Requesting annual totals from EDF over past years ?

TOP_CAT

I asked EDF for my electricity annual total use ie .recent years or past years and got no where with them ?
Thought this would be a std sort of request but they just side tracked me with alot of waffling excuses .

My Electric bill seems to have more than doubled which I can only put down to recently running 2 to 3 extra (undercounter size) fridges on high settings .

Im not sure if getting a smart meter may be the best way forward or not in monitoring electricity use ?

The_Fat_Controller

You should have kept or downloaded copies of you old bills !

If you have registered for an EDF online account, your last 18 months of bills should be available.

A smart meter with an IHD will be useful in monitoring usage as you can see devices stopping and starting and they are remarkably accurate,

Mine shows when a 6W LED bulb is switched and when the hard drive on my SKY box powers down, that is another 4W less being used.

I am not at all anal about usage, just quite surprised how good the IHD shows small changes.

Robin9

Does the EDF portal give you access to previous bills so you can download yourself.

Is this "doubling" just due to estimated bills or do you give EDF monthly meter reads ?   

matelodave

As said above, you need to download and save your bills yourself. The energy companies dont do it for you (unless you are very lucky). It's quite possible that you bill could have doubled - thats because prices have increased over the years.

What's important is whether your consumption in kwh has doubled because you have more control over what you use and when you use it than you do over the price.

It's not everso hard to save a PDF and file it away, it can save a lot of grief and aggro if you've gor a dispute or the company goes bust as it's virtually impossible to get any historical data.

A smart meter will help you monitor your consumption and will allow you to identify what is using it all and when, however it doesn't absolve you from checking and saving your bills.

My smart meter allows me to check my instaneous consumption, my hourly consumption back to midnight, my daily consumption for a week, my weekly consumption for five weeks and my monthly consumption for 13 months so it's pretty easy to recover some info.

 However I also keep a weekly and monthly spreadsheet of my own as well as saving all my monthly bills and statements. the data has been quite useful when a couple of my providers have gone bust and the online account has been shut down.

Reed_Richards

TOP_CAT said:

My Electric bill seems to have more than doubled ....

Seems to ???  You don't actually know that because you have not kept your old electricity bills!

TOP_CAT

Alot of the past bills are estimated. I became concerned when my bill went from £27 down  to £13 so I found myself making a £75 over payment..... then the bill looks to be back up to £40 a month recently which is a record.

 (with the 3 extra undercounter fridges in use since march this probably accounts for the estimated £40 bill  . ).

I have just started giving meter readings on the 1st of the month since june so this should clarify things in the future .

So the billing  has been bit of a estimated mess which I want to be more accurate as my two year fix ends next month.
The electricity  costs will increase again with a new tariff on top of using the extra fridges .

After the helpful post above regarding smart meter accuracy and givern my gas and electric are both seperate EDF direct debits ...can you just get a smart meter hooked up for the electric and not the gas ?
I know that probably sounds odd but they want to change the gas meter completely and I dont want too just yet  not at this point in time ..

If its not that simple I wont bother with a smart meter just yet untill the gas meter is changed.

TOP_CAT

Reed_Richards said:

TOP_CAT said:

My Electric bill seems to have more than doubled ....

Seems to ???  You don't actually know that because you have not kept your old electricity bills!

I was on the phone to EDF since giving the last actual electricity reads for june july  but previously it has been estimated paper bills which I have  .
The lady said elec use is up and that £13 is obviously to low and electric payment totals look to be around £40 a month now .

It sounds like using a smart meter is the way forward in monitoring appliance use ?.

I rang to get a annual total usage which I thought they must know but assume they dont give it as its used for switching out to another provider ?

Robin9

As your meter reads have been estimated in the past accessing historical data won't actually help.

Now you've given EDF some reads your next bill may well come as a shock.

Reading your meters daily will give you a good indication of where your energy is being used.

Give EDF reads every month and keep your own records. 

When did you last switch suppliers ?

TOP_CAT

I have been with EDF since it was London electric so havent switched out in decades  (although do with broadband .)

As its a low use small flat I have just used EDF to advise on the best fixed tariff over the years going forward .
The other providers seemed to be no less  or are startups that go bust .
I always preferred a telephone service provider as EDF has made mistakes and once corrected this after alot of effort .

matelodave

You dont actually need a smart meter to know what you are using, The meter you've already got does that.

You just need to put the effort in to read it. It takes around 5 minutes a month and you'll soon get an idea of how much you use.

Just read the meter yourself, ideally once a month and then either phone, e-mail or use the on-line account to give the meter readings to EDF and then check your bills to ensure that you get accurate monthly billing and not random guesses.

TBH, although it can be quite useful to have an idea of what stuff uses - there's only one way to reduce your consumption - turn stuff off.

Robin9

@TOP_CAT

You may be a small user but you may well be robbing yourself with the EDF only approach. There may well be £50 a year out there in savings

PS I'm intrigued - what do you want 2 or 3 fridges of a high output for (in a small flat) ?