Staywarm Gives Us Another Price Rise

djohn2002uk

Millie. First of all you can use the comparison sites by putting roughly half your Staywarm monthly payment in each of the gas and electric boxes, (a bit more for gas e.g. for a £60 Staywarm payment put £28 for electric and £32 for gas) and in the suppliers box put the names of who you were with before Staywarm. It's only for the site to be able to have something to compare with, the cheapest should still come out at the top. Then follow what I told Margaret above.
Next, to work out your gas Kilowatt hours:-
Converting Units to Kilowatt Hours
Electricity consumption is usually already stated in kilowatt-hours on previous bills, so the electricity kWh's figure is ready to use. (What you read from the meter is in Kilowatt Hours)

Gas units need to be multiplied by 31.3 to convert from the units used according to the meter or bill, to kilowatt-hours. Then the gas kWh's are ready to use. This is a rough estimate and the exact conversion details are below. (Or, for rough figures, multiply by 100, then divide by 3).

(To convert gas units to kilowatt hours: gas units used x imperial to metric conversion factor (2.83) x volume conversion factor (1.022640) x calorific value (39.7) divided by kilowatt hour conversion factor (3.6) = kilowatt hours used.)( This is the same as: gas units used x 31.3 = kilowatt hours used).

If you have a metric meter, you do not need to use the imperial to metric conversion factor (2.83). In this case, the rough estimate is to multiply the metric units by 11 instead of 31.3.

To tell if your meter is imperial or metric. If it has dials it's imperial. If anywhere on the face it says Cubic Feet or Feet with a small 3 near the top of the t, again it's imperial. If it says Cubic Metres or M with a little 3 near the top it's metric.
Again if there's anything else you need just shout.
This site might help you too:-
http://www.ukpower.co.uk/staywarm.asp
Good luck.

roger56

pennym,

You say your direct debit for staywarm is £62 and a few pence per month
and that does not include hot water.
You have a two bed flat, that seems a lot of money. The following may help, my 4 bed det house electric and gas combined bill is with scottish power and the annual total bill is around £350.
That's around £30 per month for cooking, heating, hot water, lighting etc.

I assume you don't run the heating at 25+ deg C all year round, so the £62 seems high. It may be worth checking your bills carefully and making sure your account is not significantly in credit. I found my scottish power account was in credit by around £150 just after a billing (best time to check, it should average around £0 at the billing point over one year).
If it's not, ask your supplier to reduce the direct debit. In fact I told the supplier what direct debit I wanted based on a years actual supply cost divided by 12. They did refund the excess and set the amount I asked for although it took around 2 months.

Lastly try EQUIgas and EQUIPower. Martin has highlighted this company and I like their fair trade approach. I'm switching!
They are at http://www.ebico.co.uk/.

Hope my example helps.

margaret_3

roger56 wrote:

pennym,



Hope my example helps.

It certainly helps ME! Thanks Roger.
Margaret

Barter

We've been with Staywarm for the past 2 years & have just had our annual review & price hike - up to £65.19 pm from £52 (3-bed; 2 person; NW England)

We're also thinking of switching as we definitely don't use that much gas/electricity.

I have our readings from 2 years ago so can average them, & on the annual statement letter that came with the price change notice it gave our annual consumption total for electricity but not gas.

I called Staywarm to ask for the gas consumption total, & they were able to provide figures from the meter readings; they have them all on record there so why not give them a call to get consumption figures to work with.

It's a freephone number - 0800 479 0125

All the best in your quest!

roger56

Millie, Margaret and anyone..
Any consumer is entitled to regular billing. If you haven't had a bill for over a year then thats to long:

First ask for one giving as much detail as you can, I suggest using post and from that point on keep a record of all your contacts. Give them say 3 weeks to reply, then try a reminder. If that all fails then it is time to go to energywatch to get backup. Energywatch works well and they are very helpful. You keeping details of attempts to get a bill will help Energywatch a great deal. Energywatch does expect you to try and sort matters first though, consider them as backup.

Secondly, record your meter readings today and on a monthly basis
record them. You can build up a picture of your useage.

Thirdly, find other suppliers prices. Here are some examples:
http://www.ebico.co.uk/equigas.htm for gas
http://www.ebico.co.uk/equipower.htm for electric
http://www.scottishpower.co.uk/homepage/default.asp for both gas and electric, click the view our prices button and follow the instructions to download a price sheet in pdf format.

You can now (albeit slowly) start to build a picture of your useage and compare costs with you current supplier. Earlier in this thread there were posts helping with the subject of readings and conversions to kWhr.

An if you decide to swap supplier, go direct.

Good Luck

djohn2002uk

Roger, I don't think you quite understand how Staywarm works. You can't ask to reduce your payments. It's a fixed price and they don't read meters on a regular basis because it has no bearing on what you pay.
The following sentence was in my earlier post.

The "Use all you want for a fixed monthly price" lures people to pay for something they just don't use.

millie

Thanks to everyone for the helpful advice when I have a little time on my hands hopefully in the next week or so I am going to try to work out exactly what I have used in the winter if its not much more than the £63.25 per month I am currently paying, it seems agood time to change with summer coming up as my usage will be a lot less then.

roger56

djohn2002uk

Point taken - thankyou. And yes I agree with your comment about luring people to pay for something they don't use.

My main intention was to suggest users on Staywarm keep a record of their meter readings, build up a true useage and then point to where they can get prices to compare and hopefully save money.

chateau42

I read our meters every week and have done so for the last ten years, as our suppliers have come and gone. Now on Staywarm, have been for 3 years plus. We are certainly staying with them. Financial suicide to move.

Robert5988

roger56 wrote:

pennym,

The following may help, my 4 bed det house electric and gas combined bill is with scottish power and the annual total bill is around £350.
That's around £30 per month for cooking, heating, hot water, lighting etc.

Hope my example helps.

Roger56,
I suggest your example is atypical.

There is a thread on average consumption. From this thread(and others) it would appear that your consumption is about a half of others occupying smaller houses.

I also live in a 4 bed detached(with 2 other adults) and I pay £101 a month. £65 for gas and £36 for electricity. I have no doubt I could reduce this considerably,(I choose not to) and £80-90 might be achievable - but £30! no way.