huge electricity bill?!?!?

domestic_goddess

Please help me. I have just had a huge electricity bill and am trying to sort this out. My bill says that my company expect me to use approx £150 per month for the next 12 months based on my previous usage and shows an amount of £1000 to be paid over the next 12 months from last years bill. I have lived in my house for about twelve months (3 bed semi) and npowere had previously based my bill on estimated readings. Now I have had a proper reading and this has come to light.

I have always paid nowhere near this previously. my new house does not have gas so I have electric storage heaters (i know these are more expensive but surely not this much!!) I also have an emersion which I have never had before. I was told by the previous occupant that all I do for hot water is turn it on. As i have never seen an emersion before (always had central heating) I must admit it is on a lot. someone has told me that this is very expensive to run (now they tell me!!!) is this the case?

Also I have a tumble drier does this use much electricity?

how else can i cut back?

thanks in advance

Wig

Tumble drier is not cheap but it is the least of your worries, IMO.

The immersion is expensive.

Did you have the meter read when you moved in? Can you therefore be sure if the consumption is all yours? It's probably too late to do anything about it now if it was not read when you moved in, but if you think this is a large factor you could ask your electricity supplier to take some off the bill to account for the use by the previous occupant.

You can also switch suppliers once you know what your usage is (I think it best to enter the annual usage in kwh rather than the cost in pounds) and try to save money that way. Use this service....http://www.ukpower.co.uk

I am in the process of writing an instruction set for people who think they are being overcharged or who just want to discover how much electricity each appliance uses. This is what I have written so far:

Initial tests for your electric meter

*before doing this make sure all the lights in the house are switched to off.

1. turn off the switch *after* the meter usuallly there's a main switch on the fuse box.....if the meter is still turning there is a problem.

2. Pull out (remember where they go) all the fuses or trip all the trips to off individually.

3. unplug in the house everything that can be unplugged, turn off anything remaining which can't be unplugged (such as water tank heating element, central heating control panel etc)

4. Turn switch in No.1 back on meter should still not be moving

5. put fuses back in one by one, or reset each trip one by one. Watch meter, should not be moving, when all is back on or fuses in, the meter should not move....if it is, it's possible one of your trips is using power, won't be very much but it's not impossible. If so determine which one then take out all others to determine that it is just the one and not a combination of two. Determine how much power the trips are using...see below.

6. At this point you can measure the amount of power an individual item is using by turning it on....e.g. fridge (fridge has different rates depending whether the compressor is running or not. and obviously standby modes for DVD players TV etc) You can then compare the turning of the meter to the product technical specs to see if the meter is accurate.

To measure power you can either look at it's technical spec usually written somewhere on the item e.g. kettle 1KW and compare that with the turning of the meter or you can buy one of these........
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...=38343&doy=6m5
and compare that with the turning of the meter.

How to interpret the turning of the meter????
I will be investigating this at some time in the near future, but it will be based on timing the time it takes the disc to turn. So you can do the timing now & record your results and I'll cover the calculations later.

The disc has a mark on it, what I would do is switch on a light until the mark comes to the front, turn the light off and stick a bit of tape where the mark is.

Now switch on a high power item, with the power consumption module from Maplin in the plug. Like a toaster or a kettle.

Time how long in seconds it takes the meter disc to return one revolution back to its starting position, if it is quick, then time for ten revolutions.

Record this time and record what the maplin meter was reading for the duration of the test, you can also press the yellow button and record what the kwh usage was for the duration.

llh189

We too have storage heaters and was really shocked when we got our first bill - it was huge, more then yours. As we couldn't believe it either we did check with the electricity supplier and we were being charge too much , as our economy 7 wasn't set up correctly - so do check this with npower, but had to speak to at least three people including an energy watch type of company before we got it sorted so make sure that they are really certain that the tariff is correct. Even after we got the bill reduced it was still huge! We also fitted a timer to our emersion heater for the for the hot water, it is now timed for 2 hours in the morning and two hours in the evening. We also purchased two calor gas heaters ( downstairs use only ), they cost about £90 each, and the gas is about £15.00 for a medium size bottle, this is lasts about 8/10 weeks although they are not on every day.

We turned off the storage heaters in the rooms we don't use very often, and turned our bedroom one off and invested in an electric blanket, not very sexy but a really good investment, spend a little extra though and get a dual control one, or else you might fall out with your other half.


We also got a huge blanket for the sofa and slippers. We also checked out the weather every night and got in to the habit of turning them off and on depending on how cold it was.

We found that this all helped and it was the only way to keep our bills affordable, especially as we always got a bill in January.

My advice to prospective tennants / money savers avoid storage heaters, I am now moving to a place with gas, I know it not cheap either but at least you can control it.

The tumble dryer is not a huge huge cost and because storage heaters aren't the best we tended to use our tumble dryer otherwise we could never get our clothes dry. Your local elecricity company should be able to help you determine the cost of individual appliances - ours did and I wasn't shocked by what the said.

