Electricity Bill: using less does NOT reduce bill

FlatFour

Hi all,

This has been bugging me for a while...

I've made every effort over the past few years to reduce the amount of electricity we use. Mostly simple things like the obvious energy saving bulbs, only boiling the water we need, popping a jumper on if chilly rather than turning a heater on, turning TVs / electrical items off when leaving the room etc. basic, common sense stuff really. Add to that we generally have A+ rated "always on" items such as the fridge and freezer, and would rather hang things on the line (weather permitting) than simply tumble dry.

So, all good stuff that's reduced our bill quite substantially. However, due to cutting back so efficiently, we now fall foul of the "fine" all providers charge if they're not making enough money from you, the blasted "low-usage charge". Yes, I'm going to call it a fine, because that's what it feels like after so much effort to reduce our bills!

We've been with EON for a couple of years, and have just come to the end of a fixed period. During this time we reduced our power usage sufficiently for the low-usage fine to become a factor, but overall the rates were competitive after much comparing. However, we're looking to change now as entering their current best fixed unit price deal will see a ~15% increase per unit, plus we'll still incur the low-usage fine.

We've been doing some more research today, and it seems that whoever we go with we'll be fined for not using enough. Makes a bit of a mockery of everything (trying to be frugal, environmental impact of excessive power usage etc) if despite cutting back on power usage, we still pay the same as if we were more extravagant power users.

I'm sure many have worked hard to make both their home, and their lifestyles, a bit more energy efficient, so I wanted to ask how are you getting your best deals? Following guides etc. on here, it seems like the best savings are for those who have a higher usage than we do, which is to be expected of course. However, it is somewhat irksome to be effectively charged an extra 30% for power we've not used.

Basically, I'm hoping for a bit of advice from people in a similar situation. So far, every alternative we've tried that looks cheaper based on their headline charges, works out at least as expensive - sometimes MUCH more expensive - when you factor in this monthly low-usage fine.

It's a bit of a minefield really, and this monthly low-usage fine (now we are indeed low users of electricity) really undermines our efforts from a cost perspective, though I do take a little satisfaction in our carbon footprint reduction

Robin9

Which EON tariff ?

FlatFour

Can I just add another point of relevance. I imagine this is the same for all providers when you're on a "fixed" deal...

They always heavily over-estimate our usage, I suppose because we're under the average, so they assume we'll use more. The amount we pay in our direct debit is ALWAYS more than we actually use - including the fine - so they have to adjust at the end of each period as we've invariably paid them too much. Seems they'd rather take more money then credit you at the end of the year, rather than just charge an appropriate average.

This, in turn, makes doing comparisons a little tricky as I can enter what our monthly charge is, but it's more than the electricity we actually use. So, say we do a comparison based on a £100 PCM charge, we then get suggestions who might be cheaper, but what if they too end up overcharging and adjusting? It just makes things that little bit more complicated.

As an FYI our actual usage (plus the fine) is actually a good 25% less than what they insist on charging us. Seems silly, as they have to refund / credit that excess payment each year.

All that being said, OVO Energy appear to offer the best deal for us, but how can we be sure they won't do the same as EON and overcharge for the entire year, only to refund at the end of it? I guess this is one of the issue when going for the security a fixed deal offers.

Anyway, apologies for the additional post, I admit to finding this a little challenging currently for various reasons.

FlatFour

Robin9 wrote: »

Which EON tariff ?

It's their "v12" fixed paperless - sorry, it was a year long deal, not two as I initially thought.

naedanger

FlatFour wrote: »

Hi all,

This has been bugging me for a while...

I've made every effort over the past few years to reduce the amount of electricity we use. Mostly simple things like the obvious energy saving bulbs, only boiling the water we need, popping a jumper on if chilly rather than turning a heater on, turning TVs / electrical items off when leaving the room etc. basic, common sense stuff really. Add to that we generally have A+ rated "always on" items such as the fridge and freezer, and would rather hang things on the line (weather permitting) than simply tumble dry.

So, all good stuff that's reduced our bill quite substantially. However, due to cutting back so efficiently, we now fall foul of the "fine" all providers charge if they're not making enough money from you, the blasted "low-usage charge". Yes, I'm going to call it a fine, because that's what it feels like after so much effort to reduce our bills!

We've been with EON for a couple of years, and have just come to the end of a fixed period. During this time we reduced our power usage sufficiently for the low-usage fine to become a factor, but overall the rates were competitive after much comparing. However, we're looking to change now as entering their current best fixed unit price deal will see a ~15% increase per unit, plus we'll still incur the low-usage fine.

We've been doing some more research today, and it seems that whoever we go with we'll be fined for not using enough. Makes a bit of a mockery of everything (trying to be frugal, environmental impact of excessive power usage etc) if despite cutting back on power usage, we still pay the same as if we were more extravagant power users.

I'm sure many have worked hard to make both their home, and their lifestyles, a bit more energy efficient, so I wanted to ask how are you getting your best deals? Following guides etc. on here, it seems like the best savings are for those who have a higher usage than we do, which is to be expected of course. However, it is somewhat irksome to be effectively charged an extra 30% for power we've not used.

Basically, I'm hoping for a bit of advice from people in a similar situation. So far, every alternative we've tried that looks cheaper based on their headline charges, works out at least as expensive - sometimes MUCH more expensive - when you factor in this monthly low-usage fine.

It's a bit of a minefield really, and this monthly low-usage fine (now we are indeed low users of electricity) really undermines our efforts from a cost perspective, though I do take a little satisfaction in our carbon footprint reduction

Are you saying the actual price you pay per kWh and/or the standing charge (per day) will be greater if you use less than a certain amount? I was not aware of any supplier that did this.

Nada666

I have a very low usage but have never had a problem with direct debit instalment amounts.

