Advice On Keeping Bills Down Please

AfxTwn

Hi, first of all, sorry but this is going to be a long post.

I live in a 3 bedroom rented house (although it's more like a 2 bedroom with a tiny box room listed as a third) and have just got some smart meters (version 2) installed by Npower following high gas and electricity bills from them recently (the gas in particular was quite high).

I used to have a pair of Liberty 100 smart meters (Liberty EG4v 10) which was provided by Boost Energy for the previous tenant and they were on a pre-payment tariff but again, when I moved in and started using them, I found the weekly cost of topping up was very high and so wanted to change to a credit tariff as I thought it may be cheaper and I was used to that from my previous address.

Anyway, I went with Npower and used the same smart meters that were already installed but as I mentioned, I started to get higher bills for what I considered to be low usage (I live on my own and hardly use the heating).

So after complaining to Npower they suggested changing the meters to their own newer smart meters and then see how much I use (they have also put my direct debit back down to what I was paying previously).

I know Npower has got a bad reputation and I will probably end up switching to a cheaper supplier but I want to see first if there were any issues with my old meters and if I was being charged too much (oh I forgot to mention I was on their standard tariff too) or if there was a debt on the old meters from the previous tenant.

In the meantime, as we are coming into Autumn and Winter soon, I would like some advice about how best to use my heating. I have a Main Combi 24 HE boiler with a Salus RT500RF thermostat in the living room. Each of the radiators has a TRV valve (which they didn't have when I moved in for the first few months till I got the landlord to put them on the radiators), there are 6 in total, one for each room and I have a heated towel rail in the bathroom.

My thermostat is a little strange as it has no manual control to turn the heating on or off. It only has a programmable control where I have to set what temperature I want the heating to be at certain times of the day. So for example, I have it set to be at 18 degrees from 6am to 9am and then from 9am to 4pm it is set to 14 degrees. Then from 4pm to 9pm it is set to 18 degrees and after 9pm it goes back to 14 degrees.

If I want to have manual control of the heating then I have to go to the boiler and flick the little switch on the RF receiver from auto/timer to work with the thermostats program to off/manual so that the boiler takes over and the heating is on all the time until I switch it back to auto and it is controlled again by the thermostat.

So if I want the heating to come a little earlier or stay on longer then I will either have to program in a new time/temperature setting with the thermostat or just turn the heating on or off at the boiler and if on, then remember to turn it off again.

I can adjust the TRV valves on the radiators and effectively turn them off but I don't know if this is a good idea to keep adjusting them or whether the boiler is still using gas anyway.

Also, the heated towel rail in the bathroom has 2 flow valves (one on each side), do I need to put them on full? Should I have the towel rail on all the time, even in the Summer or just have it for when the weather's cold?

Sorry for the questions but I'm just trying to figure out how best to heat my home and ultimately keep the costs down.

Thanks for any advice and again sorry for the long post.

Talldave

The towel rail is just a radiator, if the bathroom gets too hot reduce the flow a little.

Using a programmable thermostat is actually the best way to get your home at the temperature you want, but it takes some tweaking to get it right. It means you can have a lower temperature at night, rather than having to turn the heating fully off.

In addition, if it has optimum start capability it will "learn" what time to switch the boiler on to get to the temperature you've requested at the time you have set.

In theory, you can leave it set to auto 365 days a year and if we get a cold spell in the middle of June it'll kick in and keep you warm.

The TRVs allow some relative adjustment between rooms (ie: off in box room!) but you need to be careful that the thermostat is not near a radiator that has its TRV turned down, otherwise the boiler is burning away struggling to reach a temperature it cannot achieve because the TRV shut the radiator off. So you really want the thermostat in the room you want to keep warmest and leave that room's TRV on max.

Some programmable thermostats have additional nice features such as holiday mode, where you can tell it you're away for "n" days. It goes into frost protection mode whilst you're away and heats the home as normal on the day of your return.

It sounds like you're on the right lines, and just need to tweak the programme to suit your lifestyle. I've used programmable thermostats for over 20 years and love them. I hope some of that helps.

Robin9

AfxTwn wrote: »

......................... I started to get higher bills for what I considered to be low usage (I live on my own and hardly use the heating)...............................(they have also put my direct debit back down to what I was paying previously)..................

