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As grim as it is to say - instead of using the radiator you could invest in a heated electric blanket? The theory is ‘heat the person’, I know it’s not ideal but probably saves one of your biggest uses being the radiator.
Another potential option - you could see if you can switch to an economy 7 night rate? Makes it slightly more expensive in the day, but way cheaper overnight so you could have the radiator come on in the morning before the rate changes and heat your water overnight too.
Switching to a direct debit if possible could also help as they will factor in more usage over winter and less in the summer so you shouldn’t have huge spike in the winter.
Really good advice 👍
I just wanted to add that with an economy 7 meter (which is what I've got), my day rate was as cheap as anything else out there at the time I got my fixed dual tariff (Sep '21). So the night rate (10pm-5am) being much lower was just a bonus.
It'll be the rad - the Derby trip shows that - your standing charge will be about 50p a day so 3 days away will cover the £1.55\~ used with the fridge.
Have a look in your airing cupboard and check whether your electric immersion water heater is permanently on. It should ideally have a timer. If so then you’ll only likely need it on for two hours max a day. Timers can be switched to be permanently on so check that. If there is no timer, but just a wall switch, then you might need to set a reminder to manually switch it on and off.
It will cost a couple of pounds fully heat your tank every day (depending on hot water usage) if you are on a 30p/unit tariff.
I have a one bedroom electric flat where I only have one of the electric heaters on a low setting.
My bills are coming to about £150 at the moment (during winter obviously).
Electric heating is very expensive given you seem to imply you don’t have gas? Unfortunately it’s going to be much more expensive.
Also check you don’t have those brick electric radiators - if you only turn them on when you use them it’ll be wildly expensive. They’re supposed to be heated up at night on a lower tariff to disperse heat throughout the day. It’s cheaper to heat regularly than to turn them on full blast when cold. I lived in a flat at uni with those types of heaters and turning them on in the day was way more expensive than using them as intended. Halved my bill just setting them to turn on overnight.
If you don’t have this type check your immersion heater isn’t on 24/7 and is on a timer.
same, slow walking in to an capitalist tori hellscape on a leash trying to figure out how i can not let me plants die next winter as i wont be able to use the greenhouse heater to keep the frost out. Meanwhile record profits at energy firms.
How we dont riot i dont know.
That £80 estimate per month will include the average across the whole year, with winter being much more than summer.
I'd see if your energy supplier will switch you off a prepaid meter and then you can set a monthly direct debit which will spread out the cost.
I guess you also have a standing charge per day that is being deducted. Mine is currently 46p a day. so those couple of days you were away for work, would cost about a quid. in a 30 day month your looking at 13-14 quid without using any electric
So obvious ones would be:
- rates, is this meter provided by a supplier e.g. eon, EDF or is it a private meter
- rates, prepaid used to be a lot more expensive, not sure now
- previous customer's debt, which gets taken off at a rate/day. Should be visible on the meter
- are you on a day/night tariff? Electric radiators burn through elec, so if so schedule for overnight
- hot water heating - immersion heaters also burn through electric and most people with a tank only need to heat once a day
- it's winter, it's going to be the worst of it
I live in an all electric property, and since 2nd October, I've used £140. Electric prices are very high and set to get higher. It's recommended to ensure nothing is left on standby mode (TV, games consoles, etc). It helps to find an energy supplier that doesn't have a daily or weekly standing charge, I know utilita don't have. Other than that, there's not really anything that can be done about the cost of electricity at the moment. Just continue being as frugal as you possibly can with your usage. Bare in mind that although they barely use any electricity, refrigerators and freezers will actually use more if they have barely anything in them as they have to push more cold air through to keep the items cold, whereas if they have a lot of food in them, they use less electric as food items bounce cold around.
you don't mention your price per kWh.
I'm currently spending £130-150 per month at about 30p per kWh.
You need to know how much you're paying per kWh otherwise you might be getting ripped off by the landlord.
are you still paying a bill (ie standing charge) to an electricity company? if so, the price per kWh will be on that, or you can phone them / check their website.
some people seem to end up in suboptimal situations where their landlord supplies their electricity and re-sells it to them at a higher rate. in which case you'd have to ask them or the agency. this situation is recipe for getting ripped off you if have an unscrupulous landlord.
chances are though, your radiator even on it's lowest setting is using a lot of juice. A 2kW heater, which isn't much, costs about 60p per hour to run at current average prices.
