Scottish Power Bill Help

Rodders53

CashStrapped wrote: »

Over the year it seems your parents are using 12,487 kWh

!!!:eek:
Is that really a lot of energy for an older couple mostly at home all day every day? 12.5 MWh per annum?

We (2, retired) use about 3,750 kWh of electricity and 11,000 kWh of gas (totalling 14.75 MWh of energy) in our modern 10 year old detached bungalow (EPC rating of C). We are not in one of the colder parts of the country either. Our SP bill has just dropped to £52/ mth from £61 but I think that may be too little in our case.

I'm not convinced the energy use is that abnormal... the standard tariff is definitely not a good one though!

Certainly a 40+ year old house may benefit from more insulation in the roof, hot water tank and walls (if cavity) if not already upgraded; plus, perhaps, more LED lamps rather than halogens and incandescents left on a lot?

footyguy

Richie7 wrote: »

I thought I'd just give you an update - and ask for some opinions again too if you don't mind.

It turns out that no matter what time of day the immersion is put on, it is accruing on the "peak" meter. Even during the off peak time period. I have yet to speak to Scottish Power regarding this (i will be), but I'm pretty sure they have made a terrible error.

So the ramifications of this would appear to be that my parents have been paying for peak rate electricity when it should have been off-peak? And I have no idea how many years this has been for.

I am sure this is in breach of their contract, which is an "Off Peak E" one I'm led to believe. That is meant to include water heating on Economy 7. But clearly is not in this case.

Would appreciate anyone's thoughts on this new information.

Thanks as always.


Rich.

The bit I highlighted implies you are not on E7, but an old legacy tariff.

Attempting to switch from this tariff, let alone the supplier, will invariably end in tears.

The supplier is not responsible for how your home is wired - get a suitably qualified electrician to check if in doubt.

cranford

Rodders53 you dont say whether you have economy 7 but assuming you dont, 3750khw of electricity would cost about £450 at 12p per unit plus anther £60 or so for standing charge pa. The gas would cost about £330 at 3p per unit plus another £60 for standing charge. Total about £900 a year or £75 per month. So if you are paying around £50 per month you must have a credit balance of about £300.
Put you consumption into a comparison web site and this will confirm this. There are tariffs cheaper than SP though.

[Deleted User]

If the low rate is advancing then the OP can not have one of these 24 hr day rates we see sometimes.Maybe she has not checked the low rate properly .The cheap 7 hrs could actually be in use at any time in the 24 hrs, even at 2 pm in the afternoon to 9pm at night. I ve seen this many many times.The supplier is not responsible for the 7 hrs low rate being outside of the published times. It is beyond their control.
It is actually a good thing to get the low rate away from the dead of night because occupiers can make better use of the cheap rate but they do need to be aware of the timer switch operation. I read meters for Scot Power and we will mess up the day/night readings ( transpose ) them more often than get them right. Most of our meter readers will enter a meter showing rate 1 into the night field on our data collectors and rate 2 into the day field..

CashStrapped

Rodders53 wrote: »

!!!:eek:
Is that really a lot of energy for an older couple mostly at home all day every day? 12.5 MWh per annum?

On reflection, you are probably correct. We only discovered in later posts that the house is a semi detached. Based on that, a property with E7 and storage heaters/immersion may come in around 12,500 mark or more depending on insulation.

The average figures I used for comparison seem to be based on/skewed towards smaller flats which make up the bulk of e7 properties.

However, it was not the total figure we are trying to help the OP with, it is the fact that if they are on E7, they are only using around 35% on night rate. Which is not good. Then there is the poor tariff they seem to be on.

I think we have helped as far as we can on the forum. The OP should get an electrician and then clarify if they are actually on an E7 tariff. As sacsquacco points out, if they are on E7, then need to work out when it clicks on to the cheap rate as it may have drifted over the years. This drift may be to their benefit or it may not, but they at least need to know when the cheap period comes on.

AngryEnergyUser

I logged on to get some advice regarding Scottish Power so thank you for all the posts on this thread they have been very useful for me.

We have been trying to get our account with Scottish Power set up since January and have been through a whole saga with Customer Services, the Moving Team and Customer Complaints. From our experience, I have some advice and a word of warning.

Advice: 1. Log everything! Dates, times of calls, who you speak to, what they say, information you give them and length of call. 2. Keep evidence i.e. photos of readings including the meter number and any correspondence you receive from Scottish Power. 3. Register any complaint a.s.a.p. and quote this number in any correspondence you have with Scottish Power in relation to the complaint. 4. Get Scottish power to clarify what they have recorded as your complaint and make sure everything is recorded as you want it - I had 11 issues with our treatment that formed the basis of our complaint but they only addressed one in their record - this means that, as long as they address that one issue, they will close down the complaint. 5. Be persistent! If someone says they will call you back and they don't record that and call them back yourself. 6. As soon as your complaint is registered, email contactus@scottishpower.com quoting the complaint number and supplying your log to date and all the evidence collected so far and clarify in the email the full details of your complaint, point by point, so there is no doubt as what it is that you want answers to/resolved (after 3 months of frustration, I raised a complaint yesterday and sent an email with the log and all the evidence and got a call back this morning! It's still not resolved but for the first time in 3 months, Scottish Power have actually reacted and responded, so baby steps...). 7. If your complaint is not resolved in 8 weeks or they send you a deadlock letter you can refer it to the Energy Ombudsman (it doesn't hurt to record the date that you will be referring the matter to the ombudsman if the complaint is not resolved in your email).

I know this is a lot of work, especially as it is not your property, but even just taking a photo of all the readings once a week and making a call for an update once a week might get things moving. It's important to log the complaint as that starts a countdown for Scottish Power to get it resolved. If you don't log it as a complaint, you can go on like this for months and then still have to log a complaint to finally get it resolved. (I learnt this the hard way after a 2 year battle with E-on to send us a bill for anything other than £0.00!).

Warning - I have no idea what system we have or tariff we are on (they won't clarify that with us until the account is actually set up!) but it sounds a lot like your parents. We have just been told that we will not be able to change suppliers, even after everything is resolved, as Scottish Power are the only company that support our type of system!

Good luck!