Scottish Power - Have Prices Doubled in just over 12 Months

MusicalLawyer

I was with British Gas, I just switched to Scottish Power in February.

I keep a spreadsheet for my electricity consumption.
So I check the meter mostly every day and write down my usage. I am then able to work that out in money terms. I'm on the Discounted, Online Energy Saver October 2013 tariff (try saying that when you're drunk!) We pay £69pm DD - and we're going to be in credit by the time the bill is formulated in May.

Maybe you should write down your usages. I know that the majority of mine is used when the water/boiler is turned on (we're electricity only). So we try to keep usage down to a minimum by having quicker showers, so there is still enough water to wash up and so on. Or sometimes we wash up every other day, rather than every day. (There is only 2 of us).

Maybe you just need to re arrange what you're using? IE if you're on a 2 tariff, use higher usage things off peak?

victor2

JWhite wrote: »

What I want to see is an energy company that comes along and makes what you are using and paying more transparent.

I don't want "primary" and "secodary" units which are used to confuse the understanding of what is being used and charged for to confuse the user, I want a comparison supplied which shows you want you used for the last quarter of the previous year compared against what you have used for the same quarter this year plus what the units cost then and now !!

Have we got an energy company with the guts to do that - NO !!

I wonder why :rotfl:

Perhaps it is because people would really see how these companies are profiteering from the ordinary people and the little old aged pensioner who has to decide whether to heat or eat !

Most energy tariffs are confusing, even to those that believe they understand them! It's part of the reason why comparison sites are so popular. But those sites only give meaningful results if you know your usage in kWh, as various posters have pointed out here.

What it is actually costing you is of course the goal you are interested in, but that is directly linked to your usage of gas and electricity, much more than what you are paying now, or have paid in the past.

Your consumption should be less in your smaller home, but we can't establish if it actually is unless we have kWh figures to compare. Even if you can't get the figures from old bills, you can get them from recent bills. That will indicate if your usage has been reasonable or excessive for the periods covered. Only then can you look at the cost breakdown.

Leodogger

victor2 wrote: »

Most energy tariffs are confusing, even to those that believe they understand them! It's part of the reason why comparison sites are so popular. But those sites only give meaningful results if you know your usage in kWh, as various posters have pointed out here.

What it is actually costing you is of course the goal you are interested in, but that is directly linked to your usage of gas and electricity, much more than what you are paying now, or have paid in the past.

Your consumption should be less in your smaller home, but we can't establish if it actually is unless we have kWh figures to compare. Even if you can't get the figures from old bills, you can get them from recent bills. That will indicate if your usage has been reasonable or excessive for the periods covered. Only then can you look at the cost breakdown.

I can tell you what my most recent bill is but isn't it all relative to how much you use something as to how high the cost would be ?

My most recent bill :

Elec : Secondary Units - 715 @ 9.630p
Primary Units - 206 @ 19.468p

Gas : Secondary Units - 2859 @ 3.122p
Primary Units - 615 @ 6.810p

This covered the period 9/1/12 to 1/4/12 in both cases.

victor2

OK.
That equates to 921kWh of electricity and 2474kWh of gas in 83 days.
So, an average of 11kWh of electricity and 42kWh of gas per day.
Those figures don't look unreasonable to me, with the gas usage indicating you did not have your heating running for a lot of the time.
If anything, I would say your electricity usage is just a little high, but it depends on what you have running. In my experience, electricity tends to be fairly steady all year round if you don't have any form of electric heating and use low energy light bulbs.
Gas usage is very seasonal as a boiler has to work harder in the colder months even if just providing hot water.

The primary unit cost is effectively compensating the supplier for not having a daily standing charge. Those figures will be before VAT and any discount you get.

If you want to monitor your current usage, just take meter readings regularly (perhaps daily for a start). The electric meter measures kWh directly, so the difference between the readings is the kWh used. The gas meter will either measure cubic meters or hundreds of cubic feet of gas used. It will say on your meter and bill what it measures. Converting those figures to kWh is a little more complicated, but the formula may be shown on your bill. One element of that varies slightly, but if you take the ratio of volume used to kWh from your last bill and apply that to new readings, you'll be very close.

Only when you've got an understanding of kWh used do you want to look at cost and alternative suppliers.

mattcanary

Were the opening readings (ie: the readings uded for 9/1/12) based upon estimated or real readings?

Also, with regards to the gas meter - does your meter state ft3 or m3 on the front of it. If it states m3, is the bill showing a calculation based upon you having a metric meter and not an imperial meter? This can make a big difference, if the bill is wrongly based upon you having an imperial meter!

Leodogger

mattcanary wrote: »

Were the opening readings (ie: the readings uded for 9/1/12) based upon estimated or real readings?

Also, with regards to the gas meter - does your meter state ft3 or m3 on the front of it. If it states m3, is the bill showing a calculation based upon you having a metric meter and not an imperial meter? This can make a big difference, if the bill is wrongly based upon you having an imperial meter!

Yes the 9/1/12 reading was an actual reading and the meter does state M3 on the front of it.

Leodogger

victor2 wrote: »

OK.
That equates to 921kWh of electricity and 2474kWh of gas in 83 days.
So, an average of 11kWh of electricity and 42kWh of gas per day.
Those figures don't look unreasonable to me, with the gas usage indicating you did not have your heating running for a lot of the time.
If anything, I would say your electricity usage is just a little high, but it depends on what you have running. In my experience, electricity tends to be fairly steady all year round if you don't have any form of electric heating and use low energy light bulbs.
Gas usage is very seasonal as a boiler has to work harder in the colder months even if just providing hot water.

The primary unit cost is effectively compensating the supplier for not having a daily standing charge. Those figures will be before VAT and any discount you get.

If you want to monitor your current usage, just take meter readings regularly (perhaps daily for a start). The electric meter measures kWh directly, so the difference between the readings is the kWh used. The gas meter will either measure cubic meters or hundreds of cubic feet of gas used. It will say on your meter and bill what it measures. Converting those figures to kWh is a little more complicated, but the formula may be shown on your bill. One element of that varies slightly, but if you take the ratio of volume used to kWh from your last bill and apply that to new readings, you'll be very close.

Only when you've got an understanding of kWh used do you want to look at cost and alternative suppliers.

I will have to try to keep regular readings but the calculations for working out the gas consumption goes right over my head (probably does most people who don't understand how to do it), so might end up getting those wrong.

Thanks for the advice.

macman

The post your meter unit readings and someone can convert them for you. Or use this converter:
http://www.energylinx.co.uk/gas_meter_conversion.html

jalexa

JWhite wrote: »

I will have to try to keep regular readings but the calculations for working out the gas consumption goes right over my head

It's fairly simple. Multiplying an elapsed metric meter reading by 11.2 will give you approximate kWhrs.

I think you confirmed your existing meter is metric (and correctly billed) but just for elimination and completeness, if your previous property meter was imperial but billed as metric (not a common fault) then the consumption would have been billed low.

I don't think that is likely but a previous property bill will provide the answer.

victor2

Just some extra information.....
The "two tier" tariff you are on equates to a standing charge and all kWh at the secondary rate you indicate as follows:

Electricity - 24.13 pence per day then all electricity at 9.63p/kWh
Gas - 27 pence per day then all gas at 3.122p/kWh

This applies so long as you use at least the kWh that would have had the primary rate applied to it in each quarter, which is 225kWh electricity and 670kWh gas per quarter.
I also incorrrectly stated your billing period was 83 days, where it is 84 days as the dates are inclusive for billing purposes.

Simple really!