Electricity cost

malcol

Can anyone please advise. Our granddaughter lives in a two bedded flat with a sitting room kitchen and bathroom. The who place is heated with storage heaters that I think are partly on an economy meter. They are both out at work full time. EON have just raised their monthly standing order to £180 per month. I cannot believe this is correct how can I help her. Thank you.

lee111s

Do they provide meter readings? If so, how often and what is their monthly usage in KWh?

What price to they pay per KWh? Is it a two tiered tariff with a primary cost for the first X amount of KWh amd a second, lower cost for usage after X? Is there a daily standing charge?

matelodave

You can only help her by persuading her to monitor her usage on heating, hot water cooking and anything else that uses electricity. Ideally she should read and record the meter readings on a daily basis for a few weeks then weekly. She will then know when she is using it and hopefully what it using it as well. If you don't measure it yourself you can't control your consumption.
She needs to know if she's on an E7 tariff and when the high and low rates switch - she will need to check the meters. Make sure that storage heaters and immersion heaters only come on during the low rate period. Avoid using auxiliary heating (fan heaters, radiators etc) especially during the high rate and try to ensure that stuff like tumble dryers, dishwashers and washing machines are only used during the low rate (usually about midnight to 7 am but check as timers can get out of sync). do the obvious like turning stuff off when not in use (at the wall, don't leave it on standby)and don't leave lights on when not needed.
It comes as a nasty shock when you have to pay your own bills and realise that dad or mums was right when they complained about stuff being left on all over the house.
By monitoring her meters she should be able to minimise her consumption, work out what she is using and be able to check and correct her bills so she doesn't get estimates. When you know what you use you should be able to tell the supplier how much you need to pay, rather than relying on his guesstimates.

malcol

Thank you both for replies.it is a two tier charging system. She has a reading got day a second reading for night and then a total reading. I am unsure re the standing charge and klw use. I have been today to read the meters with a view to change of supplier. My concern is if she walks away from EON and she has been overcharged will she lose out. I will ask her to make sure she keeps a careful eye on usage, they do not use any auxiliary heating. Thanks.

[Deleted User]

You need to find out:

a) How much she's actually using,

and

b) How they arrived at the figure they're billing.

Changing supplier won't address this.

macman

malcol wrote: »

Thank you both for replies.it is a two tier charging system. She has a reading got day a second reading for night and then a total reading. I am unsure re the standing charge and klw use. I have been today to read the meters with a view to change of supplier. My concern is if she walks away from EON and she has been overcharged will she lose out. I will ask her to make sure she keeps a careful eye on usage, they do not use any auxiliary heating. Thanks.

What do you mean by 'partly on an economy meter'? If she has NSH's that are not all connected to E7 then they're pointless, and will cost 350% more to run on the E7 day rate.
She won't 'lose out' if she switches, as the final bill will give her back any credit due. But I suspect in this case there is no overcharge: she's not been submitting regular reads every 3 months and bills have been under-estimated: the result is inevitably a big catch-up bill and then a huge hike in the DD to recover the debt. A call to the supplier will establish what part of that £180 is debt recovery and what is actually ongoing consumption: she's not actually using £180's worth every month. The supplier only has to read the meter once every two years, the rest is down to the user.
If the debt is more than about £200 then the outgoing supplier may block a switch.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Morning malcol,

Already some good advice on here, so thanks guys.

First of all they need to look at the meter and take the reads, then look at the bills and see exactly what tariff we have been billing them on. Then check the reads against the bill and make sure they match.

There may have been some past estimates and now we have billed up to date it's caused a catch up bill.

This would mean some of the payment is for debt and some to cover the usage.

We also need to establish if they are better off on economy 7 or a one rate tariff, we can do this for her and find the best deal.

She does need to provide reads as much as she can, as this will keep the account up to date and accurate, she can also see how much she is using this way and keep a close eye on things.

We can help with saving energy, as well.

Hope this helps a little.

Helena