Day Units vs Night Units

laalaa

Hi everyone

I was wondering if i could ask for some help sussing out our electric bill.

My boyfriend lives in a 1 bedroom flat. Only electric, no gas. We have the following appliances.

Fridge
Freezer
Cooker (only used once or twice a week)
Washing Machine (3 times a week)
Micro (3 times a week)
Laptop (used every day from about 6pm-12midnight)
TV (3 hours in the evening max)
Storage heaters (they are switched off at the mains)
One desk lamp on computer desk


For the last billing period 6/1/07-22/6/07. He used 1916 day units and 984 night units. Our night time rate is from 2200-0630.

The water is heated by an economy 7 system. I presume this heats it up at night time, thus using the cheaper night time rate.

Why so many day units when he is usually out from 0730-1800?

And also, on the meter. When you press the button, it flicks through three readings. 1 - i presume is night time. 2- day time. and 3 is the control. What is the control?

We have been trying to conserve energy by switching stuff off at mains, energy efficient appliances, energy efficient light bulbs, etc. Have also kept an electric diary and have been keeping a diary of the reading every few days and whether we have been in or out.

Any help greatly appreciated.

tripled

It is normal for people to use more day units than night units, in fact it is rare for it to be the other way around.

Your consumption is below the national average for an all electric property - well done

One thing I would point out, unless your meter is faulty you wouldn't have economy 7 between 10pm to 6.30am - you only get 7 hours at the night rate (hence the name), it is likely your e7 time is stipulated to be 'any seven hours' between 10pm and 6.30 am.

Cardew

And also, on the meter. When you press the button, it flicks through three readings. 1 - i presume is night time. 2- day time. and 3 is the control. What is the control?

I wonder if your meter system could be for Economy 10? This is is a system that is like E7 but has a 3 hour boost in the afternoon. However if set up for E10 the afternoon period units are shown on the bill.

I also wonder why you had a bill covering 5.5 months - they are normally quarterly.

I would firstly sort out exactly when your E7 period starts. It certainly shouldn't be from 10:00 or last 8.5 hours. It could be that your immersion is coming on and using daytime electricity.

Your consumption is not high, but the biggest suspects for high consumption are a fridge and freezer. You can buy a cheap power measuring meter to check.

laalaa

Please ignore my earlier ramblings.

Well according to his last bill he used 1891 day time units and 949 night time units. This is for a 5 and a half month period.

I am still shocked that he can use double the amount of day time units, so i looked at the meter. Dont really look at it closely and compare it to the bill.

I'm so glad i did. As it appears the meter has been read wrongly. What scottish power are billing us for daytime is actually our night time units and vice versa.

So we are not using all those day time units if that makes sense.

I would think it would be completely reasonable for us to use all those night time units as we are night owls, so appliances and tv, computer etc are regularly on til 1 or 2am. We also have a halogen heater that goes on overnight some times.

I have called scottish power who have admitted that i am right. So for the last billing period I was charged as follows

1891 units @10.071
949 units @4.345

when it should have been

1891 @4.345
949 @10.071

Overall taking into account vat and standing charges the difference amounts to around £100 less on a £300 bill. Thats quite a bit.

It appears the meter was read wrongly or inputted wrongly into billing system by Scottish Power some time ago (over 2 years ago) and it has been billed that way ever since. I have been calling in meter reading recently, which should have flagged up that they were the wrong way round but the girl on the phone said, they must have assumed I was giving them the wrong way round which is why it hasnt been flagged up before.

Scottish Power are re calculating it now and will send us out a new revised bill which should hopefully mean we are in credit.


Cardew, regarding the 5 and a half month bill, we have never got quarterly bills.They have just generated a bill for us each time we have called in with meter readings. Although next bill will be due in exactly three months from now, so we need to call in with meter readings before that date.

Sorry for the long rambly post

Cardew

Thats good news.



You still need to ascertain the exact hours of E7 though. If you are night owls you can watch the meter and see when it changes.