What do you consider to be low usage ? Answer in terms of kwh not £ please.

Could you post your readings from when the nPower Smart went in please as well as your reading of today. What is the nPower tariff ?

AfxTwn

@Talldave I am not sure if my thermostat has an optimum start capability but I have it set to come on at 6am until 8am at 18 degrees and then from 4pm to 10pm at 18 degrees, any other time it's set to 14 degrees (those were the default times of the thermostat program, I have just lowered the suggested temperature from 21 degrees to 18). I have set the living room TRV to full (number 5) and all the other radiator's to number 2.

@Robin9 I spoke to Npower today following my new smart meters installation and they are going to send me out a new bill based on my current readings in about 10 days. They said my previous bill was based on estimates and may have been wrong but they won't know yet.

Going off the bill I received last month, they estimated my gas usage from January to March to be 6253 kWh and from April to August to be 3421 kWh and my electricity was estimated from February to March to be 107 kWh but they took a meter reading for April to July and said it was 443 kWh.

I am on the standard tariff. I don't know what my meter reading is today but seeing as I've only had the new meters in for a few days, it's not going to be an accurate representation of what I use anyway.

Bearing in mind I only moved into this property last November, their gas meter estimate up to this August was 4936 and the electricity estimate up to April was 13322 (I presume these are their estimated meter readings, I don't know if that's different from the kWh usage?). So I don't know if they are including the old meter's previous readings from before I moved into the house.

I also don't understand how the new smart meter tablet thing shows my average usage as being around 2-4 pence per hour for electric which even if I used that all day would equate to 96p yet I am paying significantly more than that.

It's very confusing and if the amount on the smart display isn't indicative of what I will actually pay then what's the point in having it?

Just to also give an indication of how much energy I use, I watch TV for around 3-4 hours a day (an hour in the morning and then maybe a couple in the evening) and I use my gaming PC for around 3 hours a day. On top of that are incidentals like turning the lights on, using my electric fan oven (once a week for baking), using the microwave or electric hob, kettle and charging devices such as my phone. Plus when I do have my heating on (I've just turned it on today as it's gone particularly cold), I don't have it higher than 18 degrees and at the most for 6 hours (on cold winter evenings) with the thermostat programmed to turn it off and on as required. Oh and I use the boiler when I run a bath.

Is that usage a lot? I'm not sure really, doesn't seem so to me. Anyway, hopefully Npower will send me a more accurate bill and I can find out whether the old meters had any debt on them that I was being charged for. They have been quite helpful so far on the phone so I will see.

Robin9

AfxTwn wrote: »

.....................

I am on the standard tariff. .............................

As a first move swop within nPower to a better tariff - your account will give you details.

Do some digging and look at your bills to find your annual consumption - find 2 bills about 12 months apart where the readings have the letter A against them. You may have to do a few simple sums to take the old and new meters into account.

RelievedSheff

Getting off the standard variable rate and onto the best deal that N Powercan offer will save you a fair amount of money.

PennineAcute

If you have recently had smart meter installed, then you can see if their estimates are accurate or not. As the elec smart meter reading would have been (or should have been) zero when installed, you can see how much you have used since it was installed. Divide this by the number of days, and you will have a mean daily kWh usage.

In addition, your IHD can also show past daily and monthly readings.

It can also take a while (why, I do not know) for your IHD to be updated with the correct tariff rates, so this could be why it is showing minimal £ costs.

matelodave

Start reading the meter yourself and keeping your own records. Dont just assume that the energy company is using the readings -CHECK yourself that the bills do accurately reflect your meter readings.

Ignore the IHD unless you are convinced that the kwh are identical to those that are displayed on the actual meter.

You consume energy in kwh, so that's what you should be measuring rather than £'s. Monitoring your consumption yourself, rather than waiting for a bill to come in will give you a much better idea of your consumption. Do it at least once a month or even better once a week.

When you know what you are using and when you are using it you can do something about it. It's too late when the bill come in, because it's already been used and you've got to pay for it.

Lastly make sure that you are on a competitive tariff - use a comparison site to check.

Talldave

When you read the electric meter, the figures are kWhr, so you can subtract the previous reading from the current reading to see exact consumption. For gas, the meter reads in cubic metres, so after subtracting the previous reading, multiply the figure by 11.2 to get a kWhr figure.

