Electricity Usage

keith1950

but have just had a letter from SSE saying they are going to start taking £191 a month instead

There must be a big debt outstanding for this jump to happen

Hi, you have had a letter informing you of the increased DD, they would also have normally informed you of the amount of debt now outstanding on the electricity account !!

spiro

Given 12 months for your supplier to realise this I am guessing you have not been checking the bills you received. I would bet they have all been based on estimated readings until the last one.

Cardew

even if you take the highest figure from your link, it's still less than a fiver to run the underfloor heating for a week.

sniggings wrote: »

those figures are per day, so £0.45p for a 25m squared (how do you do the little 2?) so that's only £3.15 a week.

£0.45p is for one hour a day. £3.60 is for 8 hours a day. so as I said it could be up to £110 a month.

That 45p an hour equates to around a 4kW load.

However we don't know how big the conservatory, how long heating is on, what power under-floor heating they have.

All we can say with certainty is under-floor electrical heating is expensive to run, like all electrical heating that is not on off-peak electricity.

Nada666

sniggings wrote: »

those figures hardly explain a £191 a month bill though, OP said a conservatory which I guess is not 25m squared,, even if you take the highest figure from your link, it's still less than a fiver to run the underfloor heating for a week.

Not sure where you get less than a fiver from - that would only give one-and-a-half hours per day. The figures quoted are per hour.

Assuming children are at school then triple that to four and a half hours then half it for a smaller size - £7.50 per week. That's £65 per month to pay back for 12 sq m at four hours per day. If the children are not at school then double that to £130 per month.

OP, you must also double-check your gas meter and bills - if the rest of your home is gas heated and you have only paid £50 average over two winters and you think you are in credit then chances are it won't just be the electricity you have underpaid. Although it is possible your electric heating has helped mitigate the gas bill.

Jessicarabbit1982

Thanks again for the replies.

I've now closed off the conservatory to day to day use! Last night hubby and I swapped the kids play room with the dining room. We very rarely use the dining room so have put the table into the conservatory for now and then it can just be used as and when.

The kids can play away in their new play room now without me using the underfloor heating at all so I'm hoping this will have a positive effect.

I'm going to concentrate on cutting back on the dryer and dishwasher use where we can and just generally be a bit more keen on saving energy!

I'll call SSE later and ask them if we can make smaller payments to repay the debt from the last 12 months. And I will start to keep a check on my bills from now on!

Thanks everyone.

penrhyn

If you do get on to SSE, see about the possibility of either a Smart Meter upgrade or an energy monitor, they can be useful in helping to see where the money is going.