Hello everyone

Having just moved back to the UK from Europe, I am curious to see how my EDF bill compares to everyone elses. I think it is a little too high but would be glad to hear from everyone.

We have just moved to a new flat (in February), and have not had any previous bills with EDF (having been abroad). The tenant before us has moved out and the correct meter reading was supplied when we moved in.

Our first 6 month bill came in at just over £300, making it a £50 per month bill. The bill is based on a reading we supplied, and not on an estimate. We live in a rather small one bedroom new build flat with a very good energy certificate (C). The flat is superbly insulated and warm - we have not used the heating at all, even in the middle of winter.

Everything we have is electric, so that includes boiler, fridge, cooker and oven (which we use regularly), washing machine (about 2 times per week). We also use laptops and a radio but do not have a TV or any other kind of fancy gadget like games etc. We do not have a dishwasher and have never used a tumble drier. As I said, we have never switched on the electric heaters in the flat during the whole winter. We also replaced all our lighbulbs with energy efficient ones as soon as we moved in. We also never leave anything on standby.

Considering that the heaters have never been switched on, I consider our bill too high. What does everyone else think?

I have also been trying to decipher our bill and the other EDF literature we recieved to find out when the cheaper night rate is it is all incomprehensible! We are on the 'standard electricity tariff'. Is it worth switching to another tariff, and how does one do this?

I am trying to find out if we have a cheaper night rate for electrcity and if so, when this is? I would be happy to switch to using the washing machine at night if I could make any sense of the EDF tariffs!

Thank you all in advance.

Sounds very expensive to me. Have you read the correct meter which is for your flat ?

You should contact EDF with all the information to see how they can help you.

How do you heat your hot water for washing, showers etc. If you use the immersion heater all the time, this is very expensive and may be the reason for your high bills. You should NEVER leave an immersion heater on constantly. If this heater is the only way of getting hot water, you should have it on a timer, or switch it on once a day to heat the tank and then switch off. The immersion heater normally takes 60-90 minutes to heat a full tank.

If the immersion heater is a problem and takes ages to heat up, you should contact your landlord. A typical immersion tank will be sufficient for a days hot water for normal showering, washing up, but will soon be gone if washing machine used or full bath run.

Huckster

Birmingham Student:

There are a few different parts to your question. Look at your bill and identify the tariff name. Go to a price comparison website and select your current tariff and do a comparison. Doesn't matter at this stage that you don't accurately know your annual consumption, just see how your current tariff compares.

Whether your consumption is average is something else. Start by getting a handle on your consumption by reading your meter daily for a week, then weekly for a month, then monthly. Normally it would be higher in winter but you say you haven't used heating (yet), so maybe you can scale up for a year.

Then compare your consumption with averages from energy efficiency websites. On the face of it £50/month is not bad for the total energy consumption in an all electric household.

The night rate question is irrelevent if you are not going to be using storage heating in winter as standing charges and day rate charges are higher for Economy 7.

Thank you! That does clear up the issue over the night tariff.

The tariff we are on is the 'Standard Electricity Tariff'. I will definitely chase up the price comparisons, thanks!