High electricity bill... How?

A question about : High electricity bill... How?

Dear MSE'ers,
We recently moved into a new flat which has an economy 7 tariff.
We have dimplex panel heaters, which have a central control panel, and were told these are efficient, and have found the flat to be well insulated such that the heaters don't kick in that often.

So one month in, we've only had the heaters on for a few hours in the evening and again in the morning, and the hot water heats overnight.

Our first bill came through and we have used over 700kwh units in the night tariff (which is from 12am-7am) and about 200 in the day, so the bill for the month is almost Ј100. We were told usual bills for the flat are about Ј40 a month and trust our landlady is honest about this!

We are completely baffled as to why our night usage is so high when the only thing we have running at that time is the hot water (and minimal things like phone chargers).
We don't do any washing or anything like that!

Any ideas as to what may be going on?

Best answers:

• It's winter and your bills will be higher in the winter than in the summer. Most people use about 60-70% of their energy in the 5 months November through March and the other 30-40% in the other seven months so it's quite easy to have average of Ј40 a month if you use a lot in the winter and hardly any in the summer.
  You could check that your hot water isn't too hot and that you aren't wasting it - long showers can use a surprising amount, so halving the time standing in there will halve your hot water consumption.
  Try reading your meters daily for a few weeks and you can then do something about trying to reduce your consumption when you know what is using it all and when it's being used.
• Your usage does seem to be somewhat high.
  Am I correct that you are using 900kwh in total for the month?
  So for an average 30 days that works out at 30kwh per day?
  Hmm, it does depend on the size of the flat and how many heaters you are using, their settings, insulation levels.
  As matelodave states above, this may be your winter consumption, but with low summer use (when you do not use heating) it will average out at around Ј40 per month for the year.
  What are you exact confirmed meter readings and the dates you took them?
  Are you heaters panel heaters or storage heaters?
  They may be charging at night as they are ment to, but you may be under the impression they are just panel heaters. However your discription of a central thermostat seems to indicate they are panel heaters. They could be a combination heater.
  Look for a model number and post it here.
• As above, clarify if the heaters are panel heaters or storage heaters However if the night units account for 75% of your bill, then those units must be from storage heaters, unless the panel heaters are on overnight. If they are NSH's, you can't 'switch them on for a few hours' in the evening-they only heat up 12-7 and then release the stored heat during the daytime and evening. So they can't be 'kicking in' under thermostatic control in the evening in the way you describe, unless they are combo units. If they are, they'll cost you a lot to run on peak rate.
  If they are plain panel heaters, you are running them on peak rate and paying a considerable surcharge over a single rate tariff to do so. In that case you need to get off E7 (which may require a meter change|) and switch to a single rate tariff as a priority.
  The LL doubtless quoted you an average of Ј40pm for the year. During the winter months your consumption will be vastly higher with the heating on-so Ј100pm is not that high. Ј480 pa for even a small flat would be exceptionally low-that's litle more than a third of the UK dual fuel average-and you don't have cheap gas.