LG John

Purpose of Thread

I'm having a little bother with the electricity company and need a favour

Background

I have lived in my flat for 3 years now and have spent 3 winters in it. Last september I finally got round to getting an electricity engineer in to get rid of those pikey leccy cards as they were a total pain. I was assured paying a normal bill would save me money. I just got my bill in for the last 3 months (the winter months) and it is very excessive compared to how much I used to spend on cards in pervious winters. The bill was £405 and generally I'd only have to buy £40 worth of cards per month during winter. My electricity useage and circumstances have not changed year to year although I accept the cost of energy has gone up a bit.

My flat is a two bedroom ground floor flat that was built in the 1970s. It is relatively well insulated with double glazing, etc. I have no gas and heating is generated by old storage heaters. The shower is electric as are the cooking facilities. I share the flat with my flatmate and we both work 9-5, 5 days a week. During the winter the main living room storage heater is on pretty much all the time but the others are only put on when the weather gets particularly cold. The house is empty during the day and we don't have much high drain equipment. Two TVs, two computers, dvd player, hoover, one kettle, etc, etc. My use of energy has been fairly consistent over the last few winters although you'll appreciate this bill is massively more. We don't go crazy with electricity - in fact the opposite. I'm often going around turning off lights and I usually sit at night with a quilt around me as its a little cold.

The Problem

At first I thought the bill was a mistake so I phoned to give a new reading. The reading confirmed what they had billed me on so the bill is accurate in that regard. Scottish Power have recommended that I take a reading at the same time each day for 7 days to try and log my average power use per day. In 7 days time I'll discuss it with them again and take things further. The numbers seem to be moving quickly and the disk is spinning way faster than I thought these things do. My fear is that they will try to enforce the bill in a weeks time saying that I'm actually using the energy they claim.

The Favour

For now I feel the best/only course of action is to take readings once a day at the same time for 7 days. However, I'd like to try and do a little bit of benchmarking if possible and this is where you come in I'm looking for a few volunteers who have a similar 2 bed, livingroom, kitchen, hall and bathroom set up to me and who use electricity exclusively to benchmark against. What I propose is that we take our readings once a day for 7 days and post them on this thread. This allows me to get something of an idea of the rate of use of electricty by people with a similar home and similar circumstances to me. This information may prove useful when I go back to Scottish Power.

Please put your name down if you are willing to do this for me and we can decide on a time of each day to take our readings. Please only agree if you can committ to doing it for the whole week and if you feel your home and living circumstances are broadly similar to mines.

Appreciated

2000TLondon

I can't help you with the readings, but when I was in a 2 bed flat in London a similar thing happened. Firstly, I was getting bills from two companies, and then all of a sudden, my bills went haywire.

It turned out to be something to do with the time of day metering, where it's supposed to click on to off-peak rates at night, and the timer (which works on radio waves) wasn't working.

Had it replaced, took new readings, got bill halved or more. But it took ten or eleven months in all to sort out!!!!!

Don't pay until you are happy, keep in contact so they don't start with other means to get the money, but don't feel pressured to pay if you believe it's wrong mate.

StickyMicky

hmmm

this is my first winter in mine

The Rani

Can't help you with the meter readings because my meter went up the wall 8 months ago and they still haven't sorted it. I have a three bedroomed mid-terrace house with part double glazing and my electricity bill works out at £37.50 a month for normal usage. Usual stuff - fridge, freezer, TV, DVD player, video, hi-fi, 2 computers, electric cooker, washer/dryer, kettle, hoover, Sky+ box and lighting. I haven't got CH - just got an electric fire in the front room and an electric heater in one bedroom which throws out enough heat to warm the bathroom, loo, landing and the little bedroom as well. Use an immersion heater for hot water - on in the morning (off-peak) with top up mid-afternoon. Have a couple of small fan heaters but these only get used very occasionally and usually only in the garage or back bedroom.

StickyMicky

i still have not worked out how my hot water works, i can put it on "boost" for 30 mins for a shower, the next day there is still boiling hot water coming out of the taps

there are no timers or anything for my water heater??

there are 2 wall mounted fan heaters in my bathrooms, 2 large storage heaters in the living area, the hall has a electric radiator which is on 24/7 but pretty low, the study and bedroom have electric radiators on a timer, study is never on and the bed room one comes on at 11pm for an hour and then 15mins/hour until 7am when it pops on for a bit to warm up my toes

LG John

My god mines really is excessive if you are running a 3-bed mid-terrace for way less!

Kev_turbo

turn everything off and check if the meter has stopped completely. Then turn things on one at a time and see what makes the meter go like it's on loopy juice. It could be you have got something that has died and is using silly amounts due to running to earth or when the new meter was installed it was done incorrectly and is constantly registering a background reading.

The Rani

Well sometimes there is a bit of adjustment in their favour at the end of my billing year! But it does fit in with your £40 a month on cards.

Chip Sengravy

did you not know that pikey leccy cards are subsidised for pikeys, and you only pay 0.75p per unit?

LG John

They said it would be cheaper, and considerably so, to change to a normal meter

Chip Sengravy

joking apart, the only think I could think is that there is a problem with your off peak heating..ie, its not heating duing off peak hours, or, if it is heating of peak, its going via the wrong meter.

or to put it another way, if you put the kettle on at 4am, you'll be geting a cheap cuppa

I'd get the sparky back in, over £100 a month is exhorbitant.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Whoa, 405 quid for a quarter, I am paying about 60 quid a month for electricity and 70 quid a month in Gas for an old 4 bed detached, yours should be pennies !

imlach

..and of course, check your neighbours haven't spurred off your supply

Lots of basic checks you can do.