Many of the newer, smaller, cheaper suppliers bill monthly which might be easier to help you keep track of costs.

On the thermostat, you might find the 18 is a little low come winter, but it depends on how your system interacts between radiator & thermostat. I would typically have 21 during the evening, dropping to 19 overnight, 21 for the 6am-8am slot, then drop to 14-16 for daytime whilst out at work. Hopefully the thermostat is 5/2 day or 7 day so you can have a different profile for weekends.

MovingForwards

Switch things off and unplug items were possible.

Hang thick / lined curtains to keep heat in.

Close doors to keep rooms warm/drafts out.

Do you really need the heating on for two hours before work?

Shower instead of baths.

Washing clothes when you have a full load, not frequently with small loads.

Boil just the right amount of water for tea / coffee?

Pressure or slow cooker? Means soups/ stews are cooked with ease and cheaper to use/run.

Use a steamer saucepan for multiple layers of food instead of 3 or 4 pans on the job, with the oven on when doing a roast etc.

Do you use a dishwasher? If so is it just small loads?

Energy saving light bulbs?

Lights off in unused rooms?

Carpet down or other flooring throughout the property?

My bills are £16 pm gas and about £7 PW on pre-pay electric meter, 2 bed 60's ex-council flat, Scotland. Heating goes on if absolutely necessary, for one hour in winter, rest of the time it's warm clothes / layers first.

AfxTwn

Thanks for all the replies. It seems the general consensus is to check the meter readings regularly so I can monitor the usage myself and to switch tariff with Npower.

Npower are going to send me a new bill in around 10 days time so when I get that I can compare it to the meter readings I take and get an idea of how much energy I use. I will phone them again when I have the new bill and discuss changing tariffs and if I'm not happy with the price then I can go on some comparison websites and see if I can get a better deal elsewhere.

As I said, I haven't been in the property for 12 months just yet so I can't compare my bills to any previous ones really and due to the complication of having older pre-payment smart meters installed and the possible issue of their meter readings from before I moved in being taken into account, then I also need to speak to Npower about that. When the engineer came to install my new meters he said that switching from pre-payment to credit on those old meters could cause problems with the readings.

I also want to look into getting a new programmable thermostat as the one I use has no manual control on it and overrides the boiler. So once I have programmed in the times and temperatures I want, if I decide I want to turn the heating off mid-way through a program, I can't because there is no off switch on the thermostat controls. I would have to go to the boiler and switch the heating off and just have hot water on (like you do in the summer) and if I want the heating on before the program kicks in then again I have to go to the boiler and switch the thermostats RF receiver from auto (programmed mode) to manual or always on mode so then the heating comes on until I switch it back to auto (in which case it stays on until the thermostats program tells it not to).

It's quite complicated and very inefficient really. I will have to see how much a new thermostat is and whether it would be compatible with my boiler and/or the current RF receiver that's fitted, plus I would need to get someone to fit it for me.

@MovingForward Just to answer a few of your points, I always switch things off where I can unless it goes into standby mode like the TV (otherwise I would have to keep moving the TV and going behind it to switch off the plugs).

I could look at getting new curtains, my current ones aren't particularly thick although they are lined. It depends on how expensive they are.

I always close all doors and try to keep heat in as much as possible. I do have a shower and would use it but it leaks all over the bathroom floor (it's an over-the-bath model and the shower screen is a rubbish glass one with a crap seal over the bath). As I live in a rented property it's all additional cost to me as the landlord is quite reluctant to do any repairs and pay for improvements (I currently have a couple of leaks when it rains and have been waiting over a month for the landlord to sort it out).

And with your other energy-saving points, I generally do those anyway. I don't cook a lot of meals (I'm a beans on toast man), don't have a dishwasher, use LED bulbs and the property is carpeted throughout.

I have no idea how your bills are so low, especially on a pre-payment meter but maybe it's not as expensive in Scotland (I am in England) or your supplier/tariff is better than mine. Plus you do a lot of things to keep your bills down.

I don't mind paying a reasonable amount and just want to live comfortably without being excessive. I feel a bit more positive now and to be fair, Npower have been helpful so it's a case of wait and see when I get the new bill.