Pre payment meter horrific useage!!

sotonsmut

I switched from SSE to Ebico, only to find that SSE are who i have to deal with as their Ebico's patner supplier. I switched on Nov 18th 08 but did not recieve the Ebico rate key till Dec 11th, SSE offered me a token payment of £20 for the oversite on their part, but my problems started from when i got that key. they sent one with standard rate only so i had no economy 7,After much tooing and throwing they decided i needed a new key meter (fitted 17th DEC) since that time i have had to top it up to the tune as of today £509 for a 4 bedroom house all electric house. i only use 4 of the storage heaters as their expensive even on E7, the cooker only gets used once a day when we cook all the meals together, the hot water is on the E7 rate but we have to use the boost often as the water tank only holds enough water for just about 2 half filled baths and with 6 people here its a bit sparse. We have energy saving light bulbs throughout the house, but despite trying to save electric as best we can ie: turning of lights,nothing left in stand by. we are still breaking into our food money to keep the electric on, as for my local authority (southampton city council) they say i would have to have someone sick in the house that needed heating like an OAP before they do something. I'm at my witts end with this electric/property. HELP ANYONE!!!!:mad:

Pink_fluff

Have you call Ebico to discuss this??

Magentasue

That is a lot of money. However, what you describe is an expensive set up. Energy saving bulbs aren't going to make a big difference if you have electric heating in a four bedroom house.

Your water tank is obviously not big enough for the size of the house - I'm going by what you say, that the tank is not big enough. Otherwise, it would seem the immersion is not working properly.

With E7, you need to be running as much as you can overnight, so replacing your hot water tank or getting the immersion sorted would be a good investment. Consider cutting back on the storage heaters - despite using cheaper rate electricity, they are very expensive to run.

Could you change to a credit meter? This might enable you to get a better tariff. Did you use the same amount of electricity last winter (obviously it would have cost less)? It has been much colder this month.

sotonsmut

Magentasue wrote: »

That is a lot of money. However, what you describe is an expensive set up. Energy saving bulbs aren't going to make a big difference if you have electric heating in a four bedroom house.

Your water tank is obviously not big enough for the size of the house - I'm going by what you say, that the tank is not big enough. Otherwise, it would seem the immersion is not working properly.

With E7, you need to be running as much as you can overnight, so replacing your hot water tank or getting the immersion sorted would be a good investment. Consider cutting back on the storage heaters - despite using cheaper rate electricity, they are very expensive to run.

Could you change to a credit meter? This might enable you to get a better tariff. Did you use the same amount of electricity last winter (obviously it would have cost less)? It has been much colder this month.

Whats the alternative to storage heaters, if there is one. the immersion is on E7, but like i said after 2 baths its gone meaning no hot water and having to put on the boost. Last year my electric was about £30-35 a week compared to £70-80 now!!

Magentasue

sotonsmut wrote: »

Whats the alternative to storage heaters, if there is one. the immersion is on E7, but like i said after 2 baths its gone meaning no hot water and having to put on the boost. Last year my electric was about £30-35 a week compared to £70-80 now!!

Well, t'is said storage heaters are cheaper to run than plug in heaters. It's a big house to heat so there probably is no alternative. All you can do is reduce their use to a minimum - hopefully some warmer weather not too far away.

Maybe an electric shower would be a cheaper alternative to your immersion heater? Does sound as if you need a bigger tank or sort out the immersion heater, though - that's not normal. We used to heat a tank up and rarely used the boost and we're a family of six.

I see you're spending twice as much as last winter - how many more kwh are you using - or is that all price increases? Have you looked at switching and/or getting a credit meter?