As to your first point, it does not cost any less to supply pipes and bills for 1.5 kWh per day than it does for 15 kWh. The tariffs available for low users are limited and you are correct that most of the headline-grabbing tariffs are likely to be more expensive. But I would say this is less of a problem for electricity than with gas.

Look around. And don't forget to check each fuel on a different tariff option (sometimes even with the same supplier.)

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi FlatFour

Sounds like you're doing everything possible to reduce usage. Not sure what you mean, though, about a 'low usage charge.' All our tariffs charge a set price per kWh for usage regardless of how much is used. Do you mean the daily standing charge? Apart from VAT, this is the only other charge on our residential bills.

If you do, these charges are made up of the fixed costs we pick up when supplying your property. These include things like meter reading and maintenance as well as the cost of keeping properties connected to the grid. There are also costs associated with our environmental and social obligations. This daily charge is the same regardless of how much energy is used.

As you pay with a Monthly Direct Debit, there's a lower daily standing charge for paying this way. You can also take more control of the payments, including changing the amount, through an online tool called the 'Direct Debit Manager.' Comes in handy should circumstances change. Here, provided the account is billed up to the latest meter readings, payments can be changed by up to 20 per cent up or down. By up to 5 per cent up or down without readings. Before confirming the new amount, we'll let you know by how much we anticipate the account will be in credit/debit by the time of the annual review if payments are changed but usage doesn't alter as expected.

You also mention we over-estimate your usage. Are we billing to estimated meter readings? We're always happy to use your readings and will re-bill any estimates as soon as we've up to date readings. You can let us have readings via our website, through our phone app or by phoning the number on your bills. You'll have a revised bill within 24 hours.

I'd pop your usage in kWh on to the independent comparison sites. These will list all the tariffs available to you both with us and with the other suppliers. It's best to use kWh rather than money as this will give you a better picture.

I know you're on top of the usage but when you've a minute have a look at the 'Energy Saving' pages on our website. You've probably done most of this stuff but, you never know, might help a bit. Have a look at the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) too. This is a Government led scheme that aims to cut usage by providing help with energy saving stuff like loft and cavity wall insulation.

Sorry if I've misunderstood your meaning here FlatFour.

Malc

FlatFour

Hi,

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Sorry, I'm likely not being as clear as I should. This Standing Charge figure has always seems to be the counter-balance to the per-unit charge over the years. I.e. I find a cheaper per-unit tariff option, yet when I get into it I see that the Standing Charge is higher, either totally negating any potential savings - due to us being fairly low-usage - or even working out more expensive. I'm noticing this is very evident across providers when using the MSE comparison tool, negating cost per unit reductions.

We did have regular meter readings, and have frequently queried why we get constantly over-estimated on our usage. When I queried this, the explanation has been that they "don't have access to the reading" which is plain ridiculous.

I don't object to the standing charge in principle, it's just when it gets adjusted upward after switching to what was a cheaper per-unit tariff and we end up saving less than was original forecast, it's a little frustrating.

The other interesting thing is that while I know we use far less electricity than many of my friends - some of them living alone in one bed flats - we still get shown as "high usage" which is a bit weird.

Can I ask Malc, why EON cannot answer our query regarding the constant monthly overcharging? We were for a while on the perfect monthly DD, however, it kept going up and up (50% increase over the year) with the answer being we were estimated to be using more, yet we were doing nothing different. Then, at the end of the year we get told we've over paid (again) and get some credit. Personally, I'd rather have a more accurate, predicable, bill throughout the year - you have access to meter readings, so I don't see why this is a problem.

It's this which makes things difficult to estimate when the bill we get doesn't actually bare any relation to the electricity we use, with it all normalising with a credit at the end of the year.

Interestingly, EON's monthly standing charge is far far less than that MSE have given as a recommended switch-to. Though, on renewal, EON's per-unit charges are about 10% higher - up ~15% on our prior deal. The balance, contrary to MSE's recommendation that'd we'd save £200 a year, is that we'd be no worse off staying with EON.

It's a little confusing to be honest, it should be fairly simple, we know our usage, EON knows our usage, yet it seems impossible to get an accurate bill. The standing charge issue was more a bug bear of mine as we got caught out with a higher standing charge when we switched to a cheaper tariff one time.

I know I'm a bit ranty, but I do appreciate any feedback. Just want to try to get the best deal possible. When a fixed rate deal varies so much over the year, despite fairly consistent usage, it's a little worrying.

When you see your monthly DD go up every couple of months, based on purely estimated usage, despite both usage remaining constant and regular meter reading so back this up, you really wonder what's going on. Then for the difference to be credited at the end of the period, you wonder why. It's almost like they only check the actual usage data once a year.

FlatFour

Sorry, further to my above post (I just checked a few things) our end of year summary thing has projections for next year. However, these are based on the estimated use once again, I have no data on actual use in that summary. As we know the estimates are way off, we don't actually know how much we'll be charged.

Usually we see a MASSIVE adjustment down at the start of the new 12 month billing period, which starts in December. Our monthly DD has been as much as halfed for the next few months, before starting to climb again each month and the pattern repeats.

Oddly, the "estimated usage" seems to be based on higher bills we see at the end of the period, thus is quite out and NOT based on actual readings as I've previously mentioned. Yet this exact figure is then used in projections, leading to more inaccuracy.

HappyMJ

Read your meter every month and provide those readings to the supplier and you will get an accurate estimate of your usage.

FlatFour

HappyMJ wrote: »

Read your meter every month and provide those readings to the supplier and you will get an accurate estimate of your usage.

Hi,

Yes, we're doing that. Originally we had a meter reader come to the door every month, now we submit the readings online every month as requested. Really shudda mentioned that shouldn't I? Sorry!