One Bedroom Flat - HIGH energy bill! HELP!

kabaly90

Hi,

My partner and I are with Spark on an economy 7 tariff. We are in an old building and we don't have access to the meter readings but our maintenance guy sends them to us each month so we're assuming they're accurate.

From start date 2nd Dec - 26 Feb last meter reading, we have racked up £545 worth of usage.
Yes it is an all electric unit, we have three radiators, however we work 8-6 everyday and the heaters are on for 3 hours of an evening, cooker 1hr, we've even turned off the hot water as the shower is electric.
The electric company has stated that they are only going off the readings we are providing, which is fair enough albeit their tariffs are high - we are switching to bulb this month.
Our real estate says that the owner won't pay for an electrician to come out and check for faulty over usage.
So we're really lost and can't afford to continue with over usage, because even when we switch the usage will be high regardless of what tariff/supplier we're on. 

We don't know where to go from here with our monthly bills circa £180. I've cancelled the direct debit and refuse to pay until this is sorted - hoping I won't get in trouble with debt collectors. 

Any advice appreciated. Thanks

comeandgo

How do you plan to sort it?  If you have used that electricity then you have to pay for it,  How much do you think you should be paying, what was last years consumption?  Have you actually seen the readings on your meters?  Could there be a mistake in the recording of the units, a number transposed?  I don't think £180 a month for winter months in all electric flat that bad.  How long are you showering for?  Do you use a tumble dryer?  

mac.d

You need to speak to your maintenance guy and get access to check that the meter he is taking readings from is definitely your meter. You can do this by turning everything off in your flat and watching the meter to make sure it's not recording anything, then put something like the kettle on to boil and again check the meter.
You can then also try taking daily meter readings for at least a week to see if the daily usage is consistent, and there aren't any big jumps (that may suggest a fault with the meter).

Also, don't just cancel the direct debit and stop paying, you will get into debt problems that way. You'll have to keep paying your bills in the meantime, if you can't afford them, you need to speak to your supplier about your options. If they don't help, you can try raising a complaint with them.

kabaly90

We have switched off appliances we don't use at the switch board when we're not home ie. cooker. Hot water/elec switch is off permanently now and we don't have any hot water when washing dishes etc. In a one bed flat i'd expect to pay <£100mth as I've spoken with friends / colleagues who are paying less for the same setup. I've seen the readings and they calculate correctly against the tariff, this isn't my complaint, it's the level of usage been recorded. 
Per week usage:
Two cold washes, no tumble drier.
30mins cooking per evening.
<15mins total shower time per day.
2 radiators between 6-9pm, bedroom radiator 9-10pm each day. Weekends 2 on for about 12 hours total. 
Lights and sockets are only in use in evenings and switched off at the wall (OCD girlfriend).

Got a smart meter appointment organised for next Monday, but apparently we may not be able to have it installed; we'll find out.

What else can we do?

MWT

kabaly90 said:

We have switched off appliances we don't use at the switch board when we're not home ie. cooker. Hot water/elec switch is off permanently now and we don't have any hot water when washing dishes etc. In a one bed flat i'd expect to pay <£100mth as I've spoken with friends / colleagues who are paying less for the same setup. I've seen the readings and they calculate correctly against the tariff, this isn't my complaint, it's the level of usage been recorded. 
Per week usage:
Two cold washes, no tumble drier.
30mins cooking per evening.
<15mins total shower time per day.
2 radiators between 6-9pm, bedroom radiator 9-10pm each day. Weekends 2 on for about 12 hours total. 
Lights and sockets are only in use in evenings and switched off at the wall (OCD girlfriend).

Since you have the meter readings, can you post what the actual usage is please?

Also please post the rates for the tariff you are currently on.

Honestly, for the usage you describe it doesn't seem that you are paying too much so I wouldn't be holding out hope for there to be a faulty meter involved.

At the very least though you do need to confirm that the meter that is being read has the same number as the one on your bill, and you do need to do the simple test of turning everything off and check the meter stops, then turn on one large load like a radiator or a kettle and check that it starts up and roughly matches the load you are expecting.

You will need to coordinate that with your maintenance guy, but it should be done just to make sure the meter you are getting the readings from really is your meter.

Worst thing you can do right now is to stop paying, the odds are very high that the amount charged is due.

Best thing you can do is get on to a cheaper tariff, but not sure that Bulb is the best you could do, but again, once you post the current tariff people will have an idea of just how much you could save.

Gerry1

You seem to have the worst possible set up !  Expensive and poorly rated supplier, no gas, you don't take monthly meter readings, you have an expensive day rate because of E7 but you don't seem to have storage radiators only peak rate heaters, you shower with expensive peak rate rather than use cheaper E7 to heat the tank overnight.

