Help! Paying a fortune/Mystery Energy Usage - 2 Bed Flat & Economy 7

[Deleted User]

Hi,

twotonealex wrote: »

Our usage for this year is a total of 7017KWh, I feel like this is way to high! Annual consumption for day is 3692 kWh and night is 3325 kWh. (45.8% Economy)

I've joined the energy club tonight, and it's found energy available at a cost of £79 per month, from a supplier I've not heard of, but it's fixed for 12 months.

your day/night ratio seems wrong, it should be about 30/70 or better, your day usage seems high considering you are both out during the day, take daily readings to try and pinpoint usage.


£79 a month will not be fixed, the unit prices may be, but monthly payment may need to be adjusted, depending on usage.

welshmoneylover

£121 a month is average, the price of electricity has shot up in recent years.

House_Martin

twotonealex wrote: »

Thanks both.

To clarify:

Our storage heaters are manual input/output controlled. In the winter when we use them, we turn on input to the appropriate setting dependent on how cold, output on lowest.

I was referring to turning off all appliances at the plug when not in use (not referring to the heaters as I understand their principles).

The shower is used by us both between 6AM-6:20AM, so should fall in the remit of the economy tariff.

Thanks!

You need to check if your Eco 7 timer switch to see if its in the correct band which varies between 12 am and 8 am in BST.
Older timer switches with analog meters can have the cheap 7 hours appearing at anywhere within the 24 hrs so the cheap rate could well be active at 2pm to 9pm for instance.
You could well be taking your cheap rate shower in the top price rates

WhoIsThat

twotonealex wrote: »

Evening all,

I need some help as I think I'm going mad!

Me and my partner moved bought our flat 2 years ago, I've consistently searched out the best tariffs with Scottish Power to keep on top of our bills.

This is our first proper place together so besides paying for general rent at home, I've never paid attention to the average units (KWh) that a normal home uses.

We've live in a relatively modern building in Bristol, well insulated, 2 of 4 floors up, decent double glazing etc etc.

It's economy 7 metered, with electric storage heaters - we bought new modern ones when we moved in that are lots more efficient than the old ones. In the winter we use the storage heaters, but only turn on when we go to bed and I turn them off at 6AM when I'm up for work.

Our usage, seems to just keep going up and up each year! We were paying £35 a month when we moved in, now today after entering our most recent readings it's gone up to £121 per month!

Our usage for this year is a total of 7017KWh, I feel like this is way to high! Annual consumption for day is 3692 kWh and night is 3325 kWh. (45.8% Economy)

To put our usage into context:
- We have a new washer dryer that is used probably for a total of 5 hours a week.
- We DON'T use our electric water heater as neither of us use the bath, instead we have an electric shower which we use daily. When we wash the dishes I'll boil the kettle, this is probably once every 2 days if I'm being honest!:rotfl:
- We are both out of our flat every day at 7AM, I am home around 5PM, my partner slightly later.
I turn off everything bar the wifi when we go out/not using it.

I was paranoid about our meter being wrong, so I turned off every single switch in our flat and the meter didn't go up for the 5 minutes I watched.

I've joined the energy club tonight, and it's found energy available at a cost of £79 per month, from a supplier I've not heard of, but it's fixed for 12 months.

I'm currently £253 in debit, which is why my bills have now gone from £91 to £121 per month today (I only gave my readings 1 month ago). So without paying this off first I can't go anywhere

What i'm trying to ask, is am I missing something?
Is this usage normal?
How do I reduce costs?

Any help/advice is appreciated.

Thanks!
Alex

Why not??? Sounds like you like giving money yopu don't have to SP, as you have strived to do for last 2 years.
(Accepted that if you do switch supplier, then SP will ask for the final bill to be settled then)

You say you paid £91 pm, but with over £250 debit now on account after 2 years, sounds like you should have been paying over £100 per month. That would also explain why SP now want you to pay £121 pm

You have the possibility of saving over £20 a month, which itself would pay off the debit you accrued over 2 years in just a year.

As others have said, 7000kWh per year in an all electric flat is certainly not high, in fact it's quite low.

The people over on the Debt-Free Wannabe board will help you if you are struggling to manage your finances.
(But paying 25% more than you need to for the same electricity just to be loyal to a supplier is not helping you)

WhoIsThat

twotonealex wrote: »

Thanks both.

To clarify:

Our storage heaters are manual input/output controlled. In the winter when we use them, we turn on input to the appropriate setting dependent on how cold, output on lowest.

I was referring to turning off all appliances at the plug when not in use (not referring to the heaters as I understand their principles).

The shower is used by us both between 6AM-6:20AM, so should fall in the remit of the economy tariff.

Thanks!

Have you actually checked this via the meter?

Or are you assumming? :eek:

r2015

Do you have an enormous telly? I believe they use a lot of juice.

Not if it is an LED TV.

I went from a 32 inch LCD TV to a 49 inch LED TV and it uses less electricity.