Are my sums correct?

DreamerV

I'm with scottish power on a fixed price dual fuel deal online. I pay £56 per month (£35.01 gas, £20.91 elec)

Gas readings
08/09/08 2313
03/11/08 2434
(10/11/08 2455)

Elec readings
05/09/08 12836
03/11/08 13061
(10/11/08 13081)

Other things that might be important - I live in a 3 bedroom house but alone, spent 2 weeks away from home in September, and will spend 3 weeks away some time over winter months. I spend every 3rd weekend away from home. I heat (with gas central heating) 4 large rooms in the house (1 bedroom, bathroom is always on as closed system, hallway, and a huge lounge). I rarely have guests round. I do cook but not too often. I work fulltime away from house.

On the readings I gave 03/11/08, a bill was produced showing I was 31.88 in credit (£112 in, 80.12 out in charges).

On all this info, and with a trip sometime over winter as above, I felt £56 a month is too high a direct debit. I worked out I used roughly £40 a month, even if this increased as I had been away in Sept, and put my heating a while after I came back, I've worked out a rough £50. Working out till Feb 20th (my dd date is 20th) I will use approx 3 months worth of energy, and have 4 payments go out including february's. I figure this will make me about £100 in credit by this date. Am I missing something? or have they set the dd a little high with me being a new customer?

What I've done is emailed them asking them to bring dd down to £35 per month (£20 gas, £15 elec)...I figure it'll be too late for this month so I reckon it'll be 56 going out this month, 35 for next 3 months including feb (and I do have the 31.88 credit) so on £50 useage a month, I reckon I'll be looking at still being in credit approx £40.

I do watch my useage, but this seems rather low, as over the years I've paid massive amounts more than this (although back when I wasn't watching my useage, was a bit of a recluse, and didn't have a job...and it was to be fair still in credit then considerably).

Have I done something not quite right?

Also, not sure if it makes much impact but the bill is showing gas standing charge of number of days multiplied by 19.38 pence, and elec standing charge of number of days multiplied by 20.87. I've never had standing charges before so not really sure if they're static or if the rate changes depending on how much energy I use, etc

DirectDebacle

Gas readings
08/09/08 2313
03/11/08 2434
(10/11/08 2455)

Elec readings
05/09/08 12836
03/11/08 13061
(10/11/08 13081)

Does the gas meter read in Cu.Ft or Cu. mtrs.

What price are you paying per kWh for gas and electricity

On the face of it I do not understand why you chose a standing charge contract. The standing charge is applied daily whether the property is occupied or not and not charged according to energy usage.

DreamerV

When switching, I just followed the advice on this website (main articles area), and did the comparison using my yearly figures. I wanted a capped deal, or at least fixed, as I was worried about the increases and so wanted to know where I stood. This company came top (lowest cost when taking cashback into account) with my useage. To be honest, it didn't occur to me it had a standing charge, till I saw this bill. But to be fair, I get 5 weeks holidays a yr including public holidays, it just happens that I'm using it all over a short period this year (saved it up for this purpose, but at least my winter useage will be reduced). I leave the house fri and come back sun afternoon 1 in 3 weekends, but I'd say a lot of ppl my age go away to visit parents, etc. My gas is metric units rather than imperial. It's showing 2.457 per kwH, and elec is showing 10.472 per kwH. Thanks for your help

Magentasue

I have had a large glass of wine so maybe I'm reading this wrong but are you saying, you reckon on using £50 of energy a month but you want to reduce your DD to £35?

Why would your supplier agree to this when you only have a credit of £31.88?

DreamerV

I reckon £50 for a full month, I'm away for almost 3/4 of a month. The way I worked it out:

03/11 - £31.88 credit
03/12 - £56 in 20th of prev month so 87.88 credit
03/01 - £35 in 20th of prev month so 122.88 credit
03/02 - £35 in 20th of prev month so 157.88 credit
20/02 - £35 in today - so 192.88 in credit

Now for the charges out:

03/12 - £50 used by now
03/01 - £15-£20 used by now (away 3 weeks)
03/02 - £50 used by now
20/02 - £25 used by now (half a month)
total debits £140-£145

So on those kind of figures, I was thinking £40 at least in credit (could be £50+ but trying to err on side of caution)

DirectDebacle

DreamerV wrote: »

It's showing 2.457 per kwH, and elec is showing 10.472 per kwH. Thanks for your help

The dates you have quoted cover a period of 63 days.

