How much do you spend on Electric per week- Keymeter

paulcornwall

I've had the usual moan to the missus AGAIN this evening regarding how much we're spending on Electric. We currently have a prepayment meter and spend 30-40 per week on electric. Yes we have a young toddler but find it difficult to accept this cost. How much do you spend and how many are in your family?

pinkfizz77

we have a keymeter for electricity, there is one adult and three kids, I am at home all day with at least two kids (3 until eldests school is sorted) and we range between 5-10 a week (only top end if bad weather means I need to use tumble dryer instead of washing line)
yours seems extremely high and I honestly cannot see how it is so high?

aliasojo

We too have a prepayment meter which has been swapped to a keymeter around 6 months ago.

We noticed a big jump in what we were having to spend each week since the keymeter was installed. We used to be around £20 a week but now are between £30 - £35. We have gas central heating and a gas fired combi boiler for hot water, so our electricity usage is mainly for cooking, lighting, kitchen equipment (inc tumble drier) and entertainment stuff like tv etc.

There's 5 of us btw, 2 at home all day, one at school, 2 working. The lads' bedrooms (they are adults) are like mini bedsits with a fair amount of electrical stuff in there so I never expected my bills to be particularly cheap but nor did I expect this hike in costs.

Had a conversation with the local shopkeepeer who says 99% of the people who charge their key at his place have all said the same thing, they are now putting much more in their meter each week, since their keymeter was installed.

There was a thread on the electric board a while ago about the same thing.

I only ever kept my prepayment meter as we had always hoped to buy another house and rent this one out. That's very unlikely to happen now though, so I'm thinking of having the meter taken out.

baldelectrician

The new key meters are 'smart' and as such do not require the local electric company to visit the premises to change the rate.
You may have been undercharged by your previous meter (some meters are at 7p per Kwh- this is about 40%-50% too low). If your meter has been changed it may have a higher standing charge to recoup the costs.

Press the little button on your meter to see what the prices are, and take notes.
Note the standing charge / fixed price per week. This should be around 10-15p per day

Call up your supplier to check.

They have the facilty to change your meter settings remotely using the key fob / chip.

hope this helps

aliasojo

Just checked mine.

11.02p per kwh
£1.19 charge weekly
£009 token charge



Bit confused about the last one? What's that for?


Edit: Phoned electricity company and found out the £009 token charge is what needs to be fed into the meter to get back to a £0 balance as the meter had gone out and it was running on emergency credit.

I mentioned to the girl on the phone that we felt we were putting in more since the meter was changed and she took all the readings and details of our main appliances....tv's/ cooker etc etc. Our usage will be monitored and I need to phone back tomorrow at the same time and they will compare what is actually being used with what we are putting into the meter. They will do this twice and that will help find out if we are actually using that much electricity or if the meter is suspect.

Will let you know the outcome.

poppyolivia

We had a meter already in the house when we moved in 5 years ago and we are less than £10 per wk..thats for 2 adults and 2 kids, 4 bed house. We have gas for heating and cooking.

Mines seems alot cheaper that yours..Im talking about a blue stick like pastic thing..pre payment is that right?

it used to be about £5-£6 a wk when we had the card but they changed it quite awhile ago now???

paulcornwall

mmm.....seems like we're paying a premium for prepayment meters then. We're currrently with e-on and was wondering if anyone found a good supplier thats rates reduced a typical families spend. I tried Compare.com but the differance was minimal. I beleive we have economy 7 but this has little effect on cost. I beleive our main money burner is the washing machine and dryer. My mum said today how only one day was devoted to washing in her day "wash day" god know's how we have become so insufficent.

shellsuit

With the token meter I was only using about £7 a week, but now I use about £12 a week since the key meter was installed.

£30+ sounds a LOT ~ is there any debt which is being repaid maybe?

specialK

I'm exactly the same, it has gone up from £12.50 a week to £34-£40!
2 chilldren and a 3 bed house.

My friend pays monthly though and she was paying £50pm, she recieved a letter saying it was going up to £120!

Seems a similar increase, could be the general rise in energy?

baldelectrician

the fact you have an E7 meter means you are paying a higher day rate.
yoyou should use the washing machine / tumble drier after 11pm, it will be less than half price then.

espresso

baldelectrician wrote: »

the fact you have an E7 meter means you are paying a higher day rate.
yoyou should use the washing machine / tumble drier after 11pm, it will be less than half price then.

Not if it doesn't switch over to the cheap rate until 1:00AM.

:rolleyes: