British Gas Tariffs - advice

tjjjenk

Hi

I could really do with some help!

I have what I think is an unvented heating system in my flat which currently costs me 40 pounds a week in electricity (60 in the winter). It is a rented property so I can not change the heating system.

I have a prepayment economy 7 meter with British Gas (which I can't switch due to debt over 500) and am on the Standard tariff. I called British Gas this morning explaining that I can not face another winter of forking out so much money or being cold with a young family. They advised me to look into two tariffs - Fix and Fall March 2016 and Fixed price January 2017.

I suspect neither of these tariffs will cut our electricity bill - however it'd be nice to know they are not going to get any higher short term.

Any advice regarding potentially lowering my bill with my heating system or whether I should stick to economy 7 or move to one of the other tariffs would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Terrie

Nada666

As you are renting you should almost definitely continue with E7 for the storage. Chances of saving money switching to standard and a couple of panel heaters is close to zero.

The question is - how on earth can you be spending £40 a week for cooking and hot water only? How can you be spending only an extra £20 for heating?

That's 238 kWh per week or 35 kWh per day - no way should you be using that on hot water. You have to start working out where you are consuming electricity.

Start by ignoring sums of money and reading actual usage in kWhs on your meter. Tab the buttons until you fathom how how to find this reading and start monitoring what is happening. Only once you find out what your are using power on can you progress.

Nada666

(Also make sure you are not confusing ongoing usage with debt repayment - unless you make a lot of fuss you can be put on a very high repayment schedule.)

The good news is that British Gas prepayment is a decent price - there are not many cheaper for a normal usage (only Ovo and not a significant difference.)

The Fix and Fall March 2016 is the same price as the Standard Tariff so no reason not to request to change to it straight away.

CashStrapped

You should first identify why you are using so much electricity.

Do you know what an Economy 7 tariff means? It means that your electricity switches to a very cheap rate during the night.

Therefore (within reason) you should use domestic appliances during these hours.

Storage Heaters - These use the cheap rate electricity to store heat ready to be released the next day. Are you operating these properly? Do you understand how they work and the settings? Download a manual and learn how to use them well. You cannot use them like panel heaters. You could sve an awful lot using these properly.

Water Tank - This again should heat up during the night. There should be two heating elements. One large one at the bottom. This should come on automatically during the night. The top one is a boots element for a quick top up during the day.You should try to avoid heating it during the day if it has a boost option.

Washing Machine/Dishwasher/Tumble Dryer - Try to set these going during the evening or very early morning (before the cheap rate ends). Some have a timer delay so you can load them and they then start by themselvs when you are asleep. This may cause noise issues, so it depends on where you live. Although the risk is very very small, please ensure you have working smoke alarms too. The Tumble Dryer will be the big user here.

Do not use portable panel/fan heaters during the day! It will cost a lot on an economy 7 tariff. If you feel you need to use panel heaters during the day you may not be using your storage heaters correctly.

A few other obvious ones:

Fill your kettle with only what you need to boil

Energy Saving Bulbs!

-
Basically, if you are on economy 7, use as little as possible during the day and make use of the cheap night rate. Look at your tariff to confirm the times the cheap rate is avaliable.

macman

Since the OP has an E7 debt of £500, much of the weekly 'spend'; will be debt recovery, not ongoing usage-so we don't actually know what the actual kWh usage is.
As Nada666 states, the weekly £40/60 amounts make no sense, since heating costs far more than hot water (when the heating is on).
OP, cycle through the meter screens and find out what the weekly recovery level is set to, and what the remaining debt is.

tjjjenk

Thank you so much for getting back to me.

I do understand what an economy 7 meter is. However I'm a stay at home mum at the minute so do use electric during the day. That being said, I'm not running a disco here :rotfl:. The hot water is on during the night and the heating early morning and evening (when I use it) The washing machine I have to use between 9am-9pm due to my tenancy and i don't own a tumble dryer. I do bake a lot and my cooker is older than me but can't see that would add up to the amount that I'm paying.

I've had a look at the meter and am not really sure what I'm looking for so heres the lot:

Accepted: 4905

Charge/week: 5.47

32283.26 Total Kwh

32246 Kwh Rate 1

13.55 pence per Kwh Rate 1

Debt 776

Debt Charge: 3.65

Obviously I can see that my debt is 776 but I'm not sure about the two charge figures.

Thanks again!

CashStrapped

When you say you use the heating during the morning and evening, are you using panel heaters?

Do you not use/have storage heaters?

tjjjenk

No we don't have storage heaters. We have the old rads that normally you would see being used with gas central heating.

When I first moved into the flat the landlord paid for the heating and hot water of the whole building (we paid for our own electric) which I presume was gas but not 100% sure. He obviously got fed up with with the increasing bills and had these unvented heating systems installed in the whole block. We have each have huge boiler type cylinders outside of our front doors. The whole thing now runs off our individual electric meters. So I went from paying maybe 10/15 pounds electric a week to what we pay now! A huge difference!

CashStrapped

So you have radiators for a "wet" central heating system that is no longer connected and no longer work?

What type of radiators do you actually use for heating and how do they operate?

Are they electric wall mounted panel heaters? Portable heaters? How many do you use?

tjjjenk

No I don't think I am explaining myself very well. We do have working 'wet' rads, they are connected to pipes that they installed when the fitted the cylinders. I presume the cylinders are connected to the water tank in the loft as they heat the water, store it, then feed it through to the rads and taps in the flats.

I heat the water over night then it gives me just enough to cover the day. However if I use the hot water and have the heating on we will end up with no heat as they both run off the water stored in the tank.

Am I making sense? Ive never come across a system like this before.

MeterMan

tjjjenk wrote: »

Thank you so much for getting back to me.

I do understand what an economy 7 meter is. However I'm a stay at home mum at the minute so do use electric during the day. That being said, I'm not running a disco here :rotfl:. The hot water is on during the night and the heating early morning and evening (when I use it) The washing machine I have to use between 9am-9pm due to my tenancy and i don't own a tumble dryer. I do bake a lot and my cooker is older than me but can't see that would add up to the amount that I'm paying.

I've had a look at the meter and am not really sure what I'm looking for so heres the lot:

Accepted: 4905

Charge/week: 5.47

32283.26 Total Kwh

32246 Kwh Rate 1

13.55 pence per Kwh Rate 1

Debt 776

Debt Charge: 3.65

Obviously I can see that my debt is 776 but I'm not sure about the two charge figures.

Thanks again!

Is this ALL of the different displays when you press the button(without key in)?

If it is all the of the displays, you're missing your rate 2 usage, which would only not be there because your key has been programmed to be single rate. Contact Pay as you go team ASAP to get either a new key issued, or to get an engineer to get out and re-program the key.

If the whole building is supplied by those three cyclinders, and your meter is connected to them, then you may be paying for the heating and hot water of the whole building.