Help with high electric bills

sortoutbills222

Have just discovered that my elderly parents EDF electric bill averages about £160 per month.They live in a one bedroom flat with farho heaters, they don’t have gas.Upon looking at their bill, the tariff is called Safeguard Assist capped (e7). This amount seems very high to me, fortunately they are in process of switching suppliers. Does anyone have any ideas/advice on these high bills, could they claim back if they were being ripped off .

JJ_Egan

You/ they have meter readings .

Ripped off? evidence that they did not sign up to this tariff .

Robin9

Others may correct me but I think Farho heaters are a panel heater rather than a storage heater and not suitable for E7 (not even sure you can have E7 with Safeguard Assist)
Are these heaters new ?

matelodave

Unfortunately Farho heaters come under a similar category as Fischer & Rointe - just not quite so expensive to buy but just as expensive to run. They are NOT storage heaters and therefor not suitable for use on an E7 tariff.

The Safeguard Assist tariff appears to be what was introduced when capped tariffs were first applied but I'd guess that nowadays it's nowhere near the cheapest as it will probably have mprphed into the suppliers Evergreen or Standard Variable Tariff. As the heaters are probably on nearly all day and evening (and possibly overnight)  they wont get the benefit of off-peak electricity but they'll be using peak rate energy for most of the time. You would be well advised to get onto the cheapest single rate tariff that you can find unless you can get the heaters changed to storage heaters and the wiring sorted out to accommodate them as I guess that that's what was there before the Farho's were installed.

How much are they paying per kwh and what is the daily standing charge. As always you cant properly compare prices unless you know roughly how much energy that you actually use but it's pretty obvious that a tariff of 18p/kwh will be much more expensive than on at 12-13p/wh especially as they are likely to have a relatively high consumption with heaters like that.

Give us more info

MWT

E7 does seem to be possible with that tariff, but yes, it would not seem to be a good match for the Farho heaters, which appear to be oil-filled radiators.

If they are currently in the process of switching I trust they are going somewhere appropriate to preserve their 'warm home discount' ?

As to being 'ripped off', no reason to assume that EDF has done anything wrong, but I might want to know when those Farho heaters were installed and what they replaced?

Gerry1

Sadly they seem to have made three massive mistakes, apart from living in a property without a gas supply.

• Use of electricity for space heating will always be expensive.
• There's no reason why they should be on E7 if they don't have storage heaters, it makes it even more expensive because the daytime rate is higher than single rate.  What are the rates they have been paying?
  
• The 'magic goo' radiators probably cost a fortune to install but for the same amount of heat won't cost a penny less to run than £15 fan heaters.

Depending on whether they rent or own, and how long they plan to stay there, the options are to move to a property with gas, consider a heat pump, or correctly programmed clever storage heaters such as Dimplex Quantum on E7.

In the meantime they need to keep the E7 meter but switch to a single rate tariff from a cheap supplier such as Avro, Yorkshire Energy or Neon Reef who will happily add the day and night readings together.  Note that Neon Reef has no telephone support.

matelodave

Gerry1 said:

Sadly they seem to have made three massive mistakes, apart from living in a property without a gas supply.

• Use of electricity for space heating will always be expensive.
• There's no reason why they should be on E7 if they don't have storage heaters, it makes it even more expensive because the daytime rate is higher than single rate.  What are they rates they have been paying?
  
• The 'magic goo' radiators probably cost a fortune to install but for the same amount of heat won't cost a penny less to run than £15 fan heaters.

Depending on whether they rent or own, and how long they plan to stay there, the options are to move to a property with gas, consider a heat pump, or correctly programmed clever storage heaters such as Dimplex Quantum on E7.

In the meantime they need to keep the E7 meter but switch to a single rate tariff from a cheap supplier such as Avro, Yorkshire Energy or Neon Reef who will happily add the day and night readinga together.  Note that Neon Reef has no telephone support.

Dunno what the OP means when he says "elderly" but it looks as though the Safe Guard Assist tariff was originally only available to vulnerable people on certain benefits so I'm guessing that they don't have much option about where they live or what sort of heating they've got. Their only remedy is to get onto the cheapest possible single rate tariff. 

Gerry1

I trust that they're on the Priority Services Register and are getting all benefits to which they may be entitled, e.g. Warm Home Discount, Cold Weather Payments, Winter Fuel Payment etc?  Make sure that switching doesn't lose any WHD.

Robin9

sortoutbills222 - have a lot at 59 pages of bad news re Rointe 
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/77254931#Comment_77254931

HA flat, private rent, owned - who paid for the heaters to be installed.