Electricity Bill Madness

CaptainMatt

My partner and I live in a rented two bedroom bungalow and are out most of the day at work but have been having problems for the last couple of years with our electricity bill and are now completely stuck with what to do next.


The property is electricity only and is heated with electric wall mounted radiators which we know are expensive to run so have them on only when necessary. The property is also not particularly energy efficient as we recently had it rated but even so we are receiving bills for approximately £250-300 per month from SSE.


SSE believe we are on the best tariff (evening and weekend) so that 7:30pm - 7:30am and the weekends are all on the cheaper rate. Although I appreciate we live in an all electric property which isn't very energy efficient I still cannot see how this sort of bill which will equate to approximately £3000-4000 per year is correct because of how little we heat the property and instead sit in multi layers of clothing and use appliances only during the cheaper rate.


We have challenged things with SSE but got no-where and I wondered if there is some sort of independent help we can get to determine whether or not the meter is working correctly, there is a fault in the houses wiring, the tariff is wrong or just some sort of answer as to how this bill is coming through at this sort of value each month. In terms of SSE's response the meter is saying we are using this level of electricity so they are not willing to help any further.


If anyone has any suggestions it would be much appreciated as my partner doesn't want to move but due to the electricity issue alone we are struggling to manage each month.


Thank you

Nada666

That's a telephone calls tariff not an electricity one. I have never heard of a tariff that provides 12 hours cheap power from 7 pm to 7 am. If you are on a more likely tariff and paying premium prices for the evening electricity (and weekends) no wonder bills are so high.

What is the name of the tariff? Check the times of the tariff - there are some with cheap rates for three hours in the afternoon and two hours in the evening and overnight (E10).

JJ_Egan

Also check your usage and meter readings .

CaptainMatt

It's definitely electricity billing although I questioned the tariff initially. Because we are in from 7ish at night and most of the weekend we get the 'cheaper' rate for longer. Of course the cheaper rate is 11p and the peak rate 19p because of the amount of time we get the cheaper rate so it's relative but comparatively they still insist it's the best deal.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

CaptainMatt wrote: »

It's definitely electricity billing although I questioned the tariff initially. Because we are in from 7ish at night and most of the weekend we get the 'cheaper' rate for longer. Of course the cheaper rate is 11p and the peak rate 19p because of the amount of time we get the cheaper rate so it's relative but comparatively they still insist it's the best deal.

You need to get your latest bill to hand, and furnish us with some information, such as the name of the tariff and your usage for the last 12 months in KWh.

I too have never heard of an evening and weekend tariff.

2013yearofthehouse

There are tariffs available that are 11p 24hours a day - they do include a standing charge though (but sometimes counteracted slightly by discounts as well). Do you pay a standing charge (or any other charges besides the unit rate)? Do you get any discounts?

Please post your actual kwh usuage, will give a better idea than price.





Is it Flexiheat you have?

From SE website: https://www.southern-electric.co.uk/GasAndElectricity/YourMeter/DifferentMeterTypes/

"If you have a Flexiheat meter your home will have electric heating. It’s best if you use most of your electricity during the evenings and at weekends. Like the Evening and Weekend meter, this is only available in some areas.
Flexiheat meters record electricity on three meter readings, one for ‘day’, one for ‘night’ and one for ‘stored heat’.
The night reading records all night time usage including panel heaters and hot water ‘top ups’. During the week, the night rate covers the period between 7:30pm to 7:30am and from 7:30 pm on Friday night till 7:30am Monday morning.
The ‘stored heat’ meter reading records for seven hours, this is to charge your storage heaters. The times vary depending on where you live, contact us to find out what they are."



Although that suggests 3 readings and it does say "like the evening and weekend meter" as if to say this is another meter type (with potentially 2 readings?), but there are no details on their website about it (unless it's included in the other/old).

CaptainMatt

Following problems with the previous metre not working a new one was installed 2nd Jan making calculations pretty easy but limiting usage figures from that date to the end of April. Since then the usage (apparently) has been:


SUPPLIER: SSE
ACCOUNT PLAN: Standard Evening/Weekend
Monday - Friday (7:30am - 7:30pm)
1189units @ 19.86p

Monday - Friday (7:30pm - 7:30am)
and
All Weekend
4564units @ 19.86

Discounted standing charge for the metre is 14.09p per day including direct debit and paperless discount.