I have assumed that multiplying this by 6 will give a reasonable expectation of usage over a year and figures do not include VAT or take discounts into consideration.

Gas. Annual Standing charge £70
Annual cost of gas £310

£380/12 = Direct Debit £26.00

Electricity. Annual Standing Charge £76
Annual cost of Electricity £153

£226/12 = Direct Debit £19.00

Not precise but close enough I think. DD of £45 per month should cover you for a year not counting discounts or credit balance. I havent added 5% VAT to these figures.

DirectDebacle

Magentasue wrote: »

I have had a large glass of wine so maybe I'm reading this wrong but are you saying, you reckon on using £50 of energy a month but you want to reduce your DD to £35?

Why would your supplier agree to this when you only have a credit of £31.88?

You are correct so the problem is that the wine glass is no-where near large enough.:D

DreamerV

Ah, I've decided £50 a month for winter (ok to be fair I plucked the figure out my head with what I'd thought was intelligent guesswork lol), but I use much less in summer. I realise 63 x 6 would make a year, but it's only really winter i use so much (heating on from 4:40pm till 6:55am), so I was going to review around mid March (when heating is on a lot lot less, although being Scotland, I'm not absolutely sure yet). It's interesting the way you've set it out...it hadn't hit me till now the annual standing charge is roughly £12 a month all in all...that £146 of my annual bill will come from that charge. I'm not tied in to contract, so I might do some digging to see if something else suits my situation better. I might for now go for middle ground with ScottishPower and offer £40, which is between what I'd thought, and figures you've provided, bearing in mind there's a buffer from credit to make up for the VAT. Thanks for taking the time with the calculations, etc

DirectDebacle

DreamerV wrote: »

Ah, I've decided £50 a month for winter (ok to be fair I plucked the figure out my head with what I'd thought was intelligent guesswork lol), but I use much less in summer. I realise 63 x 6 would make a year, but it's only really winter i use so much (heating on from 4:40pm till 6:55am), so I was going to review around mid March (when heating is on a lot lot less, although being Scotland, I'm not absolutely sure yet). It's interesting the way you've set it out...it hadn't hit me till now the annual standing charge is roughly £12 a month all in all...that £146 of my annual bill will come from that charge. I'm not tied in to contract, so I might do some digging to see if something else suits my situation better. I might for now go for middle ground with ScottishPower and offer £40, which is between what I'd thought, and figures you've provided, bearing in mind there's a buffer from credit to make up for the VAT. Thanks for taking the time with the calculations, etc

Yes but remeber the whole point of a DD is to build up enough credit in the summer to cover the winter usage so you don't get hit with a big bill just after Christmas e.g. If you stayed put then this time next year you should have a credit of maybe £300-350.

DreamerV

DirectDebacle wrote: »

Yes but remeber the whole point of a DD is to build up enough credit in the summer to cover the winter usage so you don't get hit with a big bill just after Christmas e.g. If you stayed put then this time next year you should have a credit of maybe £300-350.

I understand that, but being in credit going into summer does not seem right, as on the figures I'm posting it looks like I would be in credit even only with winter useage, going into summer....over summer I'd build even more credit. With £300-£350 credit on your estimate there, this would pretty much pay off my whole next year's winter useage, without me paying ANY money in next winter through direct debit at all. I'd rather not have unneccessarily high amounts of money like that in their accounts rather than in mine. And the reason I pay d.d. is more so I have a set amount coming out to budget for (with a little buffer) at the same time every month. Also so I don't need to remember to pay by other means each bill, and because most companies give some kind of at least minimal discount for paying by d.d.

Magentasue

I think you will need to be able to give your previous annual usage in kwh to convince an energy supplier to reduce your DD to such an extent when you have such a low credit balance. If you use less than £56 in November and December and continue to increase the amount you're in credit, you will have a reasonable case.