Short of leaving all the windows wide open and burning a pile of £20 notes to heat the room, you couldn't make it any worse !  Unless you stop the DD, get cut off and the bailiffs come round....

Make sure your read the meters yourself, make sure the Day / Night registers aren't swapped over, and find a cheaper quotation than Bulb's.

TL;DR: You've made a very bad choice going All Electric, but you can make it cheaper by doing your homework properly rather than clutching at straws.

matelodave

Stopping your DD is a bad idea, at least you were paying towards your consumption - you may end up significantly in arrears and end up with your credit history trashed and that will take you six years to recover from. Stopping a DD will probably terminate any deal you might have and you could end up on the supplier most expensive tariff because you've broken the terms and conditions.

Ideally you need to read the meter yourself and make sure that it's your meter that's being read and not someone else's. Ensure that your bills also reflect the readings that you are giving and are not using estimates. (bills usually have A=actual, C=customer and E=estimate or even D=deemed next to the readings)

As said above Spark Energy isn't the best energy company as they are quite expensive and they give a rake off to Landlords - you need to get onto a better tariff as soon as you can.

You do really need to do an energy audit, you need to read your meter more often, or if that's not possible get your own energy monitor so you know what is being used, what is using it and when.

If your flat is more than 5-6 metres distant from the meter cupboard then it's unlikely that you'll get any info from an IHD (note the Smart Meter sits in the meter cupboard and sends info to the supplier and the In Home Device. The IHD is not the meter, it's just a device to remotely read the smart meter). Something like an Eferg or Owl monitor would help as you can clip the transmitter to the incoming cable in your flat 

RelievedSheff

kabaly90 said:

We have switched off appliances we don't use at the switch board when we're not home ie. cooker. Hot water/elec switch is off permanently now and we don't have any hot water when washing dishes etc. In a one bed flat i'd expect to pay <£100mth as I've spoken with friends / colleagues who are paying less for the same setup. I've seen the readings and they calculate correctly against the tariff, this isn't my complaint, it's the level of usage been recorded. 
Per week usage:
Two cold washes, no tumble drier.
30mins cooking per evening.
<15mins total shower time per day.
2 radiators between 6-9pm, bedroom radiator 9-10pm each day. Weekends 2 on for about 12 hours total. 
Lights and sockets are only in use in evenings and switched off at the wall (OCD girlfriend).

Got a smart meter appointment organised for next Monday, but apparently we may not be able to have it installed; we'll find out.

What else can we do?

As the others have said your bill sounds about right.

You are using expensive peak rate electricity to heat your flat and have showers etc. especially at the weekend when you have the heating on for longer.

You need to either learn how to make the most of your economy 7 tariff or switch too a standard tariff which will give a cheaper rate per kWh for electricity during the day.

Electricity is by far the most expensive way to heat a flat. As an example we pay just under 14p per kWh for electric, for gas we pay 2.8p per kWh. So you can see just how much extra you will have to spend per kWh on heating and it doesn't take long to generate a big bill.

Gerry1

RelievedSheff said:

  for gas we pay 2.8p per kWh.

Wow, that's expensive !  The latest Gulf tariff is 2.334p per kWh in my region.

kabaly90

WOW, appreciate all the comments, haven't seen a forum this active before, and over energy of all things, kudos.
I will reinstate the direct debit, as you have eluded we most likely have used the consumption and there is no way around it but paying it out now. 
My question is if not switching to bulb who better to go with? I used a comparison website and they just came up close to the top.
I guess my question should be... when going through Uswitch, do I tell them the consumption i'm currently using cause that will just generate a fairly high comparison. Alternatively, do I just put in an estimate of what we expect to pay each month say £80 and do it as pay upon billed usage?

Gerry1

kabaly90 said:

I used a comparison website and they just came up close to the top.

I bet it didn't cover all suppliers (e.g. Neon Reef) and I bet you didn't enter your annual kWh usage.  Sorry to keep pointing out your mistakes, but that's the only way to learn and get it right for the future.

Try the Citizens Advice and 'Switch with Which?' comparison sites first (note that MSE/CEC doesn't include all suppliers, despite claiming to do so) then see whether you can get cashback.  However, that's probably unlikely with the cheapest suppliers.

If you haven't been there long you may have to guesstimate your annual usage initially, but start making notes of your monthly meter readings now.  Take great care if you have an old rotary pointer meter, they're easy to misread.  You may wish to start with a variable tariff or one with no exit fees so you can switch again as your actual kWh usage becomes clearer.

As you don't seem to have storage heaters or use the immersion heater at night, also get quotations for single rate, not just E7.  You don't need a meter change, many suppliers will just charge the same rate at all times.  E7 might be slightly cheaper if you heat the water on the overnight E7 tariff and don't use an instantaneous electric shower, but the real killer will be plug in heaters on full price electricity

Always think annual cost based on annual kWh usage, not DD amounts.