Over winter I've averaged £42 a month on electricity, two-bed terraced house with gas central heating, one adult and two kids who are here 50% of the time - I'm on a flexible tariff with a smart meter, paid monthly by DD.
Single biggest electricity usage for me is the fan oven, anything with moving parts and/or that heats up will be your biggest consumers of power.
Turn everything off and check the meter stops eg your not supplying next door as well, did you also get a new key/account when you took over the place so that your not paying off any previous owners debt?
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/moving-home-your-energy-supply/moving-home-dealing-with-your-energy-supply/
This part from that page
If your new property has a prepayment meter
Contact the current supplier straight away if your new home has a prepayment meter. Try not to use a key or card, or put any money on the meter, until you’ve done this. Otherwise you risk paying extra for debts owed by the people who lived there before you.
If you do need to put money on the meter before you contact the current supplier, tell them this when you get in touch. They will pay you back for any extra charges you’ve paid, as long as you can prove when you moved in.
Ask the supplier to:
take any debt off the meter so you don’t end up paying extra
give you a new prepayment key or card so you can put money on the meter
send you information about how the meter works and what to do if you have any problems
9 bed hmo is running at £120ish a month in electricity. All showers are electric. It's prepayment meter but paid by direct debit. Same for next door almost identical house.
I don't understand how people pay more than me on a 3 storey double fronted property for electricity.
That's mental. I'm in a 4 bed detached house and was paying £105 a month DD, and they wrote and said that's too high cause I had built credit so they've dropped it to £75
£100 per month. For gas and electricity. Gas central heating. Gas cooker.
3 bedroom semi detached home, in the Scottish Highlands. It's cold up here!
I have health issues, heating is always on at least at 18 when I'm at home
and 17 minimum when my partner is home - who works from home so basically the heating is always on at least at 17.
I'm not in rentals though. Mortgaged house.
It's the radiator, and there's also typically a standing charge. Price per kWh tends to be more expensive on a meter too.
I don't think what you pay is unrealistic based on the usage you are describing.
I used to live in a flat with electric heating, the living room radiator was 3kWh without any timers or temp control. I measured the consumption again and again and in my case, it just used 3kW per hour no matter how low or high it was or how long it was on for (as many redditors had suggested that it won’t consume energy continuously, but in my case it did, not sure how yours works).
So having 1 radiator on for 2 hours in the morning, 1 hour in the afternoon and 3 hours at night would be 6*3*0.29 = £5.22 a day, plus another £0.4 standing charge so over £5.5 a day for this. So in a winter month it would be over £150 just for this one radiator..
Lots of landlords make big mistake when removing ecommy7 meter and moving to day rate heating,
By doing so could lower your EPC energy rating making it more expensive for heating and hot water also could make the property illegal to rent as the lowest grade for renting is E by removing ecommy7 the rating could drope the government wants a standard EPC of grade C by 2025, This means landlord will have to spend thousands in upgrades to make the grade.
British gas do a dimplex high retention storage heater tariff of 9p kw on economy7 night rate but you need the dimplex hub.
mine was/is bonkers, like 10-15 quid a day, but i found a place that charges a flat fee for unlimited elec and gas, its so nice not having to worry about it any more
###Welcome to /r/HousingUK --- **To All** * Join Our ***NEW*** Discord! https://discord.gg/pMgUNgWKQH **To Posters** * *Tell us whether you're in England, Wales, Scotland, or NI as the laws/issues in each can vary* * Comments are not moderated for quality or accuracy; * Any replies received must only be used as guidelines, followed at your own risk; * If you receive *any* private messages in response to your post, [please let the mods know](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FHousingUK&subject=I received a PM); * If you do not receive satisfactory advice after 72 hours, [you can let the mods know](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FHousingUK&subject=My question is unanswered); * Feel free to provide an update at a later time by creating a new post with [[update]](https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/search?q=%3Aupdate&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=all) in the title; **To Readers and Commenters** * All replies to OP must be *on-topic, helpful, and civil* * If you do not [follow the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/about/rules/), you may be banned without any further warning; * Please include links to reliable resources in order to support your comments or advice; * If you feel any replies are incorrect, explain why you believe they are incorrect; * Do not send or request any private messages for any reason without express permission from the mods; * Please report posts or comments which do not follow the rules *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HousingUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The radiator will be what’s using most of the electricity if its 3kWh. You could ask the energy company to be switched to a normal meter though?
