How much could my MIL save?

dannymccann

Ive got a lovely MIL so no comments about the traditional relationship with SIL's

She is currently in a council house, shes been here all her life (nearly 50 years and her dad had it before her), she loves the place. Since it was refurbed 30 years ago its always had a coin meter (now a key one but same thing). Everything is electric, but they have a proper coal fire in the living room that heats the water for the central heating radiators, so the only water heating is done by the immersion, which is left on 24/7 through personal choice (I dont know what temp). They have no shower at the moment as the council are dragging their heals and have been for nearly a year now but they are content with having a bath each every day (2 adults and 10 year old autistic daughter). They dont have any energy saving bulbs and they are terrible at turning things off when they leave the room like the computer, TV etc.

She is ALWAYS in credit (she has to be as she doesnt have a car and lives in the sticks so if the leccy's gone she'd be stuffed till FIL comes home), and by some degree at the moment as she puts in £20 a week but uses only £15/16. Considering their usage in the above paragraph, this is not bad at all. Now I explained to her the benefits of being on a normal meter and said you, as a 'credit tenant' rather than the usual mob put on these meters, are being ripped off paying for it like this, so she seems genuinely interested in swapping over to DD on a normal meter. Im not looking to change her usage because she is happy paying this much, she knows she could save more but doesnt mind in that respect. How much could she save on her bills by going for the cheapest online tarriff (no need for Eco7, shes in bed by 9 and up at 7!) and DD.

Cheers

spiro

How much she spends in irrelevant, what we need to know is the unit price and any standing charge she currerntly pays.

rhiwfield

Ok, so it seems that your MIL heats the house with a back boiler to the coal fire but also spends between £15 and £20 per week on leccy (£780-£1040 per year). Thats a lot.

From your description they are not energy efficient and that is the first place to start to save money. The difference between efficiency and profligacy could be up to a halving of leccy bills, in your MIL's case that may mean potential savings of £500 pa. In all likelihood she is unlikely to take all the steps necessary to achieve those savings but reducing bills by 25% should be relatively easy with only minor investment in energy saving bulbs, automatice switch off devices and timers and some behavioural changes (only putting the required amount of water in a kettle, efficient cooking, line drying).

She could buy more energy efficient appliances when replacing, and simply reading the meter regularly encourages efficiency.

If she does the above AND makes savings from a change of meter, she should be quids in.

macman

Biggest obvious saving there is to stop leaving the immersion on 24/7, huge waste of energy there and quite unecessary. Get a timer on it and it should not be necessary to have it on more than a few hours. Set it to come on say an hour before morning wash time and similarly in the evening.
And make sure the tank is properly lagged.

dannymccann

Found out what they are paying. £1.81 standing charge / week + 10.55p /kwh.

As I said, she is kind of stuck in her ways and does not mind what she pays at the moment, and even doesnt mind paying the way she does, just wondered if it was worth the hassle of getting everything switched over if it was only going to get her a 5% decrease in bills, not changing any behaviour. I know its wasteful but its her house and her money at the end of the day :rotfl:

spiro

If you say she is spending £15-16/week that means £1.81 standing charge and £14 of elec which at 10.55p equals 132 units per week or 18.9 units per day which is over twice the OFGEM annual average of 3300 per year.

Based on BGs websaver 6 tariff (depnding on area she lives in) she would pay about £650 compared to £822.

That said reducing consumption would help a lot.