We also turn lights off and don't leave things on standby. we are not absessive about it but it all helps

These changes did reduce our bills the 6 coldest months of the year were still £600 but the 6 warmest months were really cheap ( all of our heaters of now off and have been for about a month). The bills for the year are about £800 still not cheap but we don't have gas either, we also make sure that we give proper readings, so we don't get huge surprises.


Hope this helps.

michellej_2

hi im just new to this forum so please forgive me inadvance im sat banging myheadlooking for a answer please someone help......
well here goes i live in a semi-detached 3 bedroom 2daughters...with all the usual appliances 3tvs,2 comp,washer dryer,fridge ect.....most of the time ive had est bills which are high between 150-300pounds per1/4 had the old meter changed from the old one to a digital about two yrs ago,but 2mths ago i had an actual meter reading and you woulnt believe the bill i recieved 1166.64
im with NPOWER and i tell you what ,they are the most unhelpful uncaring company ive ever had the misfortune to deal with.....
ive rang countless times to try and speak to someone and all i seem to get is your bill is correct its been reviewed and amended and thats what you have to pay.....my point is of course i understand that est bills are incorrect sometimes high sometimes low and if when ive recieved the est bill only paid 50 pounds the yes over the time that huge amount may of occured but when i pay 150 pound every 1/4 then surley i cant owe that amount.
i even went to the c.a.b and they advised me to ask for a copy of my bills from the last 5yrs and send a letter explaining my situation which i have ....and guess what today i recieved a letter saying they cant send me a copy of my bills from the last two years why????????????
ive offered to pay in instalments but they want 245 per month im on benefits so realy thats no good then they said they would have to put a meter in thats ok but the money they want back is UNBELIEVABLE..ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!
i just dont know were to turn its making me ill HELP A SINGLE MOTHER WHOS LOOSING HER MIND.......

Mike_by_the_Sea

Hi michelle

I would go back to the cab and ask them to help with your negotiations with NPower. It's not going to do them any good asking you to pay installments that you can't afford.

It might also be worth you talking to energywatch to see what advice they can give you....

http://www.energywatch.org.uk/help_and_advice/how_we_can_help/how_to_complain/index.asp

All the best

Mike

irnbru_2

llh189 wrote:

We also fitted a timer to our emersion heater for the for the hot water, it is now timed for 2 hours in the morning and two hours in the evening.

Play around with the duration, you might find you can save a bit more.

webster_2

uSwitch are running a new promo where anyone who switches gas and electric suppliers will get a £20 Love2Shop voucher. The voucher is like a high street version of a book token and can be spent in almost any high street retailer, have a look at the Love2Shop website for more info...
To avail of the offer log on to http://www.uswitch.com/whatmortgage or freephone 08004047924

michellej_2

hi mike thanks for replying....seems someone wants to listen to me ive been on the phone today to NPOWER and spoke to three people each on different departments and at last was told that my account was under investagation and they would be intouch!!!!!!! wont hold my breath as i also received a notice to come and cut me off or apply for a warrent to install a meter.....
which is what ive been saying either let me make payments till it gets sorted or put a meter in but with not a high repayment cant win realy

steve_cov

Npower are hopeless.

They sent me an annualised gas bill based on consumption from December to March and simply multiplied my usage during the coldest months of the year by four to arrive at an annual figure before demanding an increase of 150% in my monthly payment. Despite my best efforts at pointing out that they would end up owing me money by the end of 12 months, they went ahead and increased my DD payment.

I simply can't wait to prove that I was right all along and require re-payment in full, with interest. I have about six months to wait.

In your position, check how they have estimated your consumption for the next year: if it looks high, challenge it. It seems there is little you can do about the arrears built up from the past, though.

Don't panic: if you explain your circumstances, they will not cut you off with two children in the house.

michellej_2

ive recieved a copy of a bill dated from last year with alsorts of figures it just baffles me.....i done my own meter reading for 6 days and averaged on between 20-30 units a day(is that ok) so on the 7th april my reading was
27157 units and ive just checked again today and it reads 28976 alot ov units used in 3mths
i still cant get them to send me a copy of my bills from the last 5yrs as the c.a.b asked so that in itself seem a bit fishy
i just dont know were to turn or who to turn to ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!*!?*.....

Cardew

michellej wrote:

ive recieved a copy of a bill dated from last year with alsorts of figures it just baffles me.....i done my own meter reading for 6 days and averaged on between 20-30 units a day(is that ok) so on the 7th april my reading was
27157 units and ive just checked again today and it reads 28976 alot ov units used in 3mths
i still cant get them to send me a copy of my bills from the last 5yrs as the c.a.b asked so that in itself seem a bit fishy
i just dont know were to turn or who to turn to ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!*!?*.....

That averages 22 units a day. However that is in the summer and you are likely to use more in the winter. This means you will probably be using
9-10,000 units(kWh) a year - which is 3 times the average consumption for a household. You don't say how you heat the house and hot water - if with electricity it will be much higher.

At, say, 8 pence a unit that would mean a yearly bill of £720 to £800. If you have been paying £150 a quarter it is easy to see how you have built up a large debit balance.