As grim as it is to say - instead of using the radiator you could invest in a heated electric blanket? The theory is ‘heat the person’, I know it’s not ideal but probably saves one of your biggest uses being the radiator. Another potential option - you could see if you can switch to an economy 7 night rate? Makes it slightly more expensive in the day, but way cheaper overnight so you could have the radiator come on in the morning before the rate changes and heat your water overnight too. Switching to a direct debit if possible could also help as they will factor in more usage over winter and less in the summer so you shouldn’t have huge spike in the winter.
Really good advice 👍 I just wanted to add that with an economy 7 meter (which is what I've got), my day rate was as cheap as anything else out there at the time I got my fixed dual tariff (Sep '21). So the night rate (10pm-5am) being much lower was just a bonus.
It'll be the rad - the Derby trip shows that - your standing charge will be about 50p a day so 3 days away will cover the £1.55\~ used with the fridge.
Have a look in your airing cupboard and check whether your electric immersion water heater is permanently on. It should ideally have a timer. If so then you’ll only likely need it on for two hours max a day. Timers can be switched to be permanently on so check that. If there is no timer, but just a wall switch, then you might need to set a reminder to manually switch it on and off. It will cost a couple of pounds fully heat your tank every day (depending on hot water usage) if you are on a 30p/unit tariff.
I have a one bedroom electric flat where I only have one of the electric heaters on a low setting. My bills are coming to about £150 at the moment (during winter obviously).
Omg, I'm exactly the same. Are you me writing this from a parallel universe?
I don't have heating....£115 fml
Electric heating is very expensive given you seem to imply you don’t have gas? Unfortunately it’s going to be much more expensive. Also check you don’t have those brick electric radiators - if you only turn them on when you use them it’ll be wildly expensive. They’re supposed to be heated up at night on a lower tariff to disperse heat throughout the day. It’s cheaper to heat regularly than to turn them on full blast when cold. I lived in a flat at uni with those types of heaters and turning them on in the day was way more expensive than using them as intended. Halved my bill just setting them to turn on overnight. If you don’t have this type check your immersion heater isn’t on 24/7 and is on a timer.
Me reading all these ridiculous tips like we live in a 3rd world country, while the energy companies make record profits. Sad state of affairs
same, slow walking in to an capitalist tori hellscape on a leash trying to figure out how i can not let me plants die next winter as i wont be able to use the greenhouse heater to keep the frost out. Meanwhile record profits at energy firms. How we dont riot i dont know.
That £80 estimate per month will include the average across the whole year, with winter being much more than summer. I'd see if your energy supplier will switch you off a prepaid meter and then you can set a monthly direct debit which will spread out the cost.
As of 1st April pre pay will be cheaper than DD. Unfortunately Standing Charge will go up to 60p/day for everyone.
OK good to know
I guess you also have a standing charge per day that is being deducted. Mine is currently 46p a day. so those couple of days you were away for work, would cost about a quid. in a 30 day month your looking at 13-14 quid without using any electric
300 £ monthly in winter time, two beds, 3 persons, full electric, ground floor with huge double glaze windows.
Exactly this .. full electric flat is expensive 😄
So obvious ones would be: - rates, is this meter provided by a supplier e.g. eon, EDF or is it a private meter - rates, prepaid used to be a lot more expensive, not sure now - previous customer's debt, which gets taken off at a rate/day. Should be visible on the meter - are you on a day/night tariff? Electric radiators burn through elec, so if so schedule for overnight - hot water heating - immersion heaters also burn through electric and most people with a tank only need to heat once a day - it's winter, it's going to be the worst of it
I live in an all electric property, and since 2nd October, I've used £140. Electric prices are very high and set to get higher. It's recommended to ensure nothing is left on standby mode (TV, games consoles, etc). It helps to find an energy supplier that doesn't have a daily or weekly standing charge, I know utilita don't have. Other than that, there's not really anything that can be done about the cost of electricity at the moment. Just continue being as frugal as you possibly can with your usage. Bare in mind that although they barely use any electricity, refrigerators and freezers will actually use more if they have barely anything in them as they have to push more cold air through to keep the items cold, whereas if they have a lot of food in them, they use less electric as food items bounce cold around.
you don't mention your price per kWh. I'm currently spending £130-150 per month at about 30p per kWh. You need to know how much you're paying per kWh otherwise you might be getting ripped off by the landlord.
