High energy bills

RelievedSheff

Jibber123 wrote: »

Thanks RelievedSheff, is there just 2 of you at home and are you out for most of the day at work? £60 seems quite low if you at home all day.

Yes there are just the two of us and we are at work Monday to Friday so both out of the house from 7am to 6.30pm. We don't let the house get cold though, the thermostats are set so that the house does not drop below 17 degrees during the day (or night for that matter) which means that the heating is not working as hard to get the house back up to temperature when it does turn on.

matelodave

The proportion of my annual energy consumption varies with the time of year (I’ve been recording the meters readings weekly for the past 10 years, so I’ve got an accurate average value foe each month).

I obviously use less in the summer than in the winter so I can also monitor whether my consumption is above or below my prediction. This allows me to work out when I’ll be in arrears or in credit but generally it will balance out at the end of 12 months


Here are my calculations based on 7200kwh a year with a direct debit of £912 (£76/month)

Month % Consumption Cost
January – 16% 7200x16% = 1152 £921x16%= £145.92
February – 14% 14%= 1008 14%=£127.68
March – 12% 12% = 864 12%= £109.44
April – 7% 7% = 504 7% = £63.84
May – 4% 4% = 288 4% = £36.48
June - 4% 4% = 288 4% = £36.48
July - 4% 4% = 288 4% = £36.48
August 4% 4% = 288 4% = £36.48
September – 4% 4% = 288 4% = £36.48
October – 7% 7% = 504 7% = £63.84
November – 11% 11% = 792 11% = £100.32
December – 15% 15% =1080 15% = £136.80

Dunno what goes wrong with the formatting, however you can see that my average daily consumption is around 9.3kwh in the summer and nearly 40 in December (sometimes it goes as high as 50 if it's everso cold)

Smodlet

Jibber123 wrote: »

Just out of interest we are paying 25p/day electric standing charge and 15.3p/kWh day and 10.8p/kWh E7 night. gas standing charge 18.7p/day and 3.5p/kwh, does this seem about right or am i being over charged by my supplier?

Hi Jibber123. I admit I know almost nothing about E7 tariffs but your unit rates for electricity look OK to me while the standing charge seems high; this might be the case with E7 tariffs, though.

I would have thought you might be able to do a little better on the gas rates.

Fwiw, we are 2 adults who are home all the time in a 3 bed semi and I hate the cold. The house has insulation but I have no idea what state the cavity wall stuff is in. The loft insulation is just good enough to prevent our getting a grant to improve it so must be doing some good.

We use approx 13000 kwh of gas per year (central heating only) and 2750 of electricity; we have solar panels so they help a little at this time of year, when it stops raining.

We pay 3.1p per kwh for gas with a s/charge of 7.35p per day and 15.2 for single rate electricity with a s/charge of 5.25p per day. We are with Eon.

I said I know nothing about E7 but am sure I remember reading on here that using the boost button uses loads of electricity and people being advised to use the night rate for their storage heaters rather than using that facility. Sorry if this is not correct.

Good luck! I hope you get to the bottom of it and post back so others can learn from your diligence.

Jibber123

Thanks for the reply's everyone. Interesting Smodlet your standing charges work out to be over £90 a year cheaper and the mere 0.4p/Kwh for gas equates to a saving of over £60 a year. I'm starting to think it's a combination of small things that all add up. If i was on the same tariff as you i would be paying well over £10 a month less. despite the fact that if i put my usage into Uswitch it found the cheapest tarrifs for me at the time.

Smodlet

Something a bit random has just occurred, Jibber123. When you say gas, you do mean mains gas, I suppose, not canisters? If you have mains GCH, might I enquire why you want E7? Surely it just complicates things. I thought E7 was mostly for all-electric properties which use night storage heaters.

Apologies if I have misunderstood however, if you don't actually need E7, you might find more competitive tariffs elsewhere though please don't forget to factor in exit fees. Bulb are really good for avoiding those; they pay your exit fees and don't charge any themselves, from what I have read, so you might use them to leapfrog to a cheaper supplier without penalties. It might seem a bit ungracious... Then, this is a money saving site.

