High electricity usage - what could it be?

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
February 25, 2023
62 replies
1676 views

My apartment is on electricity only! why my electricity heating using 10KW to run in 50 minutes! It cost me 4£ to run for only 50 minutes!

Best answer by M.isterW

Updated on 18/08/25 by Ben_OVO

If your property runs purely off electricity and not gas, then you may have electric heating / radiators, possibly storage heaters, and maybe an immersion tank to heat the water. A lot of this sort of kit can use a lot of electricity, especially if it’s quite old. If you’d like tips on the most cost efficient ways to use your appliances, it's worth doing a quick Google search of ‘energy saving tips in (your local area). You should find that there will be organisations who will offer this sort of advice, often for free. You may also be able to get this advice from your local council.

If you’ve got a smart meter The ‘Usage’ pages of your online account / app are really useful to see what times of the day your electricity usage is highest, which helps you to get an idea of what is causing the higher usage. For the most accurate data you’ll need to have your smart meter set to send us half-hourly meter readings. Below are guides for changing your smart meter reading schedule online, and using the ‘Usage’ pages 👇

You have something that's heating the water that feeds the radiators, likely an electric boiler. You probably have a hot water cylinder heated by an immersion heater.

To reduce the cost of your hot water you can find a tariff that offers cheaper electricity at certain times (normally overnight) and use a timer on your immersion heater.

Reducing the cost of your heating is harder because it doesn't look like you have any way of storing the heat. If you can find your boiler and tell us what it is we might be able to suggest some options.

Show previous replies

Blastoise186

Super User

I’m pretty sure that’s not a storage heater. Is there anything else in the house that could be using a lot of electricity perhaps?

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sinca123Author

Rank 2

yeah they are not storage heaters😀

sinca123Author

Rank 2

and there nothing else

sinca123Author

Rank 2

only heating is using a lot of electrisity

Blastoise186

Super User

Try touching that particular heater. Is it hot or cold right now?

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sinca123Author

Rank 2

cold

Blastoise186

Super User

Then it’s not a storage heater. Something else is chomping on your electricity supply

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M.isterW

Rank 6

Can you change your display to show kW? If your tariff information is held correctly it should show about 13kW when your heating is on (or whatever it is that's using so much electricity).

If it is 13kW that's a lot of heating power. Your picture shows a radiator with water pipes running to it but you said it's cold. What do you have in the property that's hot? Any other heaters? Do you have a hot water tank? Is there a boiler in a cupboard somewhere?

1992 4 bed detached house. Solar PV + battery, Zappi EV charger, Mitsubishi Ecodan ASHP and i-life2 fan assisted radiators.... No gas 😊