn't very impressive:

Economy 7: "The discount hours are usually 1am to 8am during winter, and 2am to 9am in summer"

But that isn't definitive, I've found varying answers on the web, ranging from 0030 start to 0200 start.
I thought it started at midnight!
v.v. cross now

(I found that by Googling, there is no info on my bill, nor can I find it on EDF website)

it's basically what ever your meter thinks is off peak time. it varies by meter, newer ones are set by radio, but older ones could be set to anything. The time could be out too. If you're really lucky, the clock will be a few hours out making it more convenient for you at one point in the day.

It'll also vary by an hour when the clocks change.

You'll probably be able to see the times from the meter. If it's old there'll be a time dial with (tamper proof) er.. "bits" where it changes over.

Having said all that, unless you have storage heaters, you're probably better on a normal tarrif, instead of E7.

[BFG]

Hmmmm, some vry interesting info. Our house also has super high leccy consumption. We have storage heaters so know one of the reasons, but it doesn't explain the massive summer usage but no one wants to help us at all.

Ive been told the average house uses between 11 - 18 units in 24 hours, our house consumes on average 49 units.

I've wondered if the fruit cakes next door have hacked our power but my electrician cousin says no it's too difficult to hack into a mains supply (they'd have to do it from the outside and we can see the supply cable).

Sorry to be of absolutely no help to you.

Storage heaters in winter, as you're aware, will use a lot. You should look into heat pumps if you're planning on being there for a few years. They'd pay for themselves pretty quickly.

As for summer, how do you heat your water? I assume since you have storage heaters, that means you don't have gas and heat water with electricity? That would explain the high usage. Especially as you're only comparing your total energy costs with the average electricity used, forgetting that the average person will also be using gas units too.

[BFG]

..

EDIT: I just found this buried in the small print: "Eco20:20's off peak electricity unit rate (which applies between 10pm until 8 am BST (or - 9pm until 7am GMT)". We're not on Eco wotsit, but Econ 7 must be the same times surely?

I'm going away now to sit in a darkened room

It won't be the same times. The 7 in Economy 7, is for 7 hours. You can get Economy 10 too. So if it went off at 7, then looks like you were right all along and it's 12-7 (until the clocks change).

[Two_Sheds]

it's basically what ever your meter thinks is off peak time. it varies by meter

that's why the lecky company can't tell you when it is then

You'll probably be able to see the times from the meter.

nope. No times or timer whatsoever. It's a really old thing, tucked away where you can't get to it, with just 2 rows of numbers (the readings). there is a little tiny arrow (which I'd not noticed until I started this thread) which points to the day or the night rate

you're probably better on a normal tarrif, instead of E7

I've checked the other tariffs on USwitch. There's only one or two that come out better than ours (Eco 20:20 is dearer!), but I am still keen to get our bills down: the gas bill is going to be atomic this year

The 7 in Economy 7, is for 7 hours... So if it went off at 7, then looks like you were right all along and it's 12-7

I got one thing right then, I'm not an utter numpty

[lizzylemon]

Yes our water heater is heated with electric but we put in a new heater filament and also installed a timer so it only comes on for 4 hours (1am to 4am) and then another hour somewhere between 5 & 6 in the evening so there's hot hot hot water for washing up and during the summer we actually turn the water temp down as it doesn't need to be as hot as winter water because the ambient air temp makes it seem just as hot.

We do as much as possible to save electric: all our applicances have timers on and come on between 1 & 4am, nothing is left on standby, all plugs get switched off over night, we only ever heat the rooms we need, all lights bulbs are energy savers, we don't have a tumble dryer, the list goes on.

Which ever way we look at it, there is absolutely no way we should use many units as we do - even the electric companies agree.

Its a rented house so not getting a new heating system - after 3 years we're STILL waiting for the leaking roof to get fixed......

[Gwyndy]

kw x cost per hour = kwh

Above is wrong!

Kw x Hours run = KWh

KWh x Cost per KWh (unit) = Total cost

[Two_Sheds]

thanks Gwyndy. Total cost is what, cost per hour?

[Gwyndy]

thanks Gwyndy. Total cost is what, cost per hour?

No! Suppose you have, say, an electric heater rated at 3 kilowatts (Kw) and you switch it on for 2 hours. If it runs continuously, you will use 3 x 2 = 6 kilowatt-hours (KWh or 'units') of electricity. If your electricity costs, say, 10p per KWh (or unit) then the cost will be 6 x 10 = 60 pence.

The cost of running the heater for one hour would be 3 (KWh) x 1 (hour) x 10 (pence) = 30 pence.

Remember that equipment such as heaters, freezers, etc. will switch on and off as they will be thermostatically controlled so doing the above calculation on such equipment would be the maximum cost.

Hope that helps.

[Hilary B]

While heating water in an electric shower is expensive per litre/gallon, you tend to use rather less of it than in the bath, you ONLY heat what is used (not an extra however much the pipes from the tank contain), and you heat it when you want it, so you don't have half-a-tankful cooling off after your shower.
I haven't actually tried having a shower off a combi-boiler system, but suspect it would be a right swine to balance the temperature, so you'd be wasting hot water then as well.