Advice Scottish Hydro Electic Total Control

Vicky46

I am on total control tarriff and wonder if it would be worthwhile coming off this tarriff and changing suppliers.

I use the above company for my electicity and I find my electric bills extremely high over £300 a month. I also use a Calor Gas heater to supplement as its is still cold. Friends with the same and similar sized homes living in other areas are less than a third of what our bills are.

I have loft insulation, DG, new heating system. I have tried almost everything and worrised about next winter already. My husband and I are healthy pensioners, although not entitled to any benefts because our joint pension is £20 over the limit. Staying in our home is dependent on using our savings. I'm not looking for sympathy but advice on how costs can be further reduced.

I have spoken to the company about this several times, (I also monitor my usage) and in a nutshell they reckon its the area where I live, which is windy and open to all elements.
I was considered for 10 tarriff but the rep reckoned it would be even more expensive than the current TC tarriff.

Are there any experts there who knows if it would be worthwhile changing suppliers

Bonny1

Sounds a bit odd to me, £300 a month is Criminal... do you live in a 18 roomed castle? with no windows?

I'd have someone round to check this out, it sounds to me like your paying for the whole street.. alternatively, get a 'pay-as-you-go' metre installed, I have them for my Gas and Electricity, and it's been a far better.. it works out slightly more expensive, but I control what I use, and no bills.. I also had my gas fires removed, from all the rooms, and installed multi fuel burners, and the difference has been incredible..

good luck
Bonny

Pink_fluff

Is £300 per month for your usage? Or is this including any arrears? How many rooms does your house have? £300 seems very high.

dogshome

Hi Vicky46 - With the best will in the world, the only person who can give good advice as to your tariff is you.
Forget the monthly cost and add up up how many Kwh, (Units of electric used), you used in the last 12 months - I guess you are in an All-Electric dwelling -

Armed with your total consumption, visit 'switchwithwhich' who not only list the alternative suppliers prices, but show you exactly what the tariff details are from those suppliers alongside the details of your present suppliers tariff
All the best

Premier_2

dogshome wrote: »

...Armed with your total consumption, visit 'switchwithwhich' who not only list the alternative suppliers prices, but show you exactly what the tariff details are from those suppliers alongside the details of your present suppliers tariff
All the best

I doubt that any comparison site will list the OP's current tariff as it will be difficult to switch from that 3 rate supply to any commonly available supply elsewhere.

dunloadin

I can give you a definitive answer on THTC, it's the bain of my life.

First off, do you have one or two meters? If you have a key or token meter you'll have one meter, which has two metering elements to record usage simultaniously. If you pay by billing you'll have two meters (normally).

THTC is difficult to explain, but at it's most basic you have TWO seperate metering systems.

meter 1, is a single rate meter which supplies your domestic supply (i.e. lights, sockets, cooker etc); this is metered at the higher rate 24/7, so putting washing/driers on in the early hours makes no difference at all.

meter 2, is a radio telemeter, which supplies ALL your heating at the cheaper rate 24/7. Normally a combination of storage heaters and panel/convector heaters are wired into the meter along with two immersion heaters in your hot water tank.

You can convert to eco7, but will have to work out the risks vs gains. You will get the benefit of cheap rate electric overnight for your tumble dryers etc, but your panel heaters and hot water boost through the day will be charged at the higher rate. Only makes sense to do this if you no longer have the panel/convector heaters fitted, that said they tend to be in rooms that don't need heating all day (bathroom/bedrooms).

Suppliers other than Hydro (SSE) will run a mile if you try to change to them as the billing is difficult if not impossible to set up. That said telesales staff and doorknockers will happily give it a go...with a high potential of the occupant receiving seperate bills for each meter with both being on a single rate tariff (heating paid for at the day rate).

You say you have a new heating system, if it differs from the heating described above let us know, there may be a better solution available.

Vicky46

Thanks for all your replies
We have a 3 bedroomed cottage with 2 bathrooms (towel heaters aren't used) kitchen and living room, there are radiators in each room and 1 in the hallway.

we had storage heaters until Nov 2008 and decided on a new central heating system with radiators. I live in a rural area and when phoning the hydro about the query they said if was camparaable with other users in the area in fact mine was quiet modest in comparison.

Over the past 9 months Scottish Hydro have been looking into it and they say its correct.

Yes I have 2 meters 1) grey - heating 1) white - white goods. They say its the heating one thats the problem as my general usage is normal.

I pay £150 by monthly DD and over the last 6 months I incurred a debit of £900.
We have 1 emmersion heater

Yes we have lots of roof insulation, we can't get wall insulation due to the type of build it is and it was built 18 years ago. We have really good double glazing (no complaints there)

I hope you can help

lg723

Hi Vikcy46!

Just curious as to how you are managing to run a wet central heating system off THTC? As far as I know the rules for this type of system is that 60% of your installed heating load should be coming from storage heating and the rest a mixture of panel/fan heaters.
May I ask how long and what times your central heating is set to come on for each day?
It may be that your boiler has been incorrectly wired into your domestic meter and not the heating meter perhaps?

A neighbour of mine had monthly bills similar to yourself and it wasn't until she had an electrician come and have a look that they discovered her immersion water heater had been wrongly wired into the domestic meter and she was being charged over the odds for her water heating.

I'd recommed that you try change to Economy 10 as this tariff is more suited to households with electric central heating with radiators such as yourself as opposed to THTC which is meant for storage heating.

The unit prices are around the same for THTC/Economy 10 (around 7.5p I believe?) but the daily standing charge is around 10p less.

Hope this may be of some help

Vicky46

Thanks for your time in replying.
We used to have storage heaters but installed radiators in Nov. 2008. The Hydro said the installers should have informed them about the new system, but they didn't.
Prices charged are

Tarriff is Standard THTC
Heating control 6.04p
Standard energy 13.57p
Standing charge was 31.08p
Customer service referred us for Economy 10, but, after consultation reckoned it would be no less that it is just now and may be more. so that idea was abandoned.
The hydro have done numerous tests but state its usage.
The heating is on around 7 hours per day
I cant remember the exact times, below are approx for a couple of hours.

During the night I think around 2am
early morning until around 8am
Mid afternoon around 2-3 pm

Owain_Moneysaver

When you say radiators do you mean electric panel heaters, storage heaters, or do you have a wet central heating system with a gas/oil/etc boiler? Or do you have a wet system with an electric boiler.

Vicky46

I have wet radiators, Everything is electric we have no gas, oil or LPG.