Scottish Power charging more that we use

theymademedoit

Hi,
We bought our 1st home in May and had to use the current vendor’s supplier for 2 months.
In 2 months we have used £37 in gas and £43 in electric (£40ish a month), however Scottish Power are insisting that we pay £125 pm combined.
When we questioned it they said it was averaged based on the area.
The house is small with a new boiler and is rated as being very green.
I know its summer and that the gas will go up but surely they must take the previous 2 months of usage and accept that we wont be using £125pm worth of gas and elec?
Is there anything I can say to them?
Cheers,
Al

Andy_WSM

I don't know of anyone that gets big gas bills this time of year. October onwards is obviously when consumption ramps up and you will use about 3/4 of your annual consumption in just one quarter over the Winter.

The previous 2 months are no indication at all of what you will use in Winter.

The payments are based upon average consumption in your area. You may well use less than this, but that's how monthly DDs are worked out. We don't have any idea how cold the Winter will be. Last year was particularly cold and that resulted in thread after thread from people who had not been paying enough and had bills of hundreds of pounds to pay.

The energy companies can't win. If they asked you for less then landed you a big catch up bill in May of next year you'd be equally disgruntled.

WestonDave

Until you've been there a year you'll have no idea what you are likely to use. The electricity should be reasonably constant through the year with some increase in winter due to lighting etc. So on that basis within their £125pm they should be giving some indication of the gas/electric split and if the electric part is more than say £30 per month I'd suggest they change that back to the £30. Gas is harder to predict but if you are using nearly £20 per month just on hot water, you are going to use a lot more than that when the heating starts to kick in. In terms of now I'd look at what the electricity is and get that corrected, and in terms of the gas I'd be supplying monthly meter readings and if its heading way out of line by Christmas asking for a review. Once you've got 12 months actual consumption data in kWh then you'll be a lot better placed to firstly get them to set the payments right and secondly look at better deals. As Andy says there is a trade off because if you set the payments too low now you could get a big bill next May when they do the annual review.

victor2

Agree with previous posts.
For example, we have gas HW, heating and hob.
June and July this year our gas usage was just over £16 each month. Last January it was £122. Electricity tends to remain pretty constant throughout the year.

If you can afford the payments now, it should cover you nicely for the winter. If you clear the winter in credit with SP, then you should expect a reduced DD going forward.

DragonQ

Their estimate probably isn't far off considering how much your gas is going to go up in the winter. However, £20pm on hot water is a lot. I spend £1.50pm on gas in the summer. How many people are in your house? Is it a combi boiler or a tank system? If the latter, how long is the hot water on for each day? Is your oven gas? What about hobs?

macman

It's quite normal to use 75% of your annual gas consumption in the coldest 3 months. Basing it on consumption in June/July/August is hopeless, as the heating will not have been on at all. Heating and hot water account for the vast majority of your power usage.
You need to build some credit for the winter months now. Your electricity usage seems unduly high though.
It would help if you quote kWh usage figures: ££'s per month tell us nothing about actual usage.

notbritishgas

Agree with most of what has been posted.
Firstly your electric is not high, I would say just over £21 per month is on the low side.
However for summer your gas seems a little high, it was cold here in May and our CH did not go off until early June. If you had the CH on during this period it would account for the higher usage. When just heating water and a gas hob we use about £10 per month.

But to reiterate what the others have said do not base your DD on those 2 months, otherwise you will certainly end up with a large debit balance after the winter period.

macman

OP states '£40-ish per month' for electricity-£43 in 2 months'. Which is it?

ic

macman wrote: »

OP states '£40-ish per month' for electricity-£43 in 2 months'. Which is it?

They mean £37+£43 = £80 for two months bills, so £40 for a month.

NowRetired

However, £20pm on hot water is a lot.

I wouldn't say that, I use 18 kWh of gas a day for hot water which works out about 57p a day plus standing charge of 20p so 77p a day

theymademedoit

The previous owner (who we also know) confirmed that on average they paid £65 a month combined.
We don’t have a shower at the moment so no electricity is being used there but we obviously bath each day.