Electric cooker causing huge bills?

thorganby

/start rant

Smart meters are being pushed hard by the industry and they state "no more estimated bills" but this is yet another example showing that they offer no real benefit to customers.

BG has installed more smart meters than any other supplier, this should never happen and is inexcusable.

The terms of all energy suppliers supply licence should mandate that estimated billing is not permitted if a smart meter is fitted.

The water industry has been billing on actual metered usage for decades with no problem.

Allowing customers to get hundreds of pounds in debt simply because their billing system does not differentiate customers that have smart meters is pathetic.

Customers should be billed on actual usage by default and only given the option to even out their payments over the year, if they specifically choose that option.

There is no excuse for reviewing an account after six or twelve months and then telling customers that they owe money and their direct debit will be massively increased.

This is the sort of thing that ML would have exposed years ago but I doubt if he is likely to rock the boat with suppliers now, as they are a valued revenue stream.

This is scandalous and shows that the energy supply sector is not adequately regulated.

The useless quango called Ofgem really needs to sort out this ongoing smart meter farce that is wasting us all time and money.

When did Ofgem last do anything that benefited customers!

Every time that they interfere we all end up worse off due to their pathetic meddling.

/end rant

Talldave

dogshome wrote: »

For a family home, a D/Debit of £70 a month is low, and most likely too low, and with Estimated bills you have built up debt
.....

I disagree, our large family home using 3600kWhr electricity per year is costing £45 a month. And a large chunk of that goes on the boiler which runs almost 24/7 in winter due to single glazing (gas consumption will be 56-58,000 kWhr for the year).

Both adults work from home, OLED TV on quite a lot, dishwasher used once a day, etc.

The only difference between our setup and the OP's is that we have electric oven/gas hob and OP has electric oven/electric hob.

dogshome

Hi Talldave - Who is your supplier, I want to join them


58,000 Kwh of Gas at say the Industry Average of 3p a Kwh , works out to around £1740 a year -£145 a month.


To get this amount of Gas plus 3,600 Kwh of Elec for £45 a month is the Holy Grail we are all looking for

Talldave

dogshome wrote: »

Hi Talldave - Who is your supplier, I want to join them


58,000 Kwh of Gas at say the Industry Average of 3p a Kwh , works out to around £1740 a year -£145 a month.


To get this amount of Gas plus 3,600 Kwh of Elec for £45 a month is the Holy Grail we are all looking for

I think we're at crossed purposes here - this thread is about electricity, which is why I am talking about electricity costs. The OP isn't asking for help on gas. But for the record our gas is £138 a month on SSE's very good uSwitch tariff (2.499p/kWhr). Electricity is with Yorkshire Energy.

As other posters have hinted, the OP's problem must come from having run up a debt because of long term under estimating. But that has led them to look at their consumption, which does seem high. But I don't believe it's the oven, it's the sum total of "everything else". I think the OP needs to switch stuff off and not waste money on a new oven. But that's just my opinion!

LindaLou72

comeandgo wrote: »

Do you have a pressure cooker, microwave or slow cooker. These all help to reduce the electricity you use while cooking. Put a lid on your pan, shut ring off a few minutes before you would usually as the pan and ring will still be hot. Cook in batches and freeze the other portions. There are just two of us, I always cook in portions of four. The other two we either have the following evening or freeze for later in the month.

I have histamine intolerance, so I have to eat food (particularly meat) that's as fresh as possible, so a slow cooker doesn't work so well for me. Certainly I do make big batches and freeze leftovers when I can. Mainly what I use the hob for is steaming veg - maybe it would work better to boil them in a pressure cooker?

LindaLou72

Robin9 wrote: »

Even though you've got a Smart meter don't turn your back on taking your own meter readings - check them against your bill and see how if your bill is in line with your DD.

As you've now got a new meter - check that the serial number matches that in your bill. Does your bill also show the old meter being removed and the new one installed - are the readings on the bill the same as on the card the meter installer left when he changed the meter.

Thank you - we haven't had our first bill using the new meter yet, and will look for these.

LindaLou72

Talldave wrote: »

What's your middle of the night figure, boiler not running (yes, gas heating uses electricity for pumps & valves!)?

Thanks for all your help here! It's consistently just over 400W. That should only include the fridge/freezer, so will have to see if any other plugged-in items are contributing to this.

LindaLou72

PennineAcute wrote: »

Is your IHD programmed with the correct unit price and standing charge?

It should be, but I'll keep an eye on it. It's very new, so it wouldn't be the source of the problem per se.

LindaLou72

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Was the £70 per month covering your usage? The increase to £120 may be to recover a debt discovered by a recent actual reading. The £120 may also be an overestimate. Some companies like customers to overpay. Giving actual monthly readings helps avoid this.


Fridges and freezers can be expensive to run. As they switch on and off the consumption doesn't always show on monitors.

I need to look into our usage, but it seems to be averaging about £2.50 per day, so no it wouldn't have been - which means we must have accumulated a debt.

I made a big mistake in not paying enough attention to all this until it turned into a problem, but will continue submitting meter readings every month and checking on the usage of different appliances and devices.

I'm really grateful for all the help here, it's good to be able to discuss this and get ideas.

Norman_Castle

LindaLou72 wrote: »

Thanks for all your help here! It's consistently just over 400W. That should only include the fridge/freezer, so will have to see if any other plugged-in items are contributing to this.

The compressor on a fridge doesn't run constantly, often it can be heard running. Switching the fridge off while the compressor is running should indicate its consumption and how much, if any, of the 400W its using.
From memory my small under counter fridge uses 120W when running.