Astonished by Powergen bills :0(

Cardew

bound_angel wrote: »

Our boiler has two switches which we turn on manually during the night - is there any way I can find out if its coming on automatically.

For the past month our meter readings say:
Primary/secondary day: 1010
Boost: 0
Afternoon: 47
Night: 258

Well for a property with storage heating you are not using enough at night rates, and far too much at daytime rates, which suggests that your heaters and/or Immersion heater are somehow coming on during the daytime rates. With storage heating the majority of the consumption should be at nightime rates.

Also only 47 units in the afternoon boost period suggests there is no heating at all during that time - that would be normal usage - TV lights etc.

1010 units at daytime rates(which are higher than 'normal' daytime rates) is probably around £120.

The majority of storage heating systems are wired so that they only come on during the cheap rate period; however it looks like yours isn't like that.

You need to check your meter and check the actual hours when it switches to the 3 different tariffs. That will be easy if it is one of the mechanical meters, otherwise you will need to watch the meter.

There is also a very good chance that the timing(clock) is running fast or slow by hours.

You then need to ensure that the heating & Immersion Heater for Hot water only comes on in the cheap periods.

The other possibility is that somehow they have the meter readings mixed up and you are being wrongly billed for your nightime electricity at daytime rates and Vice Versa? A pal of mine had that happen, but to his advantage as he didn't have storage heating!!

tripled

Just to let you know, if they test the meter and it is faulty then they should give you the seventy quid back, but if it's not then the money has gone down the swanny so you should investigate every other possibility first.

floyd

Powergen are one ofthe companies that really irritate me. They badgered me to swap saying that they could save me £130 a year on my bills so finally I gave in and changed providers (from British Gas). Big mistake, true, my direct debit payments were £130 less a year, but the amount they were taking wasn't enough to pay for the power I was using so after a year I ended up with a bill for nearly £200 arrears....Its a big con, then when you try and call up to change suppliers and get a final bill, the call centers are abroad and it takes 4 attempts to actually get a result.

kethry

This sounds very like what's happened to us. Our bills are currently in dispute with powergen - at the moment, we're on our second complaint letter, and when we get no reply from it, we'll be going to Ofcom (or the regulatory body, whatever that is). We're lucky though, in that we have a sort of adviser who is acting as a mediator between us & powergen - she works for the local development agency, and helps anyone who is having financial problems, anything from helping getting a bank account set up, through to heavy duty financial difficulties like ours.

I would strongly suggest you try to find something similar. The local citizen's advice bureau may help, we went to ours and they referred us to the lady we see at the moment. Any person doing this will know the correct procedures, and will also be able to look at your bill(s) to see if there's something funny going on, and will be able to contest the bills all the way up to the regulatory body if necessary.

good luck with getting it sorted out!

keth
xx

ITtim

I used to have night storage heaters (to be honest i removed them they were terrible) but if you want them timed you can buy a timer that you can wire in. (a bit like a conventional timer mains electric timer) put one of those in place and you shouldnt have to worry about using the leccy during the wrong times.

I know theres a lot of issues with powergen on here, but i have to say I was pleasently suprised when i called them last week. Our bill creeped up mainly becuase of our ineficient boiler and higher useage. I spoke to a woman in the uk and she was very helpful, i queried my tarif and she told me she'd call me back within the half hour (i thought fat chance of that happening) sure enough she called be back and arranged a better tariff.

stewie_griffin

floyd wrote: »

Its a big con, then when you try and call up to change suppliers and get a final bill, the call centers are abroad and it takes 4 attempts to actually get a result.

All Powergens call centres are now UK based.

Bound Angel can you post details of your latest (£618) bill? i.e. meter reads, dates etc as much information as possible please.

Gal

The reason you won't be able to change suppliers is because the heatwise meter is only supported by powergen - Its also a comfort tariff which provides you with 10 hours off peak Electric for the storage heaters and Immersion.

How many readings do you have on your meter 4 or 5? Is the red button on the front pushed in as well? If so you may be boosting your immersion heater all day every day so its worth checking that as well. As Stewie has already said can you list exactly what the bill states so we can have a look.

floyd

stewie_griffin wrote: »

All Powergens call centres are now UK based.

Well thats something at least, this was about 3 years ago before we moved and I vowed never to use them again because they treated us like s**t

Gal

floyd wrote: »

Well thats something at least, this was about 3 years ago before we moved and I vowed never to use them again because they treated us like s**t

Do you actually have anything constructive to say regarding the OPs original question or is it a 'rip it out of powergen' thread?

floyd

Sharing an experience of a company the OP referred to is hardly a witch hunt is it?