- do you have a white meter tariff? Should you?

- turn your circuits off at circuit breaker, check meter ain't turning

- got any high power items? 3 bar fire, cooker etc? Turn everything else off, and leave a few of these on as you know how many kW's they use. See if the meter is reading n kWh's after 6 hours.

- get the sparky back in.

£130/mth is WAY too much....

SiPie

Breaking my heart mate....

Heather says you can come round for a cup of hot coffee and we'll let you sit next to a radiator for only £2.50 per hour

imlach

Oh, and SB, to give you a comparison to me who is also in the frozen north, my bill is £30/month. Admittedly I have gas heating, so the size of my abode is irrelevant in that comparison....but my gas bill is £40/month for a detached 4 bed house which has to endure freezing easterly winds - ie, £70/month for TOTAL fuel bill.

...but, for my leccy bill, we're talking the usual range of appliances, quite a few radiators..sorry, PCs on 24/7, and lots of other leccy gadgets.

imlach

Make sure you record the call.....

I can't wait to hear you explaining to the call centre operative about how you've been running a survey on a internet forum called scoobynet for the last 7 days and how Mr Jones from Winslow only racked up 120kWh, yet Ms Brown from Derby used 140kWh.

However, Mr Boy from Edinburgh racked up 743kWh so ....err...that proves it's wrong doesn't it....

....click.....durr....hello?....hello???

Chip Sengravy

LG John

Thats not the point of the exercise Its not to prove to them its more to prove to myself that I'm not being crazy and that I have to follow the road of disputing it. I can't afford £400 for leccy and I really don't believe I've spent anything like that!

CLSII

I remember living in digs as a student and nearly dying of hypothermia in a five bedroomed house to save on the bills. No kidding we had frost on the inside of the windows. When the electricity bill came through it was enormous.

Turned out one of our happy band had a couple of 3 bar electric fires which he left on every night but were hidden during the day....bet he's a politician now.....

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I suppose now the S2000 is running spot on....

StickyMicky

tube from the tailpipe into the windows might save on heating

CEL

iTrader: (1)

Just had my bill in from NPower. Sounds like I have a very similar size 2 bed flat. The bill was £248 for the last quarter. Judging by your description the bill you have is way too high.

There is always someone home in our place during the day and obviously using electricity.... washing machine, PC, Underfloor heating on constantly etc etc.

If i knew where the hell the meters were in this place I'd be happy to help you out... lemme see if i can find them. Going to need to find them soon anyway because we're moving out

Chris

LG John

Odd question in this thread but yeah. It was running rough but at its service two days a go they adjusted the valve clearances and its much smoother now

Are you implying there is some balance in that something has to be wrong Probably right

SJ_Skyline

I know prices have gone up a little but when the Mrs had a 2 bed flat with electric only, the most she ever paid was £29 per month. She did have double glazing however it was a first floor so maybe a little more insulated than you on a ground floor as heat rises.
We always had the hot water on permanently too. The storage heater in the lounge had the boost turned on most of the time throughout the winter. She reckoned at £29 our bills were still quite high as we never did get the hang of the storage heaters in the 6 years she had the flat!!! Check what service you are on - think we had something like economy 7 or 10. This worked out better for us as we were also out of the flat from 8ish-5.30ish weekdays.

GM

Scottish Power charge me £41 a month. My flat is ground floor, two bedroom, hall, living room, kitchen, bathroom. I tend to keep the flat quite warm. Storage heater in hall is on all winter, the one in the living room when its colder. And if its really parky the convector in the bedroom gets put on. Electric cooker, electric water heater, electric shower.

You talk about "the reading" on the meter - if your using storage heaters you should have two meters. One is on the normal tarriff and works during the day - should be something like 09.00 - 01.00. At 01.00 a timeclock switches you onto the other meter - the "off peak" one. The power you use through this meter is charged at a very much lower price. The water heater and the storage heaters should be wired up so that they only come on when the "off peak" meter is on. You can "boost" them during the day but you'll be paying the higher price for that.

StickyMicky

hmmm

so when storage heaters are on "boost" you pay a higher tarrif?

i to have not worked out how the **** you use these things, mine have a sensor which keeps the room temp constant, and i thought they only came on when the temp dropped ?

LG John

Decat man - I'd be dead in minutes

My meter has a 'low' reading and a 'normal' reading

fast bloke

5 bed detached house - gas heating but everything else is leccy - usually 50-60 per month - tumble drier is on about 2 hours a day minimum. I think there is something wrong with you off peak heating - have you got 2 meters?

GM

Right, the meter should switch between the two so that the "low" meter works for about 8 hours overnight. When it starts, so should your storage heaters and you should see the meter counting up much faster than the "normal" one does through the day because the storage heaters draw so much power. If you've got the heaters turned up high enough, you should only need to boost during the day on very rare occassions. If you're boosting on a regular basis then you should switch to Scottish & Southern Energy cos I've got shares in them...

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

turn off your main switch on your consume unit and see if it stops spinning at a milion miles an hour. how long ago was the building converted into flats are you sure none of your sockets are supplying matey upstairs. a Couple of years ago we were called out to a flat where her sockets kept tripping out,even though she had hardly load on the circuit. it turned out pikey pete above her had realised one of his kitchen sockets was being supplied from the downstairs flat one day when his electric had run out, and was running just about everything he could manage on this one socket.