Hello @BKS not a strange question at all…we consumers are always interested in energy costs!

Interesting that you’ve been told that your costs are twice as much as similar homes…I suppose we have to assume that “similar” here means all-electric homes?  If not, of course, there’s a missing gas calculation, a major part of winter energy costs.

But assuming we are talking about all electric similar homes, there may be quite a lot you can do to monitor what’s going on here.  Do NOT worry about cutting down further on your daytime heating, but you don’t have it running all night I don’t suppose?
 

Many of the appliances you mention are very high consumers of electricity: electric shower, tumble drier and electric hob and oven and immersion heater, especially.  I would t worry too much for the moment about computer, TV or BB, and it sounds like you’ve got your lighting well organised.  
 

If you were willing to share some idea of how frequently (i.e. roughly, in general terms, the average duration in minutes per week, say) that you use those heavy items, there are a quite a few willing hands on here to offer good advice, and there are loads of good tips on the forum.  I understand that nobody wants to divulge their personal circumstances explicitly, but just totting up your usage in general terms per week average, or per day on average.

Do let us know and we’ll see if we can offer any advice as to whether any of us think it’s reasonably practicable to reduce your electricity consumption.   Winter months are always difficult, of course…just make sure you continue to stay warm and to eat properly…and you haven’t mentioned electric kettle?
 

Thanks for quick & sympathetic response.
There is no gas, all elec HEATING is off, usually by 13:00.
An estimation of usage is a very difficult one to do, but will be approx.
Usage in minutes per day:
Washer/Drier    - 240
Hob          - 30
Oven        - 60
Toaster        - 8
Kettle        - 30
Microwave    - 18
Shower        - 10
Immersion H.    - 90 (Told by plumber, "Cheaper to leave on" - haven't done?)
Rads        - a) 840 + b) 60 = 90.
Towel rail    - 840
Some of above may seem odd, but bear in mind my wife is infirm.
Thanks for any advice.

Is this your first winter in this place, or has your fixed tariff ended? If you were in the same place on a similar tariff, living as before, if anything it should be cheaper, as the price cap is lower now.

If you are new to all electric, it can be expensive. I estimate I spent £150/month on a single storage heater, and a few hours of electric blanket. Real shock after gas and before the Ukraine war. 

I'd suggest getting a smart meter if you haven't. I've learnt a lot this winter about what is costing me money. Just check the IHD, then turn something on or off and see the change. I'm on target for halving my usage this winter, while being more comfortable. 

This is our second winter, and we have a Smetts? 2 meter, on new Economy 7 tarrif.

(Just noticed my previous post should have said (Rads        - a) 840 + b)300 + c)120 = 1260))

Note what you say about noting current usage, if it was just for me, I’d ‘Switch-off’ and put another jumper on.

Hi @BKS You're running some heavy duty kit there, but those average usage figures generally (“generally”…there’s always a “but”!!  See below) seem quite reasonable to me: I wouldn’t mess too much with your heating:  if you’ve got it to a comfortable level, leave well alone.

 Similarly an hour and a half or so average per day cooking on oven/hob combined seems OK to me. Anything which requires an oven cooking time greater than 30 minutes doesn’t always require the oven to be pre-heated, but for goodness sake don’t take chances you’re unsure about when cooking food; (as a mere septuagenarian I hesitate to advise two such clearly competent and self reliant octogenarians!). And of course use saucepans (with a lid) on low to medium hob when possible, you’re probably doing that already? And things like pasta can be pre-soaked in cold water for a few hours to cut down on cooking time. Actually, as an alternative, some folk turn the ring off completely as soon as the pasta water boils, to let the pasta finish cooking just with the lid on. Plus, of course, some of those hobs retain heat for a long time…your flat was built in ‘92…but hopefully your cooker may be quite modern: fan assist oven, and a more energy-conscious modern hob than the old-fashioned “rings”, or, even worse, those solid cast-iron jobbies we used to see?  And after your oven has finished cooking your food, some people put cold washing up water in the oven to warm while the oven is cooling down after being switched off.

Other cooking stuff like the microwave, toaster and kettle seem perfectly reasonable to me…although your kettle is probably costing you £15 or so per month…do you fill it each time or just boil enough?  Not a fortune, but it all adds up!

Your plumber could well be right, but only if your hot water cylinder is well lagged, and only if you’re careful about the quantities of hot water you draw off at a time. Hand washing is fine, provided the basin stopper is used rather than just letting the hot tap run, similarly with washing up, maybe save it for doing all in one go?  But your present 90 minutes a day sounds very sensible to me…does it take that long, though, to come up to heat? Of course, once up to heat it won’t take much to keep it hot…comfortably hot rather than boiling hot.

Your shower time is also good…some people advocate buying an egg timer to cut down on shower time; but at the 40-50 or so pence per day that your present showers are costing you, shaving a few minutes off your shower time seems a bit over the top. Some people approach their water company to get a diffuser shower head, which reduces the amount of energy the electric shower needs.

Two things (here’s the “but” mentioned above!) that I would closely monitor if I were you are, firstly, the 14 hours a day that your towel rail is running…those things may well cut in and out while they’re running, but I bet it’s mostly “on” rather than resting or on standby. I guess it helps to keep the bathroom warm, of course, which is good…if it does manage to do that OK? Could it be timed to come on for an hour or so early mornings, evenings and maybe at night before bedtime? Secondly, that washer/tumbler on for 4 hours a day is a monster consumer of electricity.  It’s sometimes hard in winter to avoid tumbling because of all the possible condensation, but provided your flat is kept warm condensation shouldn’t be too troubling. We dry our washing on a simple dryer frame, but I know that’s not for everyone.  As far as the wash itself goes, we find one or even two in every three washloads can be on a “cool” 20 degree setting rather than 40 or even higher.  Also, if you do an extra spin cycle it’ll cut down on those greedy tumble dryer hours.  And of course you'll already be cleaning out any lint from your dryer filter every day or so? Lastly, if you’ve got a balcony or some outside secure space, sometimes it’s enough to “air” stuff rather than wash it…things like dressing gowns may not actually get dirty as such very quickly.  
 

