High BG Electricity Bills !!!

KimYeovil

Argh, ignore me, it's 65 units per week not 65 units per day.

Magentasue

Frances17 wrote: »

We have been on this tariff for years so why would all of a sudden our electricity consumption have trebled in the last 9 months? Especially for the first time we have actually used a night storage heater

You've answered your own question. Your consumption has trebled because you've used your energy guzzling storage heater.

Frances17

Magentasue wrote: »

I seem to be following you, kim. I thought the 65 units day rate referred to the number of (daytime) kwh used since last Sunday.

When I began taking the meter reading last Sunday evening rate 1 was 22051.3 and rate 2 (I assume night time reading) was 07850.9.

I checked this morning and it shows 22116.1 for rate 1 and 7860.5 for rate 2?

I took the 22051 from the 22116 to get the 65 units and 7850 from 7860 to get the 10 units calculation since last Sunday. Is this correct?

Magentasue

Yes, frances, you've got that right. That seems reasonable which is why I wouldn't shell out £70 for a meter check. In my opinion, it's all down to the heater. I had them one winter and two heaters cost a small fortune.

Frances17

Magentasue wrote: »

You've answered your own question. Your consumption has trebled because you've used your energy guzzling storage heater.

Could a storage heater really guzzle that many kWh per hour? The representative asked if we had storage heaters as Eco 7 is the best tarrif if so. We had only been using the storage heater since Jan yet our bill for Oct to Jan shows an incredible increase in kWh per hour compared to other months? Am I fighting a losing battle and we really owe £700 plus in electricity for a one bedroom house?

Magentasue

Storage heaters use a phenomenal amount of electricity. I'm sure you realise how they work - electricity (expensive fuel) is used to heat what's inside the heater. This heat is leached out during the day. Econ 7 is sensible for these heaters because they are wired up to use electricity during the cheaper night period. However, this doesn't make them cheap because they use so many kwh - it's just cheaper than it would be if you were paying the standard rate at night.

Frances17

One other question please? When I spoke to BG on 9 March, they confirmed that our debit was £300 for electricity. We have been paying the £56 fornightly since end of March, now to date we have the £700 to £800 debit. We haven't used the storage heaters since April, so my question is why all of a sudden we are £720 something in debit?

That's what I can't understand. Ok, if storage heaters guzzle more electricity that is fine, but why did they confirm to us £300 debit in March and it is not long after this time we would have stopped using the storage heater?

Magentasue

Was the March balance based on estimated (rather than actual) meter readings? Do you submit readings regularly?

Frances17

Looking back at the bill the meter reading was esimated at 19435 at 8 March. Yet when I spoke to them on 9 March I had made a note of 19598, which is a difference of 163 kWh, which charged at 0.30p say is £48.90 difference, so not extremely over the estimate?

During Jan to Apr period we had £546.24 debit brought across, we had paid £302.34 yet it showed the electricity we used totalled £553.82. This totally contradicts what the representative told me on 9 March, when our balance was apparently £300 in debit?

Magentasue

What you get told on the phone depends on what information is in front of the rep and this can change from day to day as DD payments are credited and meter readings updated. You need to read the meter yourself and look at which payments have gone through/are due to get an accurate figure. A website such as smartmeter or imeasure can help here - can't remember the former but latter is https://www.imeasure.org.uk

Don't know what BG online account management is like, but this may also be an option, or your own spreadsheet.

I'm not sure what you're disputing - the number of kwh used or what you were told. I think your current meter readings suggest the storage heater is your problem - do you think otherwise?