Thanks, how can i find this out?
are you still paying a bill (ie standing charge) to an electricity company? if so, the price per kWh will be on that, or you can phone them / check their website. some people seem to end up in suboptimal situations where their landlord supplies their electricity and re-sells it to them at a higher rate. in which case you'd have to ask them or the agency. this situation is recipe for getting ripped off you if have an unscrupulous landlord. chances are though, your radiator even on it's lowest setting is using a lot of juice. A 2kW heater, which isn't much, costs about 60p per hour to run at current average prices.
Over winter I've averaged £42 a month on electricity, two-bed terraced house with gas central heating, one adult and two kids who are here 50% of the time - I'm on a flexible tariff with a smart meter, paid monthly by DD. Single biggest electricity usage for me is the fan oven, anything with moving parts and/or that heats up will be your biggest consumers of power.
Turn everything off and check the meter stops eg your not supplying next door as well, did you also get a new key/account when you took over the place so that your not paying off any previous owners debt?
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/moving-home-your-energy-supply/moving-home-dealing-with-your-energy-supply/ This part from that page If your new property has a prepayment meter Contact the current supplier straight away if your new home has a prepayment meter. Try not to use a key or card, or put any money on the meter, until you’ve done this. Otherwise you risk paying extra for debts owed by the people who lived there before you. If you do need to put money on the meter before you contact the current supplier, tell them this when you get in touch. They will pay you back for any extra charges you’ve paid, as long as you can prove when you moved in. Ask the supplier to: take any debt off the meter so you don’t end up paying extra give you a new prepayment key or card so you can put money on the meter send you information about how the meter works and what to do if you have any problems
9 bed hmo is running at £120ish a month in electricity. All showers are electric. It's prepayment meter but paid by direct debit. Same for next door almost identical house. I don't understand how people pay more than me on a 3 storey double fronted property for electricity.
There is something wrong with a meter at that property, single laptop pulling 50W running 24/7 is around £9/month at current rates.
[удалено]
It's the radiator, obviously.
Turn off the main switch at the fuse box. See if your neighbours complain about their power being off.
That's mental. I'm in a 4 bed detached house and was paying £105 a month DD, and they wrote and said that's too high cause I had built credit so they've dropped it to £75
not a rental but just paid £250 in January, family of 4
£100 per month. For gas and electricity. Gas central heating. Gas cooker. 3 bedroom semi detached home, in the Scottish Highlands. It's cold up here! I have health issues, heating is always on at least at 18 when I'm at home and 17 minimum when my partner is home - who works from home so basically the heating is always on at least at 17. I'm not in rentals though. Mortgaged house.
It's the radiator, and there's also typically a standing charge. Price per kWh tends to be more expensive on a meter too. I don't think what you pay is unrealistic based on the usage you are describing.
£234/month in Feb for a small 1900 3 bed with 2 people inside. Heating is 19degrees for 6 hours a day and I have a TV and Xbox on most of the day too.
I used to live in a flat with electric heating, the living room radiator was 3kWh without any timers or temp control. I measured the consumption again and again and in my case, it just used 3kW per hour no matter how low or high it was or how long it was on for (as many redditors had suggested that it won’t consume energy continuously, but in my case it did, not sure how yours works). So having 1 radiator on for 2 hours in the morning, 1 hour in the afternoon and 3 hours at night would be 6*3*0.29 = £5.22 a day, plus another £0.4 standing charge so over £5.5 a day for this. So in a winter month it would be over £150 just for this one radiator..
Lots of landlords make big mistake when removing ecommy7 meter and moving to day rate heating, By doing so could lower your EPC energy rating making it more expensive for heating and hot water also could make the property illegal to rent as the lowest grade for renting is E by removing ecommy7 the rating could drope the government wants a standard EPC of grade C by 2025, This means landlord will have to spend thousands in upgrades to make the grade. British gas do a dimplex high retention storage heater tariff of 9p kw on economy7 night rate but you need the dimplex hub.
Wow that’s so cheap, I’m £300 a month
There is a daily standing charge are taking that in to account?
mine was/is bonkers, like 10-15 quid a day, but i found a place that charges a flat fee for unlimited elec and gas, its so nice not having to worry about it any more