Thank you so much for taking the trouble to add up these key usages, do let us know if you manage to accomplish any noticeable change over the next few days or week or so…there are loads of tips here in the forum.  By the way, having a SMETS2 meter is brilliant, make sure you use the little display (the “in home display, or IHD) to monitor your usage, as @joanx suggests: but set it to kWh rather than £, as it can get confusing to track usage in £ when the standing charge is added in at the start of every day. 
 

Good luck to you, let us know how it goes, and all the very best (and warmest!) wishes for the New Year.

EDIT Forgot to say, but you’re probably already careful about this: as you’re on economy7, it’s cheaper to run washing machine and everything else during economy7 hours, and more expensive outside economy7 hours: in general terms, my understanding is that it’s cheaper for you to run appliances at night rather than during the day. I think I’m right on that, but others on here with economy7 will have ideas on that…

Do you have storage heaters @BKS 

Perhaps post what you see on these pages to get an idea what you use each month and day

https://account.ovoenergy.com/usage?datePeriod=yearly&unit=kwh&fuel=electricity&date=2023-12-01

https://account.ovoenergy.com/usage?datePeriod=monthly&unit=kwh&fuel=electricity&date=2023-12-01

https://account.ovoenergy.com/usage?datePeriod=daily&unit=kwh&fuel=electricity&date=2023-12-01

@BKS I suspect that I may know what is happening here.

Are you on Standard (not fixed) tariff?

I have a suspicion that by ‘year end balance’ they are meaning by 31st March, which is what OVO are trying to get all DD accounts (apart from fixed rate/term ones) to align with.

If my suspicion is right then the DD calculation that came up with the figure of £431 is trying to get the whole of that £812 repaid in just 3 months, your Jan, Feb, and March DD’s.

That would be £271 above your expected usage on each of those three DD’s.
And that is more than half of the £431 they are now requesting.
Is that what you mean when you say that it has ‘skyrocketed’ to double what was expected?

I would ring OVO support and talk to them about reducing the DD amount and spreading the repayment over a longer time.
(Personally I’d be a bit cheeky and ask for 15 months - point out that it would then be nicely aligned with 31st March 2025).

Another option would be to switch to a 12 month fixed tariff, that way the debit balance repayment would be spread over the 12 months fixed term.
Of course fixed tariffs aren’t everybodys cup of tea.

PS. I wouldn’t worry too much about that “103% more than other similar properties “ , if my suspicion is correct then that’s probably just a side effect and you aren’t actually using that much more if any more at all.

Can I add to this ? We used to heat out hot water just by an immersion heater. We had no idea how expensive it was !! Even 90 mins a day (presumably in the cheap rate hours) may be more than you need. You could try reducing this to a shorter and shorter time, until you notice you run out of hot water before the next reheat. You might try adjusting the thermostat on the immersion to a lower temperature too, 60 degrees should be plenty.

I’d like to clear something up here. Your electricity bill is the statement you get soon after the end of each month (or whatever your billing period might be, if it’s not the calendar month). Are you saying that your December bill is inexplicably high? Perhaps you could post screenshots of it (and the previous month’s, for comparison) so we could see whether there’s anything odd about it. 

Some people confuse the term ‘bill’ with the amount they are asked to pay each month by Direct Debit (DD), and it sounds as if this may be what you’re referring to. There is sadly no direct correlation between these two figures; the DD is worked out by estimating the cost of fuel for the next year (or until the end of a fixed-price contract), then calculating how much you have to pay each month for the balance on your account to be zero at the end of the winter semester (31 March). This will not only depend on your monthly usage, but also on the current account balance and the date on which your DD is paid. 

For too many customers, the prediction of next year’s consumption is not at all accurate and often wildly over-estimated. You can see your own projection on the Plan page; does it look reasonable? If it isn’t, Support can help.

Meanwhile, us old folks are also eligible for a bit more help. Please have a look at Priority Services Register: How We Can Give You the Help You Need (ovoenergy.com) 

Thank you all for the informative & thought provoking suggestions.

I need to settle down and consider all of these carefully.

A final thought, that not everyone will appreciate nor understand .

When a person is largely confined to a home/room they do become rather sensitive to fluctuations in temperature. (Often relatives/visitors will comment upon the warmth)

I know that when you venture outside, especially in winter, you likely return to what appears ‘stifling’ conditions, before the body re-adjusts.

Life is complicated.

Happy new year

If your partner is mostly seated, have you considered a heated throw? My electric blanket uses less than 8p/hour (well, total when I turned it on was 10p/h). 

I am glad your house is warm. Last winter, despite spending around £10/day, I could not make the place warm. The most my storage heater could get the living room to was around 13°C. If I had been poorly, I would have been quite unwell. As it was, I just spent the winter in thermals and a furry onesie, so I just looked unwell 🤭

Hey @BKS,

I can see our Community Members have given some really helpful input here.  Just wanted to add there is lots of support available out there.

If you or anyone in your household is vulnerable, or just needs a little extra assistance at a difficult time in your lives, our Priority Services Register is a free support service you might find useful.

Our Winter Support Package might be helpful to you.