How much electricity is too much?

Mrs_FunkyGibbon

I really need some advice on whether my electricity consumption is too high :-(

I pay Scottish Power by monthly direct debit. The bills were £147, then after me pleading with them they went down to £91 and now they are increasing it to £133 per month.
My consumption for the last year is 6893 kWh
I have rung the consumption team a few months ago and got nowhere…
In summary:

• It is a small two-bed apartment. There is no gas in the building so everything is powered on electricity (but having said that I know people in the same situation who only pay £50 per month

• I live alone and I am out during the day.

• All my appliances are A rated and all my light bulbs are energy saving ones. I don’t leave anything on standby or lights on

• I have a hot water tank of which I only heat half the tank and have turned the temperature down to 50 degrees

• I have electric heaters which are thermostatically controlled and are all on a programmer: 6am - 8am and 17:00 - 19:00 during the week

I have previous rung Scottish Power about the fact that my meter was going backwards (at 7am it was reading 14251 units and at 1700 it was 14246 units) but they said this can happen? But having rung them tonight another lady has said that is not normal, so I don’t know what’s right!

All my neighbour’s meters are waaaay behind me, even though their apartments are much bigger and with more people!

Thank you for taking the time to read all this and if someone can provide any advice I would really appreciate it!
I’m just so desperate about it – I’m so bl**dy frugal about energy that I just don’t know what else I can do

JennyR68

Have you asked your neighbours which supplier they use to get £50 a month?

I don't know what tariff your on with Scottish Power but your consumption figures with my EDF tariff would come in at just under the £50 a month mark at an annual bill of £553 in my area.

Get on a comparison site and check your on the best rate you can be.

titanflux

You're being fleeced. I have just finished challenging my increased monthly payment, based on crazy numbers generated by SP's system (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2251249)

I think they have at least one bug in their system

Have you tried switching absolutely EVERYTHING completely off and unplugging them and then checking your meter?

Also see this: http://www.simplyswitch.com/faulty-meter-what-to-do.html

andyrpsmith

Hard to see that you have any sort of problem. I calculate that you use less than £600 per year, less than £1.64 per day (based on my current cost per KWH of 8.61p inc vat). I am all electric and spend £9.50 per day (4 bed detached).

JennyR68

andyrpsmith wrote: »

I am all electric and spend £9.50 per day (4 bed detached).

Ouch:eek: Is that just now when it's cold? not your yearly average?

Premier_2

Your annual consumption should cost about £800 -£900. You might get that down to about £600 (£50 per month) by using the comparison sites and moving to the cheapest supplier/tariff.

But that doesn't explain why the supplier is expecting you to pay almost £1600 per year (£133 per month) unless your account is in debt, but based on your previous monthly payments I doubt it.

Mrs_FunkyGibbon

JennyR68 wrote: »

Have you asked your neighbours which supplier they use to get £50 a month?

I don't know what tariff your on with Scottish Power but your consumption figures with my EDF tariff would come in at just under the £50 a month mark at an annual bill of £553 in my area.

Get on a comparison site and check your on the best rate you can be.

It wasn't one of my neighbours paying £50, it was a friend who also lives in a 2 bed with electric only
I'm a little confused with my tariff actually as some of my bills stated 'Standard' but the last few say 'Premier Plus' - although when I go onto uSwitch the latter isn't in the long list of available tariffs.
I have been on uSwitch and the figures do not add up with what I'm paying - according to them 6893 kWh (past years usage) should be £701.08 but SP reckon my bill for next 12 months is £1722.16 ?? :think:

Want to try and figure out if there is a meter problem first before I switch though in case I get the same problem with a new supplier!

I'm going to try switching everything off at the weekend and see what happens!!!

Thanks for the replies - wasn't expecting such a quick reply!! :-)

Premier_2

Mrs_FunkyGibbon wrote: »

...I have been on uSwitch and the figures do not add up with what I'm paying - according to them 6893 kWh (past years usage) should be £701.08 but SP reckon my bill for next 12 months is £1722.16 ?? :think:...

£701.08 might be correct - it depends partly on your location, see my previous post for my average estimation of cost.

I would suggest if SP think it'll cost £1700, they should provide the calculation that gives them that value.

JennyR68

The poster titanflux above also had stupidily high estimation of future use from Scottish Power, they may have a problem with their system. Like Premier said ask for their estimate of what they predict your going to use. Your last years use doesn't warrant those figures.

Scottish_Power

Hi Mrs FunkyGibbon

Everytime an accurate meter reading is updated onto your account (either from a meter reader or from a reading provided by you) our billing system recalculates what we predict you will use in kWhs over a period of 12-months. This figure is then used to calculate a Direct Debit amount for you. If you have been with ScottishPower for a long period of time, i.e. more than 12-months and we have a number of accurate meter readings on your account then the Direct Debit amount should be very close to your level of consumption.

If your consumption is 6893 kWh, how is this made up between Day consumption and Night consumption? I presume you have Storage Heaters that charge up over night on the cheaper rates?

The best way to answer all your questions is to record the meter readings, call ScottishPower, have the meter readings updated into your account and ask the agent to confirm how much our system calculates that you use over a 12-month period.

If you have a 2-rate meter (recording Day and Night use) the agent will be able to confirm how much you use on each rate over the year. From this you can then work out how much you should really be paying from the unit rates for the Day and Night.

You can also check that you are on the cheapest tariff with ScottishPower. You may find that changing tariff will also reduce the amount we require per month for your Direct Debit.

If our billing system has hugely overestimated your future 12-month consumption, it is likely that a meter reading has been updated incorrectly which has messed with the annual consumption figures. This is easily rectified if this is the case.

I hope this information helps.

Please let me know of you require any further information.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

Premier_2

scottishpower_company_representative wrote: »

...If your consumption is 6893 kWh, how is this made up between Day consumption and Night consumption? I presume you have Storage Heaters that charge up over night on the cheaper rates?...

You may have missed this bit, Colin

Mrs_FunkyGibbon wrote: »

...I have electric heaters which are thermostatically controlled and are all on a programmer: 6am - 8am and 17:00 - 19:00 during the week...

Based on that, other information supplied and no previous mention of a dual rate/E7 tariff, I presumed the OP was on a single rate tariff.