N Power issue

markreevesy

Hi all, I'm having some problems with n power as with in 6 months I have gone from being £154 in credit to £600+ in debt. They have said that from my meter readings I have had very high electricity usage over the winter.
Over the winter we use a 2000w greenhouse heater in our out building to stop the washing machine from freezing and a 2000w heater in our conservatory to keep the bite off the cold, both are in the lowest setting and are on a thermostat.
Ok if I have used the electricity then I will have no choice but to pay for it but I have used the same heaters for the past 3 years and not had silly high bills.
I have spoken with N Power about this and they have said that I can get my meter tested but if there is not a problem then I will have to pay £90.
I don't really have a clue about electricity and gas billing and I just pay my direct debit every month of around £120 but it has now gone up to £260 a month which I can't afford.
Is there anything I can do or do I just have to shut up and pay up.
Thanks Mark

Nada666

Even if on a low setting if the buildings are uninsulated then the heaters could use full whack a lot of the time. At 12 p per kWh that is £345 per month. For four winter months and two one-third-time months that is £1,600. So that £600 could be accounted from thermostats kicking in two-thirds of the time and heaters only being on for one-third of the time. No idea what actual ratios are but sum does not seem unreasonable. Perhaps your previous years' bills were low or disguised with other useage. Or a thirty or forty percent or more increase in raw price has made you take notice all of a sudden.

ETA: You may want to spend £8 or £18 on a socket energy monitor to check how much you are using. (Make sure you buy one with a memory battery backup.) Of course it is a little late to test things now the temperatures are up - but you can check your central meter with other devices and you can then prepare next winter and check how much you use the first few days.

Cardew

Agree totally with the post above, 4kW of heating even on the lowest setting, has the potential for huge bills.

Have you monitored the temperature in your outbuilding? Do you really need a heater for the whole building to stop washing machine freezing?

Wywth

markreevesy wrote: »

Hi all, I'm having some problems with n power as with in 6 months I have gone from being £154 in credit to £600+ in debt. They have said that from my meter readings I have had very high electricity usage over the winter.
Over the winter we use a 2000w greenhouse heater in our out building to stop the washing machine from freezing and a 2000w heater in our conservatory to keep the bite off the cold, both are in the lowest setting and are on a thermostat.
Ok if I have used the electricity then I will have no choice but to pay for it but I have used the same heaters for the past 3 years and not had silly high bills.
I have spoken with N Power about this and they have said that I can get my meter tested but if there is not a problem then I will have to pay £90.
I don't really have a clue about electricity and gas billing and I just pay my direct debit every month of around £120 but it has now gone up to £260 a month which I can't afford.
Is there anything I can do or do I just have to shut up and pay up.
Thanks Mark

How electricity billing works in very simple terms.

1000W = 1kW
1Kw used per a period of 1hour = 1kWh
Your meter records your total consumption in kWh
You are then billed based upon what your meter records your consumption as (or they may estimnate the meter reading - your bill will identify if this is the case) and your particular tariff.

Any payments made monthly are credited to your account. If correctly set, the monthly DD payments will exactly match the cost of your supply. If there is any difference, the supplier will eventually change the amount to (a) take account of your differing consumption and (b) take account of any balance on your account.

HTH

cyclonebri1

It would actually be cheaper to use the washing machine every day, I'm sure that would prevent freeze ups.

Or if it is hot fill then run it to fill for a few mins then cancel and spin, everything gets warmed up.

Pipe lagging, is that in order too?