Electricity Usage seems wrong...and we just can't afford £60 a month!!

Katie_lon

Hi,

I don't know if anyone can help, but I am really concerned about my Mum’s electricity bill/usage.

She used to have a pre paid meter and paid about £40.00 a month, and about 3 & ½ years ago swapped over to a monthly dd, standard service with EDF. Based on her usage they estimated her at £24.00 per month so she started pay that monthly. This soon went up and she was paying £32.00 a month, £40.00 a month and then £52.00 as recommended by EDF last September (2008). Every quarter her bill was way over what she was paying monthly and in October we switched to N Power, who based on our usage told us £40.00 a month. Gave EDF and NPower, 7698 the final reading on 2nd October and looked forward to lower bills!

We got the bill through last week, £253.39 with usage for 2nd Oct – 29th Jan as 1959kwh, which is a correct meter reading.

My Mum and teenager sister live in a 2 bed flat, they are out at school/work from 8am until 4pm every week day, so everything (bar the fridge freezer!) is off until they come home. Mum only does the washing on a Saturday, she has a tumble dryer, but is economical with it. They have a pc and laptop which get turned off when not in use, all energy saving lamps and lights that get turned off when not in use, same with phone chargers, nothing on stand by. They have laminate floors, so no huge amount of time hovering! The other really important thing to take into account is that none of the heating or how water is provided by electricity. They have communal heating and hot water which is paid for seperatly and she has no other heating devises. They cook for maybe 30 mins a day, no dinner parties! My sister blow dries her hair 3 times a week, but really that is it.

I think that something is really wrong here. How can they be running up such huge amounts of electricity? This means that they are using 16 units of electricity per day and my Nan who lives in the same building, with the same setup who is in all day and has an electric shower is only using 6.5 units per day.

We spoke to N Power who put us in touch with Consumer Focus and they seem to think that the units and costs are normal. Everyone we ask, have bigger homes, emersion heaters and bigger families and they are spending less.

Do you think I am right to be concerned.

I really need some help as we just can’t afford to keep doing this!!

Thank you so much.

Katie

Vestra

Katie_lon wrote: »

Hi,

I don't know if anyone can help, but I am really concerned about my Mum’s electricity bill/usage.

She used to have a pre paid meter and paid about £40.00 a month, and about 3 & ½ years ago swapped over to a monthly dd, standard service with EDF. Based on her usage they estimated her at £24.00 per month so she started pay that monthly. This soon went up and she was paying £32.00 a month, £40.00 a month and then £52.00 as recommended by EDF last September (2008). Every quarter her bill was way over what she was paying monthly and in October we switched to N Power, who based on our usage told us £40.00 a month. Gave EDF and NPower, 7698 the final reading on 2nd October and looked forward to lower bills!

We got the bill through last week, £253.39 with usage for 2nd Oct – 29th Jan as 1959kwh, which is a correct meter reading.

My Mum and teenager sister live in a 2 bed flat, they are out at school/work from 8am until 4pm every week day, so everything (bar the fridge freezer!) is off until they come home. Mum only does the washing on a Saturday, she has a tumble dryer, but is economical with it. They have a pc and laptop which get turned off when not in use, all energy saving lamps and lights that get turned off when not in use, same with phone chargers, nothing on stand by. They have laminate floors, so no huge amount of time hovering! The other really important thing to take into account is that none of the heating or how water is provided by electricity. They have communal heating and hot water which is paid for seperatly and she has no other heating devises. They cook for maybe 30 mins a day, no dinner parties! My sister blow dries her hair 3 times a week, but really that is it.

I think that something is really wrong here. How can they be running up such huge amounts of electricity? This means that they are using 16 units of electricity per day and my Nan who lives in the same building, with the same setup who is in all day and has an electric shower is only using 6.5 units per day.

We spoke to N Power who put us in touch with Consumer Focus and they seem to think that the units and costs are normal. Everyone we ask, have bigger homes, emersion heaters and bigger families and they are spending less.

Do you think I am right to be concerned.