There is only one single metre which provides two readings. You hear the metre click each morning/evening when it reaches 7:30 and switches across.

Thanks for the questions/help...much appreciated.

2013yearofthehouse

I'm assuming your last post has a typo and the evening/weekend cost should be a little over 11p?

A lot of tariffs available at the moment are around 11-12p all the time with not much difference in standing charge, so you could be getting it a lot cheaper.

Those 1189units at the lower price of 11p-ish could save you about £100 for starters.



If you're worried about usage in general, are you taking regular meter readings? How much electricity are you using when you don't have the heating on at all?

macman

Since your apparent 'cheap' rate is only about a penny less than a typical Standard tariff rate of 12p, and your peak rate is much higher than a typical E7 rate of around 14p, that sounds like an absolutely terrible deal. E7 cheaper rate would be around 4p if you had NSH's.
I too am bemused by the tariff structure you quote giving cheaper weekend rates.
Why aren't you being billed for any units at the cheaper rate? Is the timeswitch operating?

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

After much digging around on the SSE website, "Standard Evening/Weekend" does exist; only for staff however. How you've ended up on it is yet to be explained.

The rates are also much better than the ones you quote:

16.64 p/KWh weekday daytime
10.91 p/KWh other times
14.8 p/day standing charge.

You need to do 2 things:

1. Contact SSE and determine exactly what's been going on with your tariff. There will definitely be cheaper tariffs available, go onto a price comparison site to seek these out.

2. Sort out your consumption. You've used 5750 KWh in 4 months, average all electric households use 4700 KWh in a year. At the moment you're using somewhere between double and treble the national average.

pheonix254

Whilst I appreciate everyone is talking about the fact you can get a better tarriff, I'm not sure that is the problem here.

I'm assuming those readings you gave are from the period 2nd Jan 2014 - 29th Apr 2014, and relate to 117 days use (in winter where you require much more heating, so we'll expect them to be higher than normal)

In which case, you've used 5753kWh of electricity since January. Which is 1376kWh a month. This is the equivalent of a 2kW kettle on in your home, 24 hours a day. An average household uses 3200kWh a year - you might expect a house with solely electric heating to be higher, but not as high as yours.

For comparison, I live in a 2 bed apartment, electrically heated. My usage between Jan and Apr has been around 448kWh a month, though it's in a upper floor apartment that is well insulated, the difference between mine and yours is still very large, as mine is the equivalent of a 2kW kettle being on for 20 minutes every hour.

Firstly - find out what is drawing all that power. SSE might give you a smart meter if you ask. use it (or a widely available power socket reader) to investigate what happens when you turn appliances off or pull plugs from the wall, or when you flip circuit breakers. Old TVs, Radios and the like can have high power draws on standby. Equally it might be that your hot water immersion heater is on full blast the entire time (are your taps scalding hot?). Is your shower electric and always on? You're using 4x times the electricity in the 12 hours at night (4564 units) than you are in the day (1189 units)- why? what operates at night? are you sleeping with heaters on? can you put them on timers? Are you using a washing machine on a 90C cycle or using a tumble dryer a lot? Can you dry clothes another way, etc. etc.

Your usage is high, but it isn't unbelievable (a simple 2-bar electric fire left on can draw this much electricity) , which is why you have had the response from SSE - at the end of the day, electricity meters are fairly reliable, accurately calibrated and they're billing you based on what it has said. If your new one is saying you're using a lot, and the old one was as well, it's probably accurate.

If you find that the electricity you're using is accurately being read by the meter, then start investing in energy saving measures. draught excluders. radiator reflectors. cavity wall insulation, loft insulation and a water tank jacket. These will very quickly pay for themselves - certainly more quickly than double glazing. Plenty more tips available around the web. And sign yourself up to the MSE cheap energy club and switch your tarriff.

If however, your home is showing very little actual electricity use (as you report using the heaters minimally etc), then you may have a problem with wiring, or something somewhere has an electrical fault and is using a lot of electricity. In this instance, if SSE doesn't want to know (and it probably isn't their problem if I'm honest) then I'd suggest finding an independant electrician to run some diagnostics on your property. If it is an electrical fault, you'll want to get it sorted as it is a significant hazard, not to mention costing you an arm and a leg in electricity use. First though, go around your home with a reader and see if there is a rogue appliance drawing much more power than it should.

Best of luck!