Parents' £80 Elec. bill p.m, surely too much?Emersion heater?

KimYeovil

Why are you looking at the credit? Why not read the actual consumption?

And yes, there are long periods in a tumble drier's cycle when no heating is used - all they are doing is tumbling the clothing occasionally so as to minimise creasing whilst it is drying in its own residual warmth and steam.

calleyw

SwanJon wrote: »

There are other tariffs available that are cheaper, usually because of discounts applied, although some have a cheaper p/kWh. These include paying by Direct Debit, internet billing and combinations of the two.
The company you are thinking of is probably Ebico - always compare prices for your consumption though.

I have taken assumption that the Op's parents don't want to come off of a pre-paid meter. So will not be paying by DD etc. So ebico is a better choice for them on a pre-paid meter than most suppliers.

Ebico don't appear on the comparison websites. But with out knowing how KWh's per week is being used and what cost it makes it harder to work out the best tariff.

I am with ebico and I don't have a pre-paid meter. My electric bills are normally £50 a quarter.

That is two adults one at home for 85% of the time. Usual household appliances except a tv.

Yours

Calley

KimYeovil

calleyw wrote: »

I have taken assumption that the Op's parents don't want to come off of a pre-paid meter. So will not be paying by DD etc. So ebico is a better choice for them on a pre-paid meter than most suppliers.

Ebico don't appear on the comparison websites. But with out knowing how KWh's per week is being used and what cost it makes it harder to work out the best tariff.

I am with ebico and I don't have a pre-paid meter. My electric bills are normally £50 a quarter.

What rubbish.

The OP is spending £80 per month not £17 per month. There is absolutely no way Ebico will be cheaper with that sort of consumption.

Ebico appear on every single comparison site I know. Do please identify a single one where they do not appear. (Hint - have you checked way down the list on the third or fourth results page?)

buel

Hi again, sorry for the delay, i've been gathering a bit of info!
Ok, i have a long statement from Scottish Power and it says that my parents spent:
£1809 over the last 504 days, which is-
£107 per month, or
£1310 per year.

With the standing charge added the total is:
£1895 for 504 days
£112 per month
£1372 per year.

The total amount they have paid into their pre-payment meter for between 23-2-2009 and 11-7-2010 is £2001
That is electricity charges of £1897, 'other charges' of £4.90
and VAT of £94.

Aditionally on this statement it states that they have used 12,366 kWh of electricity during the previous 12 months (also, it states that the estimated charge over the next 12 months for the same amount of electricity will be £1544.

Now, is it just me or are my parents using an extraordinary amount of electric for 2 people who live in a 2 up, 2 down cottage with a small room built on, kerosene central heating and water heating and a real solid fuel (wood) fire and their excesses in the last 12 months have been: an immersion heater on one hour a day, my mum using her tumble dryer to dry her clothes and, during the winter months, a heat lamp in an exterior shed to keep puppy dogs warm?

Please feel free to comment on any of these figures and/or ask me any questions or give me any advice as im furious/scared that my parents are paying, on average, £112 per month for electricity alone!:(:sad::think::think:

Ps- The statement says that the most recent period of between 1-3-2010 and 11-7-2010 they Scottish Power were charging 11.2p per kWh and 17.2p per day i think, it is written down as: 4218@11.227 and 133days@17.290

Pps- i have just been on the 'energyhelpline.com' website, inputted my parents' post code and last years/12 months usage of electricity (which we now know will be much lower this next 12 months being as my mum uses a spin dryer to partly dry her clothes instead of putting them directly into the tumble dryer like she was up to 2 weeks ago, but for the sake of the comparison site i stuck to the same usage) and clicked to see what other suppliers they could go on using a pre-payment meter and E-on came up top with a price of £1309 for the same period which was a saving of £215/14%. However, when i did the same again but chose 'any method of payment' E-on again came top with the 'pay monthly direct debit' option but with a price of £1008, a saving of a whopping 697/41%!!!
However, i have 2 questions:
1, i was under the impression that pre-payment meters/suppliers had to, by law, not over charge their customers for using a pre-payment meter? If so, then how could using the pay monthly option be so much cheaper?
2, even though i submitted my parents' post code im hesitant to hope that E-on could supply them where they are (in the hills in mid-wales where i suspected that only Scottish Power were available), apart from ringing them on Monday how can i find out this please?
Thank you in advance!!

st999

a heat lamp in an exterior shed to keep puppy dogs warm

AH! I bet that is what is using all their electricity.

This was not mentioned before, why?

So what is the wattage of the lamp and how long is it on for?

Stan

buel

Hi there, i didn't mention it before because i didn't know before, i only found out yesterday. Also, what may help is the fact that they have a fridge and two outside full size freezers.
Could i please trouble you for your opinions on my two questions?-

1, i was under the impression that pre-payment meters/suppliers had to, by law, not over charge their customers for using a pre-payment meter? If so, then how could using the pay monthly option be so much cheaper?
2, even though i submitted my parents' post code im hesitant to hope that E-on could supply them where they are (in the hills in mid-wales where i suspected that only Scottish Power were available), apart from ringing them on Monday how can i find out this please?

molerat

The pay monthly option is cheaper generally because the customer is not on a standard tariff and can be 25%+ cheaper. Nowhere in this thread have you posted how many kWh per day they are using. With this figure advice would be more easily given. Is the meter collecting a debt ?

Is the figure on the statement using estimated or actual meter readings, the annual kWh given is about 3 times the national average.

Most suppliers can supply to almost anywhere, they have no physical involvement in the supply of electricity to a certain location.

It may be worth getting hold of an energy meter. Many companies are giving them away or you may be able to borrow one from the library. They also can be obtained reasonably priced on eBay. This shows how much electricity is being used at any given time ( I can see I am using 490 watts at the moment) and can help in seeing where it is being used or help to prove the meter is wrong. If the consumption is accurate it may help them to change their useage pattern and reduce the bill. By turning something off they can see how much they will save.

Andy_WSM

buel wrote: »

1, i was under the impression that pre-payment meters/suppliers had to, by law, not over charge their customers for using a pre-payment meter? If so, then how could using the pay monthly option be so much cheaper?

Your parents aren't paying more than a standard tariff that anyone else would pay. The difference is that people on credit meters who pay by DD cost less for companies to administer (look after) so they reflect this by offering a substantial discount from the total bill.

Yes, E-on will be able to supply you, regardless of where you live.

buel

Hi, in reply to molerat- am i correct in thinking that i can use this equation to work out the usage per hour:
12336kWh in 365days / 24hrs = 1.4kW per hour

buel

Oh and how do these energy monitors work please? where do they plug in to?