Depressing results from Comparison sites today!

MillicentBystander

I know I risk a bashing for saying this but given your huge leccy consumption (and the huge cost of such consumption) I would be very tempted to invest in an electricity monitor which monitors the whole house. Loads out there for around £35. The Efergy Elite came out top in a recent Which review and is only £30 from Maplin.

techno12

MillicentBystander wrote: »

I know I risk a bashing for saying this but given your huge leccy consumption (and the huge cost of such consumption) I would be very tempted to invest in an electricity monitor which monitors the whole house. Loads out there for around £35. The Efergy Elite came out top in a recent Which review and is only £30 from Maplin.

Or go online to NPower and request one. They give them out for free.

I've had one for over a year and it's still fascinating to see it jump up from 200w to 2000w+ when the oven is on, or the TV using 100w instead of 200w when I halve the backlight brightness (better picture too). Gets quite addictive tweaking things ;-)

My idle usage (nothing actively on apart from stuff that's always on like the fridge freezer, broadband router etc) is around 130w.

TraditionRules

An update on my situation...

So after a long phone call with NPower I switched to their 'Energy Saver 2014' tariff as someone suggested above. This will keep my monthly D/D at £175. The 'default' tariff I would have switched onto would have meant a hike to £275 a month according to the man on the phone!
£275 a month on gas & electric!!! :eek:

I've had them come out to replace my E7 electricity meter with a new single rate meter. God knows why they didn't advise this previously. I've also acquired an energy monitor which I'm about to fit & I have an apointment for a new loft insulation install over the next week or so.

I'm still thinking something is amiss though.
Talking to my next door neighbour on this (EXACTLY the same house, same number of people etc etc) he pays £80 p/m.

Any advice on where I should go from here?

If I could get my monthly DD down to anywhere near £100 I'd be happy!

Wywth

What supply region are you in (or first part of your postcode)?

I am concerned that:
a) £175 per month for an nPower tariff is not enough to fund your declared annual consumption, especially as you suggest it would have cost £275 per month if you had moved to their default tariff
b) you are not on the cheapest tariff available

WestonDave

First step is to start monitoring what you are using on a daily basis and within that what appliances are using what - how long the boiler is burning per day, how long a shower you have etc etc. Once you understand what is making up the consumption you can start knocking it down - cutting use is generally more profitable than switching tariffs (although obviously being on the lowest tariffs helps as well).

Its slightly dangerous to be comparing DD amounts - your neighbour might be underpaying and building up debts or might be living a different lifestyle (e.g. no kids running 30 minute showers every day). By all means see £100 per month as a target but focus on really understanding what you use and what cost effective measures you can take to reduce it. Once you know where its going its easier to research things an item at a time and decide whether something which uses less electricity is going to save enough that way to justify paying for replacing something which currently works but inefficiently.

TraditionRules

Wywth wrote: »

What supply region are you in (or first part of your postcode)?

NN16 postcode.

Wywth

Thanks.

I'm not sure exactly which nPower tariff you think you have moved to (I cannot find any nPower tariff called 'Energy Saver 2014')

The lowest currently availble tariff from nPower appears to be their 'Energy Online April 2014' tariff at £2675 p.m. (or £223 p.m) although that includes £105 discount which will not be paid until your annual anniversary.

You could buy your total energy for as little as £2232 p.a (£186 p.m) on Spark Advance or £2458 p.a (£205 p.m.) on Ovo New Energy Fixed tariff.

I can't see how £175pm will be enough unless you reduce consumption.

nPowers standard tariff (assuming you pay monthly by DD) would cost £3097 p.a (£258 p.m.), again includiing the £105 anniversay discount, so I've also no idea why you were told it would cost £275 p.m.

I suggest you re-look at the data.

Any

Just to compare - my gas is nearly the same as yours, I have a Rayburn and I know that is expensive to run.
On the other hand it heats the whole house and has hot water tank.

So I assume thanks to that my leccy is half of yours..

Same size house and my OH works from home 50% of the time.

Any

Just to add - I agree that looking at DDs si complete rubbish, DDs change all the time as the companies are rubbish in applying common sense all the time. I always argue mine, but my sister pays double some months, depending on when they do review..

It's the usage you need to compare!

I am currently looking at Sainsburys energy January 2014 price something, and by my calcs the cost for me will be £1778 pa, perhaps look at that?

Gas 30945 kWh £1179.52 (incl standing chg)
Leccy 4526 kWh £596.75 (incl standing chg)

TraditionRules

Hi everyone, an update on this...
So I've had Npower switch the electric meter to a single rate meter for starters. I've also got an Energy monitor which I'm putting in tomorrow.
I've read my meters at Noon each day over a recent 7 day period & took the following readings:

GAS

Day 1: 04644 63
Day 2: 04657 32
Day 3: 04669 80
Day 4: 04683 01
Day 5: 04696 30
Day 6: 04709 46
Day 7: 04722 36

Note this is obviously my 'winter' gas usage with heating on 6am - 10am then again from 6pm - 10pm roughly.

ELECTRIC

Day 1: 369
Day 2: 400
Day 3: 427
Day 4: 453
Day 5: 478
Day 6: 507
Day 7: 541

The above is from the new single rate meter fitted last month.

With the figures I recorded can anyone shed any more light on my HUGE bills? Any help appreciated!