Excessive monthly electricity usage

bulchy

Hi, not sure if I've posted this in the right place, forgive me if I have. We're having a bit of a dispute with NPower at the moment regarding our electricity bills, I wont bore you with the details but we have made a formal complaint with Energywatch, but while this is ongoing, they've sent us a letter stating that our new DD will be £206 per month as they have calculated our monthly usage to be £151 per month. Our next door neighbours have the same system as us, Super Tarrif ,E7, Night storage heaters, and they pay something like £54 per month. We dont have any gas at all, we're all electric, and dont run a tumble dryer, its just the usual fridge, freezer, washing machine, cooker, tv's, 2 pc's. We have 2 kids, at school all day, OH at work all day, I'm at home all day. This seems really excessive to me, and I intend ringing NPower on monday morning to ask them to have the meter's checked ASAP, something they said they would do a fortnight ago, but when the bloke came out he said he had only been sent to read the meter.
Any thoughts on this would be appreciated, thanks
Sue

northern_star

Ouch, how much a month? That can't be right, surely? I'd insist on the meter being checked asap!

By comparison, we are mostly electric here (with the exception of gas boiler) and our monthly dd is £30 - we run most of the same items as you in terms of cooking, washing, pc's etc and the fire in our sitting room is electric.

I'd be astounded and panicking to have such huge charges. Can you change your supplier?

bulchy

I dont think we can change supplier with this dispute going on. They've been messing us around for years now, we get the meter read, they send us an estimated bill, we ring them up, they send us out a proper bill, with ridiculous differences in our dd, sometimes going from £150 per month down to £30, and its gone on like this for years, until I finally decided to take control of it, by asking Energywatch to help. TBH I know we should have insisted from the start that they sort it out properly, the fluctuating amounts they say we use, I have no excuse. I just hope I can get the meter checked soon and hopefully get something sorted out, its starting to get to me now.
Sue

Mike_by_the_Sea

Hi Sue

Love the picture of the weimaraner, shame it has the wrong shirt on, if you need a Liverpool shirt just let me know.

How do your readings tie up with the NP estimate of usage? If they are similar, then you are using loads. I think that the "average" household spends around £1000 a year on gas/elec - yours is estimated at around £1800. What is the relationship between daytime and E7? Again, I believe the optimum is around 25%+ for E7 from reading the various posts.

You might want to have a go at the energy saving trust energy check to see what results you get - link below

http://www.est.org.uk/sense/propertyDetailsPublic.do?action=view

At the end of the day, it does sound like your meter has a mind of its own - just make sure that NP don't try and charge you for the priviledge of having it checked.

All the best

Mike

bulchy

Thanks Mike, will check this out later, my heads spinning at the moment from going through old bills.
My doggie definitely doesnt need a Liverpool shirt :rotfl: he's more than happy with the 'toon top.
Sue

irnbru_2

Mike_by_the_Sea wrote:

What is the relationship between daytime and E7? Again, I believe the optimum is around 25%+ for E7 from reading the various posts.

One of the problems with DD payment is you never know if debt from a previous year is included.

How is your water heater controlled? Switch or timer?

How is your E7 controlled? Radio tele-switch or mechanical timer?

At this time of year the water heater is usually the only thing using E7 at night.
So switch off your E7 consumer unit. Anything used at night now is largely down to the water heater.

Take two daily readings over the next couple of days - when you get up and before you go to bed. That''l break down to standard and E7 usage. Post them here.

In regards to Mike's comment, I achieve 70% E7 usage this time last year (May to July) against 88% (Oct to Jan). Post details of the units used in your previous bills in this thread.

f107btx

bulchy wrote:

Thanks Mike, will check this out later, my heads spinning at the moment from going through old bills.
My doggie definitely doesnt need a Liverpool shirt :rotfl: he's more than happy with the 'toon top.
Sue

Solved your own problem Every thing goes wrong that is assocciated with The toon I would suggest you move about 12 miles south to solve your leccy problem

bulchy

Hi there thanx for your advice

here are the two readings i have done both at 9pm on Sat & Sun

Night Day Heat Day
Sat 45935 64985 24494 47238 (Dummy reading never changes)
Sun 45935 65005 24502 47238 (As Above)

these readings were taken with all the night storage heaters turned off and the water heater turned off but turned on at 7am for the remaining half an hour of the remaining boost. The water heater went on at 3pm-5pm and these figures will be included in the metre readings above.

