Scottish Power - another increase in my direct debit

royalsteve

KimYeovil wrote: »

Sorry, but paying £54 per month for both fuels with someone in at home all day - that is the unbelievable figure. Have you actually checked what your consumption is?

yeh unbelievably cheap, do they live in a shed? wish mine was that low, mine's more than double

royalsteve

Magentasue wrote: »

lesley76: Do you mean 2647kwh of gas in 17 days? That averages 155kwh of gas a day over a very cold period. High but not unbelievable.

You may not have altered your heating pattern, but because it's been so cold, it's probably been kicking in more and staying on longer than it would have done in milder weather. Well, no probably about it!

sounds alot for a 3 bed house tho.....unless its mansion sized

Magentasue

royalsteve wrote: »

but that much in 17 days doesnt sound right....id get your meter checked

Bear in mind that there will be a charge for checking a meter that isn't faulty. If you look at lesley76's posts, she's using about 150kwh of gas a day on average, which doesn't suggest a faulty meter.

Magentasue

royalsteve wrote: »

sounds alot for a 3 bed house tho.....unless its mansion sized

It is a lot but it's not unbelievable. We would have probably used that in our old three bed house if it'd been as cold as it has been this month. Even now, we're averaging 110kwh a day being much more careful.

royalsteve

Magentasue wrote: »

1) If you have a new gas meter, it will be metric and your meter units should be converted to kwh (approx x11) differently. Make sure they're not treating them as imperial (imperial units x 31 = kwh roughly).

2) Make sure meter reading is correct. If either reading has an (E) by it it means it has been estimated. Is this the case?

Don't panic. Just check these things to start with and post back.

spot on, also note that wall heaters and fires no matter how efficient are very poor users of energy. An indepenent very experienced corgi gas fire fitter/service agent checked ours and whilst it cost alot of money (the previous owners spent near 3K about 8 years ago), he said its cheaper to run a modern central heating system than ONE gas fire (that includes new gas fires too!)

royalsteve

Magentasue wrote: »

It is a lot but it's not unbelievable. We would have probably used that in our old three bed house if it'd been as cold as it has been this month. Even now, we're averaging 110kwh a day being much more careful.

you must live in a mansion or sauna.

We used 64kwh/day this winter in our extended 4/5 bed house (tho note we use gas only for central heating and hot wate, not cooking)....

heating isnt on at the mo and my office is cooler than usual 20.3C (26C when the heating is on)

Magentasue

royalsteve wrote: »

you must live in a mansion or sauna.

Yeah right. I live in a three bed mid terrace. It's Victorian though, so no cavity walls and the downstairs bathroom extension is very cold. We also use the cellar as a kids' sitting room although that made less of a difference than I predicted.

I know we use more than a lot of people, but less than our neighbours!

bbf

Perhaps you can keep asking your bank to refund the whole payment under the terms of the direct debit guarantee, until you get back to zero balance. If you bank with smile, they will do by sending a secure message via online banking, just tell them its under the terms of the DD guarantee.

At least that way you're making it their problem, not yours, and you don't have to deal directly with SP. The only downside is that they may cancel the DD or similar. :mad::mad:

mothershipton

ive just had an email saying my dd is going up to £88 from £76 from March. Sent a reply requesting they dont change it as Im in credit and we are now going into a warmer period( hopefully). Waiting to hear back. Im on a fixed price plan and have been using less elec and gas than last year so fingers crossed. If they dont agree, Im going onto paying quarterly.

Magentasue

mothershipton wrote: »

ive just had an email saying my dd is going up to £88 from £76 from March. Sent a reply requesting they dont change it as Im in credit

How much credit? You should have enough to last another couple of months (I think most suppliers look at end of March/begin April as cut off point). If you have, and can calculate your annual use and cost it at 12 x£76, they should back down.