How much should I be charged

akak1

Hi guys, just joined the forum, could anyone tell me how much I should be charged for Electricity. I have just moved in to a two bedroom flat with my wife.. no kids.
The flat has no gas, so the kitchen has electric hobs. We are both working. We only use heating when once a day for a maximum of half an hour.

At the moment we are on payg meter with unknown supplier (the letting agent didn't tell us about it) I think at an average we pay 2.5 pounds a day and it might be between 76 to 80 that we end up paying.

Any suggestions or estimates for our bills if we switched the supplier and got a standard meter with direct debits?

Please remember we have no gas, its all electric.

Ich_2

The first thing you MUST do is register with your present supplier, you may be paying debt from the previous tenant.
Also complain to the letting agent as to why they didn't advise you to do this!

Richie-from-the-Boro

akak1 wrote: »

Hi guys, just joined the forum, could anyone tell me how much I should be charged for Electricity. I have just moved in to a two bedroom flat with my wife.. no kids.
The flat has no gas, so the kitchen has electric hobs. We are both working. We only use heating when once a day for a maximum of half an hour.

At the moment we are on payg meter with unknown supplier (the letting agent didn't tell us about it) I think at an average we pay 2.5 pounds a day and it might be between 76 to 80 that we end up paying.

Any suggestions or estimates for our bills if we switched the supplier and got a standard meter with direct debits?

Please remember we have no gas, its all electric.

- I'll give you a clue if you give me one
- underfloor / night store E10 or E7 / panel / convector / grannies two bar / ceiling heating ?
- welcome to the forum akak1, what type of heating is this mysterious heating system ?, and ;
- which supplier are you registered with and what tariff are you on ?

Yes, standard metering / direct debits / online e-account & monthly meter readings will save around £200pa [ish] depending on your chosen supplier / tariff.

chris1973

underfloor / night store E10 or E7 / panel / convector / grannies two bar / ceiling heating ?
- welcome to the forum akak1, what type of heating is this mysterious heating system ?,

There were some subtle clues. If they are only using it for half an hour a night then it won't be underfloor heating, which generally takes hours just to heat its way through the screed and any laminate flooring above. Its also unlikey to be storage heating which generally has to be switched on the previous night, and would be extremely expensive and wasteful way of getting 30 mins worth of heat.

I bet a mince pie and yesterdays Turkey carcass, that its some kind of 'real time' heating, my money is on a convector or fan heater.

At the moment we are on payg meter with unknown supplier

PAYG is always the most expensive and least negotiable, due to the fact that it tracks the suppliers' non discounted standard rates. A Direct Debit on a credit meter would open up the best tariffs, however make sure that you closely and religiously monitor your monthly usage through the winter at least, in order to make sure that your payments accurately reflect your usage, or you'll be on here joining the growing numbers giving us tales of woe about how you have a £1300 catch up bill this time next year because your £28.50 a month didn't represent 'all you can eat energy'

Remember that Electricity is an extremely expensive form of Energy and Heating is frighteningly expensive outside of E7 off peak, some two or three times more than Gas (Upto five times more on E7 Peak rate). At some point we will get a winter and you'll probably need to use the heating for more than 30 mins (Illness, holidays, weekends etc) and this is when you'll feel the pain of the cost.

I wouldn't be surprised given the mystery to find out that your agent had signed you up to Spark Energy, in which case, start praying and buy a load of lucky Rabbits' feet in the sales.

akak1

Hi Guys, It looks like its an economy 7 heater. The flat we are in is generally hot without even the heater, so if we turn the heater on for 15 mins its really enough if we have the door closed. Thanks for the advice, I might need to pay bills to install cooling fans in summer it looks like.

chris1973

The flat we are in is generally hot without even the heater,

Who is paying for the background heating?. Is it just free residual heat from other flats?, or is it underfloor or storage heating included in the rent or are you likely to get an extremely nasty bill?

so if we turn the heater on for 15 mins its really enough

By "turning the heater on", do you physically turn on the mains switch or do you open a control on the heater?

Richie-from-the-Boro

akak1 wrote: »

Hi Guys, It looks like its an economy 7 heater. The flat we are in is generally hot without even the heater, so if we turn the heater on for 15 mins its really enough if we have the door closed. Thanks for the advice, I might need to pay bills to install cooling fans in summer it looks like.

- you can't as it were 'turn it on'
- it .. .. the meter turns the heater on in the middles of the night and off in the AM
- it .. .. the meter turns the water heating on in the middles of the night and off in the AM

If you are able to turn the E7 night storage heater on during the day you are not on an E7 tariff, and that's a dangerously expensive way to heat your dwelling. Lets start again shall we :

- does your E7 heater look like this or these ?
- what tariff are you on ?
- what heats your water ?
- what does your meter look like, does it look like this ?

Blackpool_Saver

get on to the agent, have you got readings, name of supplier? contact the managing agents, it's not a guessing game, that is totally ridiculous, if it's E7 there will be two readings

macman

PPM's cost the same as the supplier's standard tariff.
The first thing to do, as pointed out above, is stop paying the previous tenant's debt.

HappyMJ

akak1 wrote: »

Hi Guys, It looks like its an economy 7 heater. The flat we are in is generally hot without even the heater, so if we turn the heater on for 15 mins its really enough if we have the door closed. Thanks for the advice, I might need to pay bills to install cooling fans in summer it looks like.

Well my house is freezing cold without any heating (or only 15 minutes per day). An E7 heater will give off a small amount of background heat during the day so when you say turn it on is that opening up the output to maximum before turning it down again?

Richie-from-the-Boro

PPM's are often expressed as 'as cheap as the standard' tariff as if that's a good thing - it isn't, its an expensive choice compared to other tariff's available from the same supplier, a standard tariff is usually a soddin expensive tariff.

- a PPM will always be considerably more expensive
- a standard tariff can only ever be very expensive compared to a cheaper tariff with the same supplier
- a PPM will always be around £200pa minimum more expensive than a standard tariff on DD & e-account
- a PPM tariff can never access the advantages of 'switching' sites, and cheaper supplies