high electricity bill???

[what..the?]

We Keep getting really high bills for own new rented house it is 3x that of the previous property. There are no major changes it is still the same number of people in the house using the electrical equipment the same amount of time etc etc.

There's only 2 of us we both are out all day and often out at weekend too, we wash clothes in washing machine and tumble dry once rarely twice a week, we set the dishwasher once a week. we run no other major items we use the oven 4 times a week and hob 3 times a week. We has gas cental heating double glazing, and tumble drier which is supposedly run on gas as well. When we are home we watch tv together in the same room and every morning we use different showers but at the same time. We put the heating on only when nec. manually for say a hour morning and then evening. We do not use hot water taps. We switch lights off when not in the room.

Well thats all the background our bill per quarter just came in at the weekend at �380.11. It says estimated even though they had meter reading only recently therefore that accounts for approx �100 of the bill which will be deducted when they get a new reading but still the bill is much more than we would use.

So over the weekend we looked at the meter as varoius times i.e normal half a day, 2 hours with washing machine going, tumble drier going, having showers....and well the whole weekend was approx �3 so we don't understand why the bill is so high. We had a few xmas lights over xmas and were home a little more than normal ???

Any idea's or are EDF -electricity company taking us for a ride. They say to get the meter checked will cost �72!

[queen 1954]

if i were you i would change suppliers asp.i had higher than normal bills last year with southern electric and they checked the metre free of charge and it was faulty.they replaced it and gave me credit off the next bill.your bills do seem high considering your heating is gas.

[magimagpie]

i would also check that someone hasnt wired their house up to your meter, it can happen

[katerich48]

That happened to me - I moved from a 2 bedroom flat to a 1 bedroom flat and my direct debits went from �20 a month to �70...with the same company.... Even the lady at their customer services was gobsmacked she said "I have a house and I don't pay that" - The wheel doesn't seem to be spinning around unusually fast so she had no idea why they had wacked up my monthly payments. I then got �170 rebate which I still don't think was enough....

[Film-maker]

It seems that a lot of people are in this 'same boat'.

We switched to British Gas (for electricity supply only), 2 years ago with the promise that our electricity charges would fall by at least �265 per year. This did not happen, and we have seem a steady increase of 300% (and still rising), over this period. We know that energy prices have recently risen - but surely not by this huge amount. 2 years ago we were paying �35 per month, this has now nearly tripled to �103 and the latest bill shows that we owe an extra �69 for the recent quarter.

�378.00 per quarter for electricity seems pretty excessive especially considering our heating and hot water is provided by an oil fired boiler, we have installed several low energy light bulbs, we try very hard not to leave appliances and lights on where they are not needed.

The British Gas web site is quite clever and you can see a graph of your energy usage to see if it has gone up enormously, ours has not significantly increased - which would seem to rule out a faulty meter or a 'leak' of some kind.

Like you, I am at a bit of a loss to understand what's gone wrong.

I have contacted British Gas by email to see if they can offer an explanation. The bill layout is extremely hard to follow - which adds to more confusion (I think it has been especially designed for that purpose!)

[what..the?]

hi there thanks for posting, yes it is true about alot of people in the same boat. I think they really have people/customers over a barrel really with the confusing bills and meters.

We mainly had a problem when we moved in to a rented property, the bills and accounts were supposedly set up properly and by that I mean we started a new bill from scratch and we dont pay old tenants bills. And on paper this seemed to be the case 'all new account and start date, but for the first 3 bills we had were huge in the end we complained to the letting agent and the energy company, and our bills have seemed to lower and stay steady.

We still pay alot in our view but with all the price increases thats probably expected.

What I would say from experience though is:

a) take regular meter readings yourself through out the day say 3 times if you can at the same times and for a few weeks then you can see whats happening when you are using the most electricty and if it's when your out at work you know theres a problem,

b) if you can't explain why you are using alot of electricty during certain parts of the day, try turning all the items off in the house and then slowing turn items back on one at a time while you monitor the usage being shown on the meter. This might help pin point the problem item.

c) Try writing to British gas and tell them the problem your low energy lifestyle the steps you are taking but the still extreme bills. Show them that you have been taking readings.

d) On the EDF website I have found infomation on the average usage of household products, I long list/spreadsheet, this is a useful guide when looking at your usage and monitoring the readings you have taken, british gas may have the same on their website, I will try and find you the link.

good luck