Whats going on?

Tiggy10

Hi all,

wondering if anyone can help me?

I am on SSE Economy 7 pre paid meter at my rented accommodation - moved in the flat in April this year.

OH and I put £20 each (total £40) on the key each month on payday and this will last 4 weeks.

the last two months we have ended up putting on an extra £10 in the last week of the month and we have not bought new appliances.

If anything we have got better as last month I fully researched economy 7 and have now been only using the washing machine and charging phones and laptops after 00.30 and before 06.30.

The only thing i can think of is OH got a new PS3 game and has been playing ALOT. but seriously can that equate to an extra £10 a month??

thanks

Broadwood

If a TV monitor is now on for long periods of PS3 use when previously it would have been on standby or totally switched off then yes that could equate to an extra £2.50 per week of electricity usage especially if the screen is fairly large panel or even a CRT if you still use one.

On a more basic thought, have you checked that your meter is switching between day and night rates at the "correct" times and just as importantly that the day and night rates are the correct way about? My mother's white meter time switching for her storage heaters is way off where it should be. Worth checking.

Tiggy10

Thank you,
I have just checked the meter and its an hour behind. so that means everytime i have put the washing on at the start of eco 7 i was infact not yet in eco 7!

By looking this up i have seen i get charged just over 20p per kw at peak time, and 7 p per kw it eco 7 time.

1.5 hours of playstation per day at this price equates to about 50p. so £10 a month.

mystery solved! thank you.

Broadwood

Don't forget to check the switching times after the clocks have changed at the weekend. From what I've read some meters don't follow the hour change while others do.

In our case we have an electronic meter that switches via a signal sent through the cables or via the BBC R4 Long Wave transmitter not sure which. During wintertime our cheap rate is between 00:03 hours and 07:03 hours GMT, while in summertime cheap rate is between 01:03 hours and 08:03 hours BST. We can hear the dull click through the wall at the back of the meter box if we are awake and in that room when it switches over.

Glad you found out where the problem lay. Hope this also helps.:)