to cap or not- a personal story

mrs_baggins

like everyone I have been toying with the idea of having a capped charge to gas and elec and spent yesterday working it all out! luckily I know approx what my annual useage is so was able to go through all the sums and have pages and pages of paper.

I am with Southern gas and elec at the moment and taking my current annual useage into account and the current prices I am paying a total of £2313 on both per annum.

if i was to go for a capped charge for instance scottish power i would end up paying £3005 for the same useage.

its a gamble I know as we have no idea what the gas prices will be in 6 months but for me I am concentrating on cutting down my consumption of both instead of paying the capped price charges.

i

Ken68

Same here Mrs Baggins, insulating, plugging holes, changing ways.

Seems you live in a big house

mrs_baggins

or use a lot of fuel!!! I have 4 bedrooms but now only mine is going to be heated!! I have cavity insulation which I was amazed when the poor man told me as its such a cold house and double glazing so now am determined not to use as much and am keeping a weekly eye on the meters! I was very cold last night though so went to bed early! what a sad life I lead

My elec in KW for last year was 20,000 and 665 units for gas. Dont know if this is above average or not. Probably is a bit as I really feel the cold

1carminestocky

Of course it's a personal decision as to whether to fix or not (as it shoudl be) but after dabbling with the 2009 BG Fix and cancelling when actually checking the rates (my electricity would have increased over 40% compared to Click 5, for instance), I have now come to the conclusion that the way forward for me is to use the extra money I would have been paying immediately to get my house fully insulated and buy only stuff that will save fuel (I've bought a Remoska to replace my guzzling double leccy oven, for instance). And we too have changed habits. This is all in an attempt to pay the enenrgy company not a penny more than we really really have to. It's a powerful incentive when you find the industry so morally bankrupt as I do (Oh, there he goes again - Ed).

Plus I'm going back to changing 4 times a year through a cashback site (always signing up to each company's cheapest tariff). This normally pockets £250 a year. I just don't want to be tied-in to ANY energy company, tbh.

espresso

mrs_baggins wrote: »

My elec in KW for last year was 20,000 and 665 units for gas. Dont know if this is above average or not. Probably is a bit as I really feel the cold

Your electricity consumption is very high at approx six times the national average of 3300kWh. Surely you could do something to reduce this e.g. are you on the best tariff for your method of heating?

Assuming that you have a metric gas meter, you are still using approx 7556kWh per annum, which again seems high when you are using so much electricity!

Cardew

mrs_baggins wrote: »

My elec in KW for last year was 20,000 and 665 units for gas. Dont know if this is above average or not. Probably is a bit as I really feel the cold

How do you heat your house and Hot water?

Most people with gas will heat with gas.

If you heat with electric, what is the gas for? cooker?

Incidentally how do you enter your 665 gas units in the comparison sites?

You are aware that a gas unit is not a kWh as it is with electric? So your 665 gas units will be approx 7,500kWh if you have a metric gas meter or 20,600kWh if you have an Imperial meter.

mrs_baggins

you have all got me thinking now that I am calculating wrong amounts!! just re checked my fifures

gas consumption last year was 665 units and I have converted this using this equation

665 x 2.83 (to get cubic metres) x correction factor (1.02264) x calorific value (39.339) to give 21030. Is this right? I am currently paying by standing order at £55.00 per month to be amended at end of year. According to southern electric s rate I am paying 0.0321 per kw so 21000 x 0.0321 is 674.10 plus the standing charge of £51.20 which sounds about right to me? or am I wrong?

I have gas central heating and hot water which at present only the water is on for 2 hours a day. Cooker is gas but very rarely on

espresso

mrs_baggins wrote: »

you have all got me thinking now that I am calculating wrong amounts!! just re checked my fifures

gas consumption last year was 665 units and I have converted this using this equation

665 x 2.83 (to get cubic metres) x correction factor (1.02264) x calorific value (39.339) to give 21030. Is this right?

You need to check if you have an imperial meter (100's of cu FT) or a metric meter (M3).

I am currently paying by standing order at £55.00 per month to be amended at end of year. According to southern electric s rate I am paying 0.0321 per kw so 21000 x 0.0321 is 674.10 plus the standing charge of £51.20 which sounds about right to me? or am I wrong?

I have gas central heating and hot water which at present only the water is on for 2 hours a day. Cooker is gas but very rarely on

How are you using 20,000kWh of electricity per annum?

..............

Cardew

Using gas for heating(and 21,000kWh is about average) it is just impossible to use 20,000kWh on electricity(3,300kWh pa is average)

Something is very wrong! Does your meter wizz around when the street lights go on!!!!

mrs_baggins

oh dear!!! how embarrased am I???? seems I have totally miscalculated my leccy. It should be 4000kw pa not 20000 ! whoops!!back to the drawing board for me I think

espresso

That's a big miscalculation!

:eek: