really cross!

tinkerbell1978

just rang to get consumption figures for the year after 15 minutes i hung up!
actually got some info on my electric account online everytime i have logged on before its always said no info available!
ok electric :-

Reading date Reading type Reading kWh

11 Apr 2006 Meter Reader 20343
05 May 2006 Estimated 20658 315.00
05 May 2006 Estimated 51769 0.00
09 Jun 2006 Estimated 21081 423.00
09 Jun 2006 Estimated 51769 0.00
04 Jul 2006 Meter Reader 21390 309.00
11 Apr 2006 Meter Reader 20343 0.00

Electricity used 1047.00


Electricity Charges

For 309.00 kWh consumed used over 26 days
Your Rate 1 = 64.00 kWh at 14.321 pence per kWh 9.17
Base Rate 2 = 245.00 kWh at 8.397 pence per kWh 20.57

For 423.00 kWh consumed used over 35 days
Base Rate 1 = 86.00 kWh at 16.164 pence per kWh 13.90
Base Rate 2 = 337.00 kWh at 8.397 pence per kWh 28.30

For 315.00 kWh consumed used over 24 days
Your Rate 1 = 59.00 kWh at 14.321 pence per kWh 8.45
Base Rate 2 = 256.00 kWh at 8.397 pence per kWh 21.50

Charge for Electricity used £101.89

VAT

Cost of Electricity used excluding VAT £101.89
VAT at 5.00 % £5.09

Total cost of Electricity used £106.98

tinkerbell1978

it does not give me any up to date info though

i can submit a meter reading online maybe i should do that?

mleonard79

Hi tinkerbell - yes anywhere you can put in your own meter readings do it as it's a good way of getting rid of estimated bills and confusion!!

As for the figures you've posted above the first thing that is striking is that, for that period in time anyway, you are using nowhere near £93 per month in electricity - your bill for nearly 3 months only comes to £106.98 which equates to less than £40 a month actually used. So, as Cardew has suggested there may be other reasons, like clearing a debt, for your dd being so high every month. I would get on to them and ask them why they are asking so much in dd when you don't use anywhere near that amount of electricity - of course it would be a good idea to get hold of your consumption since July just to make sure it is similar before doing this. If there is a huge difference in consumption from the April-July period to the last few months then clearly something is amiss.

As far as the consumption itself goes I don't think it's all that bad. It's actually lower than my house but I know we use a higher than average amount of electricity anyway so that's probably not saying much. The 1047 over 85 days equates to around 12.3kwh per day or a yearly consumption of 4489.5kwh (dependent on it remaining at that level.) I don't know what the average is but I doubt this is hugely excessive for a three-bed house - I'm sure there are some people who get it much lower but it doesn't sound to me like you're lighting the whole street on that! Ours last year was over 8000kwh when I started looking at it which is very high but I've managed to get it down a bit for this year since I started monitoring it.

As far as the tariffs go - again they're not the worst I've seen (as you can see from the standard rates I quoted in an earlier post) but they're also nowhere near the best either. As I say whether or not you would benefit from switching can only be found out by comparing prices for your area as it changes from area to area.

I would firstly get back onto British Gas and get those full yearly consumption figures out of them (or even if possible dig out all the old bills as you'll be able to work it out from them.) Then from there go to a comparison website like energyhelpline cashback site I quoted earlier and find out what the best tariffs for your area are. Hope that helps.

Regards

Michelle

mleonard79

PS - what were they saying on Watchdog to make you angry?

Cardew

I would only add to Michelle's post that you can go and read your meter now and see what the reading is compared to your last reading on 4th July of 21390.

It is approx 17 weeks since then so if your present consumption is in line with your consumption earlier this year you should have used approx 1,500kWh and your meter reading around 22,900.

If this is approx your reading, and bearing in mind that BG increased their standard tariffs on 4th Sept, £40 a month would be about right.

By the way the average consumption is approx 3,300kWh per year and you seem to be using about 4,500kWh

P.S.
I have used the term 'approx' approx 6 times in this post - approximately!

tomstickland

Start taking daily meter readings for a week or two. Once you know your consumption rate then you can do the maths.

mleonard79

the average consumption is approx 3,300kWh per year

That's an interesting stat - I thought it would be somewhere between 4,000kwh and 5,000kwh so the average is even lower than I thought!! Makes our 8,700kwh consumption last year look even more shocking :eek: I thought we were probably double the average but that's nearly three times it. And there was me thinking I was doing well to hopefully be getting it down to between 6,000kwh and 7,000kwh this year. Oh well....

It is a really good idea to do a daily meter reading for a few weeks as tomstickland suggests - it does give you a good idea of what's going on.

Regards

Michelle

tinkerbell1978

11 Apr 2006 to 06 Nov 2006


Consumption Graph
Average Units Consumed Average 00.26NT00.11DY 10.00NT00.01DY
Date (mm/yy) 04/05 07/05 10/05 01/06 04/06 07/06 10/06

Graph Legend
NY =Night Consumption
DY =Day Consumption
Night readings:
reading date reading reading type total cons.* no. days av. daily cons.*

10 Oct 2006 51769 Other 001.00 98 000.01
04 Jul 2006 51769 Estimated 999999.00 0 000.01
04 Jul 2006 51768 Meter Reader 999999.00 0 000.01
11 Apr 2006 51769 Meter Reader

Day readings:
reading date reading reading type total cons.* no. days av. daily cons.*

10 Oct 2006 22588 Other 1198.00 98 012.22
04 Jul 2006 21390 Other 1047.00 85 012.32
11 Apr 2006 20343 Meter Reader

tinkerbell1978

found this on my account on house.co.uk for my elec i must use loads but i cant see how no plugs are left on etc

tinkerbell1978

oh boy oh boy just rang and they made a balls up over estimated massively!!!!!!!!
04 Jul 2006 51769 Estimated 999999.00 0 000.01
04 Jul 2006 51768 Meter Reader 999999.00 0 000.01

wowwwwwwww no wonder it was a 93 direct debit!