E.ON Track & Save 7 need urgent help

kathie1101

Bit of history: we have been on Staywarm for a long time, but due to changes in their t&c we no longer qualify for it. Therefore from 17th November they switched us over onto Track & Save 7. At the same time I checked the comparison sites and found that we would be better off with EDF's Online S@ver v7 tariff, so applied for it.

We took meter readings at the switch over to the new E.ON tarriff and weekly readings since so I can try and keep track of our usage. Last night I actually put these figures into a spreadsheet to work out how much it is costing us and I was shocked at the gas costs.:eek: The heating/fire was promptly switched off and I am now freezing but daren't put it back on, which isn't helping my health problems

I wonder if somebody could kindly check my figures to make sure I haven't made a mistake.

Gas Used (during last 14 days) Imperial Meter:
52 Units = 1641KWH
Charges:
670kwh @ 7.399p = £49.57
971kwh @ 3.058p = £29.69
Total gas cost for 14 days = £79.26

Electric Used (during last 14 days)
184 Units/KWH used
125kwh @ 18.31p = £22.88
59KWH @ 11.51p = £6.79
Total electric cost for 14 days = £29.67

I have also calculated what it would have cost us if we were already on EDF's Online S@ver v7 tariff:

Gas Used (during last 14 days) Imperial Meter:
52 Units = 1641KWH
Charges:
1641kwh @ 2.771p = £45.47
14 days daily charge @ 25.59p = £3.58
Total gas cost for 14 days = £49.05

Electric Used (during last 14 days)
184 Units/KWH used
184kwh @ 9.2715p = £17.05
14 days daily charge @ 27.804p = £3.89
Total electric cost for 14 days = £20.94

Neither of these figures take into account the discount as I am not 100% certain on what we get - think it is 6% with EDF (plus £100 sign up and £80 quidco) and think E.ON is 8% (6% direct debit & 2% dual fuel).

My first thought was that the gas usage seems very excessive, but although I can't say exactly how many hours the heating/fire has been on during the 14 days I don't think it is a huge amount (don't use the timer - just put it on for hour/2 hours as and when we feel cold). Also I went back to an old spreadsheet I had from 2 years ago when I used to keep monthly readings and Dec/Jan were about the same sort of figures.

Our house is over 100 years old, 3 bedroom detached, no cavity walls. Have loft insulation (can't tell you how much) and a combi boiler - not a condensing one. The radiators & pipes were all replaced about 6 years ago but we were told the boiler was ok at the time, probably not the case now but don't think we can afford to replace. The fire in the room is a 3.5KW flueless Burley gas fire.

We were told by Staywarm that our annual gas consumption is 21139KWH and 6357KWH for electric - funny thing being that we were told that we used more than average electric but about average gas, so I had been concentrating on trying to cut electric usage, so absolutely gobsmacked when I worked out our gas costs. I had realised that it would be a bit higher as we wouldn't have built up any credit as yet (paying fixed monthly direct debit) but our £140 DD for both gas & electric is going to be almost swallowed up by just 14 days use!

Sorry for the long rambling post (can't concentrate at all at the moment) and appreciate it if you have read this far. I guess what I am asking is:
1) Have I worked out my figures correctly
2) Any suggestions on anything I can do to cut back both until I switch to EDF and in the long term to reduce
3) Anything I can do to get switched over quicker or anyone know how long the switch over is likely to take.

Many thanks to anyone that can help

Airmike23

yes you have worked out gas correctly, and yes edf onliner saver 7 is cheaper than track and save 7

macman

Your gas usage is average, but your electricity is very high for a 3 b/r house with gas CH and DHW-about 40% more than the average. Immersion heater left on 24/7 maybe?

kathie1101

thank you both of you for taking the time to reply, I appreciate it.

I do think that our electric usage may be slightly over inflated. There was an error in 1 of the meter readings and so when giving us our annual consumption Staywarm took an 18 month reading and averaged it out. So based on what I am using at the moment (and previously) I think it could be slightly wrong, but probably not by much and we will still be way above average.

We don't have an immersion heater so not that causing problem, but I do have my laptop on most of the day (until about 6 months ago it was my desktop pc that was on) I believe the laptop is more efficient though. I used to have the tv on all the time just for the sake of it, but haven't done that for quite a while now. Also we had an outside sensor light (150w halogen spotlight ) which I think used to come on quite a bit during the night - we disconnected this a couple of weeks ago as not sure how much this would be using.

I bought one of those plug in things that test how much each of your appliances are using, but stupidly haven't got round to using it yet - will have to do so pretty sharpish I think.

echoecho_2

Unless you're thinking about changing supplier all together, it would be worth going onto eons cheapest tariff (Saveonline 4).

I'd recommend putting your annual kwh consumption into a price comparison site to see if you'd benefit from a better deal.

kathie1101

Thanks Echo but yep I am waiting to change over to EDF, applied middle of November so probably got a while to wait yet until the switch is done. Shame that we left it until winter to sort out as we should really have done it in the summer when we could have been building a credit up that would have helped to cover the winter payments. Lesson definitely learnt I think.