Meter not registered

BerryMerry

Hey folks,

I just moved into a new place. Ended up with a nasty pre-payment meter from Scottish Power. It's costing me £5 per day on average, I just cant keep up with this.

I called up to talk about it, and they tell me the meter is on the system as a regular non pre pay, for some unknown reason it's wrong and will take WEEKS to change.

This means not only am I stuck on pre pay, I cant switch company ( which was my plan as its free to change to a regular meter) until it's done.

Do I have any rights in this, it isn't my fault the meter was never registered correctly. Is there a way to speed this?

Suggestions welcome.

lstar337

Scottish power standard rates for liverpool area are:

26.09p standing charge
14.059p per kWh

So you must be using ~33.7kWh/day for £5.

All electric by any chance?

Even if you get a credit meter and switch the Scottish Powers most competitive tariff (19.57p SC & 12.307p/kWh), you'll still be paying £4.34 per day. Not a great saving.

If you can't pay £5/day then I'm guessing £4.30/day is also going to be a struggle.

Is there any way you can cut back on your usage?

BerryMerry

Yup no gas here.

Not sure how I'm doing it, my bills used to be 40 a month for elec (with duel fuel) on Direct debit.

No tv in the house, no lights left on, washing machine once a week, daily 10 min shower. Just had to blast the heating a bit as my several layers are not enough, trying the duvet cocoon method right now. Have the PC on all day though, guess it's eating it.

Just a pay upfront issue atm more than anything, too overdrawn to pull more out til payday. Deposit on the new pad robbed me blind. No local cash machine about, such a pain to trek to the shop several times a week to top up more. Why you cant top up via credit card is beyond me at these paypoints.

I want this evil thing gone, cold enough indoors without another mission to the shop

BerryMerry

Possibly I'm not taking into account here I don't have to pay a gas bill at the end of the month, so it isn't all THAT bad.

lstar337

OK, back to the start.

What kind of heating do you have? Do you have night storage heaters, or panel heaters, or something else?

You have a hot water tank I assume. What is the temperature set at, and how well insulated is it?

What is your building like? Big, small, old, new? How many windows do you have, what size are they, and what type are they?

You are going to need to reduce your energy consumption even if you get your meter problem sorted, so we might as well get it out of the way.

lstar337

BerryMerry wrote: »

Possibly I'm not taking into account here I don't have to pay a gas bill at the end of the month, so it isn't all THAT bad.

Always good to put a positive spin on it. :D

matelodave

Try taking a 5 minute shower it will halve the amount of water you have to heat.
Make sure your hot water tank is well lagged - put another jacket over it and only heat the water when required - put a time switch on the immersion heater. Rinse stuff in cold rather than hot water.

Just fill the kettle with enough water for your requirements.
Turn stuff off at the wall when its not in use and turn lights off as well. Consider LEDs if you've got a kitchen full of halogen downlighters.

Bear in mind that it's now the coldest time of the year and most people would be spending £4-5 a day for their energy at this time of the year.

BerryMerry

On the night storage heaters, only using the main room unless I need to boost my laundry dry time.

Its a 1 bed house, stairs whack in the middle of my main room so all my heat is just going up there, will have to buy a curtain to try block that up. That or camp out in bed, working from home does have some perks

Good thinking on the water tank, it doesnt look very insulated to me, need to wrap that thing up

matelodave

If you've got a night storage heater then you should be on an E7 tariff.

In which case make sure you only heat your hot water during the off-period and make sure your storage heater only heats up during that time as well.

You could also try using the washing machine, tumble dryer and dishwasher during the off peak times as well to take advantage of the lower cost leccy.

If you aren't on an E7 or similar tariff then how are you heating your home as a storage heater will work out to be everso expensive on a single rate deal

BerryMerry

Good call, I always wash in the mornings. Time to get nocturnally frugal.

lstar337

BerryMerry wrote: »

Good call, I always wash in the mornings. Time to get nocturnally frugal.

If you can get up early, or go to bed late, you should try and shower in the E7 period too. Electric showers gobble up power!