I really need some help as we just can’t afford to keep doing this!!

Thank you so much.

Katie

Hi,

I don't know if anyone can help, but I am really concerned about my Mum’s electricity bill/usage.

She used to have a pre paid meter and paid about £40.00 a month, and about 3 & ½ years ago swapped over to a monthly dd, standard service with EDF. Based on her usage they estimated her at £24.00 per month so she started pay that monthly. This soon went up and she was paying £32.00 a month, £40.00 a month and then £52.00 as recommended by EDF last September (2008). Every quarter her bill was way over what she was paying monthly and in October we switched to N Power, who based on our usage told us £40.00 a month. Gave EDF and NPower, 7698 the final reading on 2nd October and looked forward to lower bills!

We got the bill through last week, £253.39 with usage for 2nd Oct – 29th Jan as 1959kwh, which is a correct meter reading.

My Mum and teenager sister live in a 2 bed flat, they are out at school/work from 8am until 4pm every week day, so everything (bar the fridge freezer!) is off until they come home. Mum only does the washing on a Saturday, she has a tumble dryer, but is economical with it. They have a pc and laptop which get turned off when not in use, all energy saving lamps and lights that get turned off when not in use, same with phone chargers, nothing on stand by.

They have laminate floors, so no huge amount of time hovering! The other really important thing to take into account is that none of the heating or how water is provided by electricity. They have communal heating and hot water which is paid for seperatly and she has no other heating devises. They cook for maybe 30 mins a day, no dinner parties! My sister blow dries her hair 3 times a week, but really that is it.

I think that something is really wrong here. How can they be running up such huge amounts of electricity? This means that they are using 16 units of electricity per day and my Nan who lives in the same building, with the same setup who is in all day and has an electric shower is only using 6.5 units per day.

We spoke to N Power who put us in touch with Consumer Focus and they seem to think that the units and costs are normal. Everyone we ask, have bigger homes, emersion heaters and bigger families and they are spending less.

Do you think I am right to be concerned.

I really need some help as we just can’t afford to keep doing this!!

Thank you so much.
Katie

Fire_Fox

Are you sure they are reading the correct meter: have you checked the serial numbers against the bill? Are you 100% certain there is no electric boost switch to the gas boiler that has accidentally been left on? How much tumble drying do you call economical? How hot do they wash laundry? Is the washing machine cold water feed only?

Also is it possible that a neighbour has tapped into their electricity supply? Turn everything off for an hour (by the circuit breaker if possible, the fridge/ freezer will be fine if left closed) and see if the meter is still moving.

Edited to add: just realised that you are referring to a four month bill, not a quarterly bill. Whilst it's on the high side, it's not excessively so. In fact I am impressed by how low your Nan's is (are you sure this is not estimated?). I used 7.5KWH a day the first winter here alone - no heating at all, and showering at work. Now there are two of us we use 10-12KWH per day despite me being very frugal with the electric.

wildbri

your usage does seem high, I have been monitoring our gas and electricity recently
I find that we are averaging 11kw per day.....but we are retired and are at home most days we have a detached three bed bungalow with a garage workshop attached.
our heating and hot water are by gas but we have electric shower used daily, washing
machine and a tumble drier use three times a week. we have security lights on all night,
computer on 12 hrs a day and tv in the evening. I also use power tools and an electic heater in the workshop one hr a day, oh and a pond pump and filter on 12hrs per day.
You need to have your meter checked. You can do some checks yourself, read meter
when you go out to work and when you come home to see whats been used.
look at meter you will see disc moving, turn off all sockets one by one and you will see it slow down when all is off it should stop..If it dosnt it has been known in flats
for electricity to be "diverted" i.e pinched! regards ..bri

anniecave

Is this electricity only? Is there no gas in the property at all?
If this is electricity only, this wouldn't sound too bad to me for 2 people.

Properties that have gas and electricity may well have low electricity bills, especially if the hot water and heating is gas, because they are paying for these costs via the gas.

Magentasue

anniecave wrote: »

Is this electricity only?

