How can I cut down on heating and electric

dekaspace

I have had the flat for 2 weeks but didnt officially move in till Friday as I was waiting for my furniture to arrive as its unfurnished small 1 bedroom flat and before had a bedsit all bills included and furniture and in this cold weather stayed there more!

Anyway when I moved in I had about £18 in the meter and in the 2 weeks the meter only went down by £3 as in that 2 weeks all I used was I turned a lught on once or twice and left kitchen light on for 48 hours by accident.

Since I moved in the prices have shocked me as I had a smaller flat 2 years ago and paid £5 a month in summer and £5-8 in winter for electric(as had heating on once or twice for an hour or two)

anyway just having my pc on and my 22" widescreen monitor, and my 32" lcd tv on a few times is using over £1 a day which sounds reasonable at first but considering my usage is so low as im out of the house till around 8pm each night and go to bed around 2am which feels like the costs have doubled in just over a year(since I moved out of my old flat October 2007) However saying this I moved to a shared house and had the same possessions and only spent about £5 a week electric though most months id have to pay like an extra £5 near the end so more like £25 a month usage and that was with me using the pc and tv double what im using now and having a flatmate have a electric heater in his bedroom on often.

The only difference is, is now im with NPower and before at my flat and the shared house it was Scottish Power.

Finally as for the heating, I had a small electric heater on(the type thats attached to the wall) and had it on 4 out of 6 for 2 hours and spent about £3 or maybe a bit more in those 2 hours, and today put it on for about 90 minutes and at same time had pc and tv on together and spent over £2 in that short period.

Is something wrong or is the price just that high?

If so how can I heat a flat that has been empty for 6 months and is freezing.

I have budgeted £11 a week for heating and electric though obviously the less I spend the better.

I havent had a fridge on, or used the cooker yet as have been going across to my friends who lives less than a minute from my house so can cut down on that, but dont want to spend too much time there as thats the reason I moved as it was full of drunk students and had a grotty kitchen.

skintas_2

well i have a 2 bed flat, just got bill from scottish power fro £356, for quarter, cant believe it, my flat is warm all the time, my last bill was 279 so why so high, and i havent got a tumbler dryer. i used the washing machine too, every other day, seems to high for my liking, im gonna contact supplier get them to check it.. i try to keep heating off much as possible, wear more layers, heat from cooking warms my kitchen, dry clothes in there, or other shower curtain at nite, i use candle light at nite in living room, thats relaxing

andrewmp

Get rid of pre-pay thing, pay via direct debit. If you must stick with pre-pay move to ebico.

It also sounds like you might be paying off someone else's debt.

savemoney

Heating by electric can be expensive, it can easily consume 1-2KW power hour about between 30p and 50p and hour. Then there is using a computer and tv. Its not exact but a pc an hour can consume depending on what you are doing around 250w and 400W if gaming. Then there's a tv another couple of hundred watts

I hope you took readings when you first came in. Meters can be even more in costs than by direct debt for example

dekaspace

savemoney wrote: »

Heating by electric can be expensive, it can easily consume 1-2KW power hour about between 30p and 50p and hour. Then there is using a computer and tv. Its not exact but a pc an hour can consume depending on what you are doing around 250w and 400W if gaming. Then there's a tv another couple of hundred watts

I hope you took readings when you first came in. Meters can be even more in costs than by direct debt for example

cheers, well I was just confuseds as I say I lived in my own flat for a year and had the same tv and pc and only spent around £5 a week when I first moved in until a engineer put in a new meter(old one was a card one, new one was a key one) and usage went up that very week to £8, then I moved to a 2 bedroom flat with a friend but was a credit meter and the usage stayed the same, if not about £1 a week lower and this was using the washing machine a few times a week and electric heater for an hour or so a day from feburary to april, but then again I worked out the usage per quarter not per week as just took regular readings and averaged it out.

And I thought LCD tvs drained far less than CRT
The PC is either used for browsing or playing a dvd or both(as I connect it to tv) and nothing else.

Still was shocked that in 2 hours just having a tv on, and a pc(and no speakers) and heating on for about an hour used £2

I havent used the cooker once, fridge isnt turned on(and still has labels and sellotape on as new) havent got a washing machine, I dont even use the toilet here as I go to my friends place to shower and such.

Fire_Fox

Are you with the cheapest supplier for your area? Are you paying off the previous tenants debt? Is your immersion switched on even tho you aren't using hot water to shower? Is the place damp so you feel colder than usual? What is your preferred ambient temperature? Your PC, TV, lighting etc. will have little bearing on your energy use. It's stuff that produces a lot of heat that is expensive - heaters, immersions, tumble dryers.

I didn't use my heating at all for two winters, sat under a duvet in the evening and used a heated underblanket at night. This year my heating went off in mid-February - I am wearing two jumpers now as it's pretty cool today. My 'normal' usage is approx 10KWH per day between two of us (never below 7KWH even with just me), but I reckon I got nearer to 20KWH when it snowed, and that just heating one room with electric. :eek:

Plushchris

andrewmp wrote: »

Get rid of pre-pay thing, pay via direct debit. If you must stick with pre-pay move to ebico.

Be aware that all suppliers will run a credit check if you change from prepayment (just in case you have bad credit)
Also most charge for changing meters (or ask for a deposit that you get back after 12 months) have a look at other suppliers to see if any are cheaper then call them to see if they will change the meter FOC
Also Ebico may not be the cheapest for you on prepayment, I'm not saying its not a good company but I dont think they are that competitive at the moment, you may find cheaper elsewhere depending on your usage, look on comparison sites to make sure before signing up with Ebico

sandiep

Go and check your immersion heater.

If these things are left on they can EAT money. Also, check whether you've economy 7 or anything funny like that, because if you're using heaters/water at the wrong time of day on eco7 again it bleeds money.

whatatwit

It is unclear from your posts if you have informed the utility company that you have moved in.
The meter may be set to recover arrears from the previous occupier.

You will also need to have your own 'key' otherwise, any monies you put on to the card/key may be allocated to the wrong person.

There will possibly be a standing charge taken each day.

dekaspace

Haven been away so an update.

I went away for a week and as I say nothing was in use yet somehow £6 was used in that week, then I came back and had light on in living room for 5 minutes, went to bed and checked again 24 hours later again nothing used in that time as was at friends all day and 50p vanished, then I went to bed when I came back and by next morning 30p had vanished.

Im not sure about immersion heater as the only heater I know of is a tiny heater under kitchen sink and never seen a boiler

Only thing I can think is outside my flat in the entrancewayis the front door light and a hall light and theres a hall light in the 3 floors above so im worried that they are wired into my meter as they are on 24/7 and unable to be turned off without switching off the mains.

Fire_Fox

Either standing charge or paying off someone else's debt. Register with the electricity supplier and ask.