Talldave

Jibber123 wrote: »

Also while I've been up an night checking the electricity usage I've found the boiler is running intermittently during the night. The boiler is in a small lean-to outside the back door, it's enclosed but the door is badly fitting and it's only got single glazed windows and no insulation. There is a thermostat fitted in there next to boiler and it's set at 4C, which i'm assuming is the frost protection stat for the boiler. But when the temperature drops in the lean to the boiler comes on and runs for about 30 mins heating all the rooms in the house until the little bit of warmth from the boiler case and pipework warms up the lean-to enough to raise the air temperature and trip the thermostat off again. Surely the boiler only need to be on long enough for water returning to the boiler the be heater to say 15C to ensure it's not freezing and turn off again. I felt the return pipe to the boiler after about 5 mins and it was hot to touch so no risk of freezing. but the boiler continued to heat the house for a further 25 mins while we're all tucked up in bed, and don;lt need the heating on. I don't want to remove this thermostat as it's there to protect the boiler and pipework from freezing but it's trying the heat an un-insulated, drafty space with no radiator and ends up heating the entire house as a result. Could the thermostat be moved from the wall to nearer the boiler of above it where it will warm up quicker when the boiler comes on and hence turn off sooner?

Does the thermostat have a minimum cycle time setting? It might have a 30 minute minimum on time which could be reduced to say 10?

Gerry1

Smodlet wrote: »

If you have mains GCH, might I enquire why you want E7? Surely it just complicates things. I thought E7 was mostly for all-electric properties which use night storage heaters.

I have mains gas and GCH, but I've had an E7 meter for decades although I've never had storage heaters here.

I just choose E7 or single rate whichever is cheaper when I switch. E7 or similar is the only realistic way to power storage heaters, but if you shop around it can still be worth it even with low night usage: mine's 23%.

The golden rule is always to check for dual fuel and separate suppliers, and also for E7 and single rate. Lots of legwork with PCWs, but it's money saving !

What we really need is a PCW that would number crunch all the combinations so that you don't have to. Best of all would be to ask only for your location and consumption, without having to mess around giving details of your existing supplier and tariff only to be given some savings figures which are meaningless because of Ofgem's total incompetence.

Smodlet

I gotta say, Gerry1, it sounds a step too far to me but thank you very much for the explanation.

Gerry1

Smodlet wrote: »

I gotta say, Gerry1, it sounds a step too far to me but thank you very much for the explanation.

It really isn't that difficult, honestly ! Many sites including the CEC make it very easy. Note 1

Start by getting a whole-of-the-market Dual Fuel comparison, saying that you DON'T have an E7 meter. Jot down the annual Dual Fuel cost (£A), then click on Gas Only and get an instant result (£G). Jot down the annual cost, then repeat for Electricity Only single rate (£ES). Note 2

Then go back and say that you DO have an E7 meter. Jot down the annual costs for Dual Fuel E7 (£C) and Electricity Only E7 (£E7). Note 3

You now have four options:-

• £A Dual Fuel with Single Rate Electricity
• £B (Gas) + (Single Rate Electricity) = £G + £ES

• £C Dual Fuel with E7 Electricity
• £D (Gas) + (Electricity E7) = £G + £E7

Just pick the lowest, £A, £B, £C or £D ! Only a few minutes' effort and you could save £££.

Note 1.The usual considerations apply, e.g. making sure you enter annual kWh usage from actual meter readings. Beware of exit fees and variable tariffs, and ignore the claimed savings.
Note 2. If you already have E7, just add your day and night annual consumption figures together.
Note 3. If you already have E7, enter your actual day / night values. If not, just guesstimate the night usage (e.g. 25%); ideally, read the meter at the start and finish of the cheap rate periods to get an idea of the % split.

Jibber123

Yes were on mains gas, the only reason we've got E7 was it was here when we moved in and i just took over the bills with the existing supplier SSE, as it was quicker and simpler. We then started to use the washing machine, tumble drier, and dishwasher on E7 at night which offered a fair bit of savings, and when we switched suppliers after a few months i just stuck with it as it seem to offer savings, but i'm wondering now as the standing charges for E7 and the day rate seem a lot higher. I will give Gerry1's comparisons a try and work out the saving and post here. With regards the thermostat it's only got a temperature setting dial from -10 to 25C, I was told not to below 5C as manufacturing tolerances mean it might actually be closer to 0C.