Excessive electricity costs

Elibrown

We have an old stone detached house, double glazed and insulated fairly well. Our electricity is delivered through a key meter and we are currently putting on between £50 and £60 a week. We have no central heating, just one of those 'efficient' German electric rads on the landing and a multifuel stove in the dining room which sends heat through to the lounge. We are about to install another log burner in the lounge to properly heat the rest of the downstairs. Our water tank is relatively new and is normally turned on when I go to bed at around midnight, and turned off when I get up at around 0630. We need to put the water on again in the early evening to wash up and for an evening bath. There are two adults and three older teenagers in the house. The washing machine and tumble dryer are used most days. With the one stove going full time, we are all spending approximately £30 a week on coal and logs combined. This is never right, is it?

HappyMJ

Hard to say...It could be OK. Do you know your usage in kWh?

good_advice

Morning! I should guess your bills are correct as you have a lot of things heated by electric there.

Electric is very costly.

Have you been on the comparison sites to check you are on the cheapest electric tariff for your area?

Bought a electric monitor?

I have turned my CH off for the last few days as the weather is mild. We just lite the coal/wood fire in the afternoon.

macman

Your German 'efficient' heater (a Fischer?) is no more or less efficient than a £10 convector from Argos or Lidl. Just a lot more expensive to buy.
Electric heating on standard tariff is going to be about 2 to 3 times more than mains gas.
You have an immersion heater, so you might be better off on storage heaters and E7.
A properly lagged tank should keep hot all day, and doesn't need to be on for 6.5 hours to heat up.

NXV839

I’d recommend switching from key meters to direct debit if you can. Key meters are charged a lot more than direct debit or even quarterly billing customers so I’d definitely change the meter type if you can.

You will also be charged more for being on the standard tariff. See if you can switch to a fixed rate contract as the rates are better (most companies only offer the standard tariff for prepayment customers so it’s another reason to change your meter. British Gas do offer a few key meter tariffs though I think). Normally you will be charged £30-50 for changing to direct debit but it’s worth it in the long run.

To cut down on your bills in the mean time, I’d recommend turning off the tumble drier and using a good old fashioned clothes horse. Drying clothes uses a ridiculous amount of electric and it will make a difference to your bills right away.

Also, invest in a gadget like the i-plan (most companies offer something similar so see if you can get a freebie). It will show you exactly where every penny is going and show you clever ways to reduce your bills.

Finally, look on a comparison website like uSwitch to see if there is a better rate in your area from a different company. Find a recent bill that has your KWH usage for the year and compare the rates to see if there is something cheaper.

Hope this helps

macman

A PPM costs the same as the supplier's Standard tariff. So no more than about 4-6% more than the cheapest online discount tariff.

keystone

When are some people going to understand that the size of the bill is directly related to the quantity used?

Cheers

Elibrown

Thanks for your responses. I have no idea what my KWh usage is, all the letters from EDF go straight in the bin as they aren't bills so don't need to keep them. I spoke to EDF about changing tariff and because we have a key meter we can't have a fixed tariff but can shift from Economy 7 to a standard rate. We have just done away with the Economy 7 wiring as using storage heaters was even more expensive, and they are ugly anyway. I admit I have my doubts about the German heater we had installed but it is a darn sight prettier than a £10 B&Q 'bedsit' heater and can be programmed to be on only when necessary. I'm looking into a more efficient water tank on a timer which should cut down on power usage a bit, and once the 2nd multifuel burner is installed we probably won't need the electric heater at all, and I can get as much free wood as I can get in my van from work.

ic

Is the key card you're using in the meter yours, or was it there when you moved in and you carried on putting money on it? If its not yours, you could be paying off somebody else's bill (i.e. load on £10, and say £3 could be going to clear the previous occupants outstanding bill - not paying for your electric).

KTF

Is there a reason why you have a key meter rather than getting it swapped out for a credit one?

Elibrown

We had the meter installed as in our previous property we were sometimes getting bills of £300 a quarter for electric ( mid 90's ) so at least we know where we stand now.