What are Scottish Power playing at? Help please

fimonkey

Please help me make sense of this recent bill and proposed increase from Scottish Power.

3 bed upstairs flat -shared tenancy so TV in every room (generally left on standby - I know it uses money!!).The flat has double glazing and recent loft insulation. Gas Hob, gas central heating and brand new boiler (12 months old), electric oven.

I currently pay £110pm for combined fuel on a 'premier plus' tariff' but they're about to put my monthly DD up by £54 to £164 pm, an increase of almost 50%!!!!

My recent bill dated 21.12.10 was £633.71, the account was already in credit by £502.26 so that left us a bill of just £131.45.

The only actual meter readings they have are as follows:
1st April 2010 Gas read 999. 17th Dec Gas read 2085
1st April 2010 Electric read 41422. 17th Dec Electric read 45338

The period between both actual readings is 260 days.

Gas. Total use over 260 days = 1086 units. There's a funky conversion factor to use to get KWhr which is Gas units used (1086) * calorific value (currently 39.3) * volume correction (currently 1.022640) / 3.6. This gives me an answer of an average daily consumption of 168.13KWhr

Electricity. Total use over 260 days = 3916. 1 unit = 1KWhr. = average daily consumption 4.18KWhr

I have been online to compare prices and SP online saver 12 come up as cheapest, saving me £340 p.a. but when I call them they tell me it comes up as MORE than the proposed increase and that the proposed increase must therefore be wrong!

I know I need to get another meter reading (currently waiting for them to send me the key thingy I need to get at the meters as they're on an outside wall). ONce I have them what should I be doing with them (i.e how many meter readings do I take, daily? weekly?) and then how can I go about getting my energy bills down (will be turing off the TVs on standby for sure). I heard about the meter watch devices that tell you how much energy you're using - are they expensive and if not where can I get one?

Thanks in advance.

fimonkey

Hmm, looking through other threads I see Premier posted an average annual consumption for Gas and Electricity per household of:
Electric 3300KW and Gas 20500KW

Per day this is 56.16KW and 9.04KW respectively

From my own per day estimates we're using 4.18KW electric per day and 168.13 Gas per day!

I think I may have therefore messed up my calculations: Can anyone help?

Thanks again

molerat

Your sums seem somewhat lacking. Elec 3916 / 260 = 15kWh/day, Gas 1086 / 260 = 4.17 units = 47kWh/day. Work out those figures as an annual useage and put them into a comparison site.

fimonkey

Thanks Molerat, I got the figures for Gas and Electricity mixed up! You're right and that's hugely appreciated!

So our yearly usage for Gas is 17155 and electricity is 5475??

Cheers