The water heater is controlled by a switch and a timer so if we dont want the water to heat up we just leave the switch turned off. The heating and the water heaters are controlled automatically and currently go on 2.30am-7.30am and as above for during the afternoon 3pm-5pm

As for the heaters they are automatically controlled the same as the water heater above

Find below the last readings from npower and there charges

Unit Charges
Meter Readings Heat Day Night Day
07.03.06 (E) 21496 47238 45429 62833
15.12.05 16905 47238 44534 59402

Units Used 4591 0 895 182
Unit Price 3.40p 3.40p 2.69p 15.66p
Charges 156.09 0.00 24.08 28.50 208.67

Units Used 3249
Unit Price 7.57p
Charges 245.95 245.95

Total Electricity Charges 454.62
Vat: 100% Of Charges 454.62 @ 5.00% 22.73

Total 477.35

15.04.06 (C) 23245 47238 45770 64119
07.03.06 (E) 21496 47238 45429 62833

Units Used 1749 0 341 78
Unit Price 4.10p 4.10p 3.40p 17.54p
Charges 71.71 0.00 11.59 13.68 96.98

Units Used 1208
Unit Price 8.48p
Charges 102.44 102.44

Total Electricity Charges 199.42
Vat: 100% Of Charges 199.42 @ 5.00% 9.97

Total 209.39



We have normally only had two/three maximum of the night storage heaters switched on very rarely use the electric heaters in the bedroom.

Could there be a possibility that there is something wrong with the way they have wired the electricty supply to the house or a possible faulty supply?

Any advice would be great im planning on copying all the bills and sending them onto energy watch as they have all been very inconsistent to say the least. Could there also be a possibility that they have getting the readings mixed up at some point in time a smy head is just pickled at the moment.

i will post some more metre readings over the next five days also with heating switched on water on/off etc.

cheers Sue

bulchy

f107btx wrote:

Solved your own problem Every thing goes wrong that is assocciated with The toon I would suggest you move about 12 miles south to solve your leccy problem

Are you a makem by any chance?????:cool:
Sue

irnbru_2

bulchy wrote:

Hi there thanx for your advice

here are the two readings i have done both at 9pm on Sat & Sun

Night Day Heat Day
Sat 45935 64985 24494 47238 (Dummy reading never changes)
Sun 45935 65005 24502 47238 (As Above)

According to that you used 20 units during the daytime rate. It'll be interesting to see how that pans out throughout the week.

bulchy wrote:

The heating and the water heaters are controlled automatically and currently go on 2.30am-7.30am and as above for during the afternoon 3pm-5pm

Two things about the water heater:

1. The temperature that it heats the water to
2. The duration it heats it for.

Can you adjust the water heater timer independent of the E7 timing? I'd be looking to reduce the the length of time its on to say 6.00-7.30 and only an hour in the afternoon slot (if required).

Check the water heater to find what temperature it's heating to. Make sure you switch it off at the consumer unit before checking it. 70/75C or 160F should be reasonable enough.

bulchy wrote:

Unit Charges
Meter Readings Heat Day Night Day
07.03.06 (E) 21496 47238 45429 62833
15.12.05 16905 47238 44534 59402

Units Used 4591 0 895 182
Unit Price 3.40p 3.40p 2.69p 15.66p
Charges 156.09 0.00 24.08 28.50 208.67

Units Used 3249
Unit Price 7.57p
Charges 245.95 245.95

You have a two tier day rate, the first 182@£0.1566 and remainder at £0.0757.

Your bill was for 92 days.

You used 3431 (182+3249) day units in the 92 days.

Averaging 37.3 units a day.

Are you growing things in the loft?

bulchy wrote:

Could there also be a possibility that they have getting the readings mixed up at some point in time a smy head is just pickled at the moment.

Yes, what's growing in the loft :rotfl:

Your day unit usage is way too high! Time to investigate.

bulchy

Hi, we cant adjust the timer on the water heater, its a set timer that goes on at 2.30am then goes off at 7.30am,to tie in with E7, if we need hot water I leave it switched on, but its usually turned off, and I just switch it on when I get up at 7ish, so usually the water is only heating up for half an hour in the morning. The boost goes on at 3pm, and I just leave the water on to heat up for the duration of the 2 hour boost. Not sure about thermostat for water heater, its in loft, will get OH to check it out.
OH has taken all bills and letters into work to copy them to send off to Energywatch, unfortunatley all my notes are in the bag he took them in, so I havent had the chance to ring Npower to ask them to come out and check the meter, hes due home about 4, so intend ringing them then,hopefully they'll get it right this time and actually make sure they send someone with the right info, thanks for all your help and advice, most appreciated.
Sue