Properties that have gas and electricity may well have low electricity bills, especially if the hot water and heating is gas, because they are paying for these costs via the gas.

OP says hot water and heating are paid for separately.

anniecave

ok then ignore me - should've read more carefully!

Suggest taking a look at what appliances are on then? Maybe turn almost everything off overnight or during the day and take readings to make sure that the meter isn't using lots when you have nothing on (which may suggest a fault with the meter or someone else using the same meter). Try one of those energy monitoring devices maybe?

MrsBartolozzi

While your usage during the week may be low going by what you have written, how much extra is used at the weekend? I know my meter goes around a lot faster when the kids are in with their mates around and the tv and stereos and Xboxes ...etc you get the picture.
I hope you manage to get this sorted,
MrsB.

anilsec

Just a suggestion but take a look at the tariff your on - I have just had a nasty shock with Npower , when I joined them in July last year they put me on SOL 11. I now know this is a tariff where the prices are given monthly and of course the winter months are the highest (882kwh per month). I was charged 2,748kwh (882 x 3 and a bit) at the higher rate. I was not at home much in December and hardly at all in January so I got a nasty shock -why should I be charged at all for January! In fact, even though this tariff is advertised as monthly they actually charge a quarterly amount whether or not your at home for the whole quarter. Again, there seems to be only one winner and it is not the consumer.

Also, when I said I would be searching for a more competive price, the customer advisor then suggested another tariff SOL 14, which is priced differently and told me I would have saved £80 if I had been on this. But then said it would take 3-5 weeks to sort out (meanwhile I am still on 882 for February), when I said I might as well switch then, he said ok I will do it today and would send out a letter. Got to Thursday, no letter and realised he did not ask for a meter reading, so rang up to find out why and was told there was nothing on my account about the change, I gave my meter readings and hopefully this has been changed now. I have to ask why give the prices as monthly when in fact they are quarterly, isn't this misleading or is it just me? I have written a letter of complaint about this to Npower and await reply!

ps sorry to go on!

scrape

many old prepayment meters dont get updated correctly when prices change, thus you could have previously been charged @ a lower incorrect rate (pre price increase)

then when the meter got exchanged the tariff is corrected and Bam looks like you meter is fauly as your bills shoot up with no change in usage

KimYeovil

anilsec wrote: »

Just a suggestion but take a look at the tariff your on - I have just had a nasty shock with Npower , when I joined them in July last year they put me on SOL 11. I now know this is a tariff where the prices are given monthly and of course the winter months are the highest (882kwh per month). I was charged 2,748kwh (882 x 3 and a bit) at the higher rate. I was not at home much in December and hardly at all in January so I got a nasty shock -why should I be charged at all for January! In fact, even though this tariff is advertised as monthly they actually charge a quarterly amount whether or not your at home for the whole quarter. Again, there seems to be only one winner and it is not the consumer.

Also, when I said I would be searching for a more competive price, the customer advisor then suggested another tariff SOL 14, which is priced differently and told me I would have saved £80 if I had been on this. But then said it would take 3-5 weeks to sort out (meanwhile I am still on 882 for February), when I said I might as well switch then, he said ok I will do it today and would send out a letter. Got to Thursday, no letter and realised he did not ask for a meter reading, so rang up to find out why and was told there was nothing on my account about the change, I gave my meter readings and hopefully this has been changed now. I have to ask why give the prices as monthly when in fact they are quarterly, isn't this misleading or is it just me? I have written a letter of complaint about this to Npower and await reply!

ps sorry to go on!

Are you sure? Surely the bill covered the three months so you would have three months of Tier 1 units to pay. I know there is a separate theft that nPower practice(d) with miscalculating the definition of an annual allowance but the seasonal monthly sculpting is a separate issue. This seasonal calculation is complicating but it is not unfairer than a year-round flat monthly allowance. And I would say that the consumer does win from this practice as a larger proportion of their customers pay a fairer share.

And, yes, you need to switch now and again to get the best tariff even with the same supplier (similarly to the way you have to with bank accounts.)