Free £30 energy monitor - if you give us some feedback on it (50 available)

victor2

Nerakano wrote: »

Hi

We have one of these from Npower.

It shows we're using around £100-110 a month under the new pricing.
The complaints team have said these are a guide only and shouldnt be taken too literally. They say we have to pay £186 a month for electric as this is what theyve calculated us at over a year.

We were paying £256 (dual fuel) at the start of 2013, this jumped to £289 and then down to £150(they said we were over paying and should come down to £65...it was my husband who insisted on the £150 ..which tied in with the energy monitor)
(We're a 2 bed semi with 2 adults in it)

At the moment because we've an ongoing complaint I'm taking daily meter readings ....its a dial meter....I going on the lowest number always and if dead on take the number rule the complaints team told me (I've another 4 ways of reading from support) ...and I cant explain the £256 / £289s..... we aren't using that much electric....
The only things we arent using now are the lawn mower, strimmer and ceiling fans...but to counteract these I'm using the tumble dryer instead of putting the washing on the line....the heatings on longer in the winter etc ....

According to the energy monitor we're over paying at £229 but they say these aren't reliable....

Which must beg the question ...why did they send us one in the first place?????

Look at your past bills for a year if you can, and assuming they were using actual meter readings, take the kWh and calculate the cost for a year on your current rate at that usage. Divide by 12 to spread the cost evenly over the year and that is an indication of what your monthly cost should be.
Those monitors are just useful as an indicator of when something is using a lot of electricity (or very little) at a particular moment in time. The equivalent cost it displays for that usage is barely relevant.

By the way, using your tumble dryer will consume much much more energy than your lawnmower, strimmer and ceiling fans.