Electrical faults that push your bill up
Faulty immersion elements, failing thermostats and always-on loads can inflate bills. How to identify electrical causes rather than guess.
Most high-bill conversations are about tariffs and usage, but a minority have a genuine electrical cause — and those are worth finding, because they run continuously until fixed.
The usual suspects are heating water when you did not intend to, a thermostat that never satisfies, and loads left permanently energised by wiring nobody documented.
- Immersion heater running continuously due to a failed thermostat
- Storage heaters charging on the wrong tariff window
- Outbuilding or garden circuits left permanently energised
- Failing appliances drawing more than they should
Immersion heaters and thermostats
A stuck immersion thermostat heats water around the clock. It is one of the largest single loads in a home, and the first sign is often a bill rather than a lack of hot water. Testing the thermostat and element takes minutes.
Off-peak timing gone wrong
Storage heaters rely on a time switch or contactor charging them within the off-peak window. If that control has failed or drifted, they charge at full rate. This is a common find in properties where the meter or tariff changed at some point.
Circuits nobody knows about
Garage heaters, outbuilding lighting and old immersion circuits sometimes remain live and forgotten. Identifying and labelling every circuit at the board — part of any EICR — usually flushes these out.
Common questions
Can you find what's using the power?
We can test individual circuits and loads to identify a fault. Whole-home usage monitoring is a separate tool we can advise on.
Would an EICR pick this up?
It identifies faults and unlabelled circuits, which is often how these problems come to light.
Is a smart meter enough to find it?
It shows total usage patterns, which helps narrow the timing, but not which circuit.
Get a fixed price
Bill jumped without a change in usage? Tell us what heating and hot water you have — that narrows it down quickly.