Changing meter?

shellsuit

glo1967 wrote:

What size property do you have? What appliances do you have that are gas?
How often do you use them?

3 bed semi

Central heating, one gas fire and a gas hob.

Heating is on at most 5 hours a day, couple of hours in the morning and a couple/few hours of a night.

Fire is only on at most an hour a night, just to warm the living room up.

Hob, once a day.

glo1967

shellsuit wrote:

3 bed semi

Central heating, one gas fire and a gas hob.

Heating is on at most 5 hours a day, couple of hours in the morning and a couple/few hours of a night.

Fire is only on at most an hour a night, just to warm the living room up.

Hob, once a day.

In comparison, I have the same appliances which I use around the same length of times as you, but live in a 3 bed flat & my usage is probably around £12-£14 per week, a lot less than what you are paying. It may be worth changing your supplier instead of your meters. I did think about changing my meters, but like the fact that I don't have a huge bill coming in every 3 months.

adon30

shellsuit wrote:

3 bed semi

Central heating, one gas fire and a gas hob.

Heating is on at most 5 hours a day, couple of hours in the morning and a couple/few hours of a night.

Fire is only on at most an hour a night, just to warm the living room up.

Hob, once a day.

I have a large 3 bed semi and am paying around £25 - 30 a month (during winter on a standard meter)

Heating on for an hour in the morning and 3 to 4 hours in the evening. I have a gas cooker and hob which is used every day. My boiler is a combi, so water is only heated when I need it. I have a gas fire in the lounge but only use it when it’s extremely cold.

Firstly) If your boiler is not a combi. Think if you need to heat the water as much as you do. Do you have a separate timer control for water and heating? If so it may be worth checking the settings.

Second) Do you use all the rooms in the house? Do they have thermostats on all the radiators? If so turn them down in rooms you don't use or alternatively turn them off and keep the door closed. You can always turn it back on if you are in the room.

Third) What is the house insulation like? It sounds like you use a lot of energy to keep it warm. How deep is the loft insulation? Do you have cavity walls? Are they insulated?
I had only 3 - 4 inches of insulation in the loft. I topped this up with an extra 7 inches giving 11 inches of insulation. The recommended amount is about 12 inches for new builds. This made the house feel a lot warmer and will hopefully save me more on heating costs. It cost me less than £100 to do it myself for a 5 x 5 meter area (25mSq). You can get grants from energy companies to have it installed and the cheapest I've seen through them is £195. However if you are on low income or benefits you may get it for free. Same goes for wall insulation with the grant with the cheapest around £300-400.
It may seem like a large outlay to begin with but insulation usually pays back in about 5 years and in some cases a lot quicker.

And Finally) What is your thermostat set at? Consider turning it down by one degree if its feasible. Just one degree will help with the savings.

black-saturn

When I first moved in here I also had card meters and I was forever topping them up. They do cost loads more than a normal meter. I got them changed by phoning Siemens but it took about 6 months to get to the top of the waiting list. If your in rented accomodation you will have to get written permission from the landlord.

Somerset

I've bought a flat which had a prepay meter. I've only had an electricity supply for about a month and it's already used up £35. Not much you might say but we gutted the flat so no appliances, no storage heaters etc. The £35covers lightbulbs and some powertool usage. I am horrified by B Gas prepay meter prices. Hopefully changing to normal meter - should have been last Monday but B Gas gave incorrect contact no to meter fitter, now re-arranged for next Tuesday.

jembie

£30 is worse than mine. I think you should get your meter looked at.
I phoned up this afternoon about changing mine and the woman was brilliant. She said that as I have been at my house for 12 years now then the credit check will just be a formality.
She asked if I wanted the electric meter done too and I said yes.

I have asked for payment by card to start with but when I have sorted everything out with my citibank account then I will change it to DD (And when I have measure of how much it is going to be.

jembie

Well that didn't take long.
I recieved a letter this morning telling me that I failed the credit check and if I want a new meter I have to pay £125...Sod that!

Looks like I am stuck paying £20 a week then until I can change providers...YET AGAIN!!

espresso

jembie wrote:

Well that didn't take long.
I recieved a letter this morning telling me that I failed the credit check and if I want a new meter I have to pay £125...Sod that!

Looks like I am stuck paying £20 a week then until I can change providers...YET AGAIN!!

So switch to a better provider who wants your custom and won't rip you off by charging you more! see here. Don't be bullied by BG.

tripled

There are some providers who will not credit check you if you want your meter changing, try ringing round and asking.

Stuart_W

I just wanted to add that I couldn't recommend Ebico enough - I recommended them to a friend in a similar situation as yours. Much much cheaper than BG and you can keep your existing prepayment meters without getting ripped off on a special "pre-pay" tariff. No need to exchange meters or go through a tough credit check.

I would suggest it is worth at least trying this route. :-)