Please help.... SSE bill is £880 for electricity usage in one bed apartment!!

nottsphil

RelievedSheff said:

If you have your immersion heater switched on 24/7 that will eat through a lot of electricity. Only switch it on when you need it.

That would have made no difference at all this winter. The reduction in heat seeping out of the cylinder would simply have meant more heat required from the electric radiators. 

SnowTiger

I'm not sure Economy 10 is a good option.

The 'cheap' ten hours are during these periods:

midnight to 5am;
1pm to 4pm; 
8pm to 10pm.

Costs for London appear to be: 

Standing charge: 23.8p per day; 
off-peak: 12.57p/kWh;
peak: 19.66p/kWh.

If you don't have storage heaters you're unlikely to be using much electricity between midnight and 5am.  Most people have their heating on low or off when they sleep.

If you're working you may not be at home between 1pm and 4pm (during the week).

Outside the weekends that may only leave the 8pm to 10pm charging period when you're likely to benefit from the cheaper rate.

In comparison, I pay a standing charge of 7.8p per day and 14.5p/kWh.

SnowTiger

Neil_Jones said:

SSE would have only told you £46 a month based on what you told them.

No idea how SSE's guesstimates work.

I did an online quote via their website for a one bedroom flat in London with one occupant.  Their projected cost is £17.20 a month.  The standing charge is 28.28p per day.

Their quotation tool thinks I'd only use 50kWh a month.

sumosucker

SnowTiger said:

I'm not sure Economy 10 is a good option.

The 'cheap' ten hours are during these

midnight to 5am;
1pm to 4pm; 
8pm to 10pm.

Costs for London appear to be: 

Standing charge: 23.8p per day; 
off-peak: 12.57p/kWh;
peak: 19.66p/kWh.

If you don't have storage heaters you're unlikely to be using much electricity between midnight and 5am.  Most people have their heating on low or off when they sleep.

If you're working you may not be at home between 1pm and 4pm (during the week).

Outside the weekends that may only leave the 8pm to 10pm charging period when you're likely to benefit from the cheaper rate.

In comparison, I pay a standing charge of 7.8p per day and 14.5p/kWh.

Most people have now said they don’t think economy 10 is a good meter for me so I need to make a decision quickly. Do you know whether I can have a standard rate tariff if I have the economy 10 installed? Or would that require a different meter?

Thanks

sumosucker

Also.. what would you guys expect annual usage to be in kWh for a one bed flat? Thanks

Lemonjuiced

 said:

I'm not sure Economy 10 is a good option.

The 'cheap' ten hours are during

midnight to 5am;
1pm to 4pm; 
8pm to 10pm. for London appear to be: 

Standing charge: 23.8p per day; 
off-peak: 12.57p/kWh;
peak: 19.66p/kWh.

If you don't have storage heaters you're unlikely to be using much electricity between midnight and 5am.  Most people have their heating on low or off when they sleep.

If you're working you may not be at home between 1pm and 4pm (during the week).

Outside the weekends that may only leave the 8pm to 10pm charging period when you're likely to benefit from the cheaper rate.

In comparison, I pay a standing charge of 7.8p per day and 14.5p/kWh.

Jesus! that off peak rate is more than my standard rate, that is a very bad tariff. All their tariffs are expensive.

Swipe

I think they really need to start teaching this type of stuff in schools in a subject called 'how stuff works'. This could include basic DIY, household/car/appliance maintenance, along with APR interest and basic budgeting.

matelodave

You need to learn how you use energy - what you use and when you use it. That means monitoring your consumption by reading the meter a lot more often than once in six months. You should be sending in meter readings every month and then checking your bills to ensure that your readings are being used. As other have said for the type of heating that you've got (panel radiators rather than storage heaters) E10 or E7 isn't really suitable as you cannot take full advantage of the lower off-peak rate and you are paying an excessive amount for peak rate which is when you are using most of your energy.

Try reading your meter twice a day (when you get up and before you go to bed) for the next couple of weeks (both the peak and off peak registers) and keep a spread sheet - that will give you some idea of how much peak and off peak energy you are using. Then add the peak and off peak readings together which will give you your daily energy consumption. You can then do a comparison of your energy costs.

Example using your proposed tariff:- 10kw peak at 19.66p = £1.96, 15kw off peak at 12.57  = 1.89 total cost =  £3.85 
However 25kw on a single rate tariff of say 14p/kw would cost you only £3.50  (I pay 12p/kwh = £3.00)

If you use more peak than off peak then it's going to cost you even more. So if you don't monitor what you use you can't control your costs because you don't know how much you are using or when you are using it

sumosucker

matelodave said:

You need to learn how you use energy - what you use and when you use it. That means monitoring your consumption by reading the meter a lot more often than once in six months. You should be sending in meter readings every month and then checking your bills to ensure that your readings are being used. As other have said for the type of heating that you've got (panel radiators rather than storage heaters) E10 or E7 isn't really suitable as you cannot take full advantage of the lower off-peak rate and you are paying an excessive amount for peak rate which is when you are using most of your energy.

Try reading your meter twice a day (when you get up and before you go to bed) for the next couple of weeks (both the peak and off peak registers) and keep a spread sheet - that will give you some idea of how much peak and off peak energy you are using. Then add the peak and off peak readings together which will give you your daily energy consumption. You can then do a comparison of your energy costs.

Example using your proposed tariff:- 10kw peak at 19.66p = £1.96, 15kw off peak at 12.57  = 1.89 total cost =  £3.85 
However 25kw on a single rate tariff of say 14p/kw would cost you only £3.50  (I pay 12p/kwh = £3.00)

If you use more peak than off peak then it's going to cost you even more. So if you don't monitor what you use you can't control your costs because you don't know how much you are using or when you are using it

Thanks - great advice, I’ll do just that. 

Mister_G

Richie-from-the-Boro said:

SSE is SP.

Err, I don't think so:
https://sse.co.uk/home
https://www.scottishpower.co.uk/