Help me help my parents - Scottish Hydro

stoopidquestion

Hi

My parents are with Scottish Hydro and I have been trying to do a comparison for them (they are not online). Their annual usage statement says they are on General Domestic NSC - moneysavers (Scot). I cannot find this tariff on the Hydro website, the closest I can find is the regular No Standing Charge tariff which appears to have the same unit prices. The gas "ceiling" before switching to discounted rate on the website is 2500 kWh/year, but my parents paid for 4572 kWh at the higher rate. Can anyone offer any advice?

(Don't want to start ranting down the phone if I've missed something obvious!!)

Thanks

t0rt0ise

Don't rant at them to start with, just ask them to explain it and see what they say.

st999

Their actual usage and dates would be helpful.

stoopidquestion

The statement I have is dated 29 October 2010 (they only get a bill every 6 months) and it says:

"Your gas usage over the last 12 months was 4572.00 kWh standard energy and 10886.42 kWh discounted energy."

I don't have actual meter readings to hand.

It just occured to me - could it be that the amount you need to use before dropping to the lower rate is a quarterly allowance rather than annual, and in the summer they don't use up to that amount? I guess I had assumed it was an annual "allowance" for want of a better word, and they wouldn't pay for the higher rate for more than 2500kWh but maybe I've read it wrong....

Thanks for reading

Airmike23

Hydro put gas rates up from 1st Dec 2010 and changed from 4572kwh per annum at higher rate to 1500kwh at higher rate (650kwh per quarter rather than the 1,143kwh perviously) the moneysaver part might mean a social tariff version of their standard which may have a higher discount than a standard hydro customer gets, but as t0rt0ise advised call hydro and ask.

st999

15458 kWh is the figure you put into comparison sites when it asks for your annual usage.

Putting that into uswitch for a PH1 postcode gives a cost of £533 for gas only from BG.

The figure of 4572 is divided by 365 and multiplied by the number of days the bill covers which means that every day you use gas you are charged at the higher rate for the first 13 kWh then the lower rate for the rest used in that day.

Of course the bill isn't actually calculated out that way but if you want to know how much your gas costs if you used 20 kWh in a day that is how to do it. 13 times higher rate plus 7 times lower rate. Or if you use 113 kWh in a day the calculation becomes 13 times higher rate plus 100 times lower rate.

I will let you work out the figures for 91 days usage of 10283 by yourself.

stoopidquestion

Thanks for the advice. I'll see my parents at the weekend, and get a better look.

Thanks guys!