Monthly bill now at approx £500!!

Sea_Shell

JSCM said:

Sea_Shell said:

JSCM said:

It’s well insulated which is why they have no conventional heating. Problem is they relocated from Spain and rather than wrapping up like the rest of us they will put their air con on - a big mistake putting that in - and oil filled radiator. Also their attitude is at their age they shouldn’t be penny pinching. They are financially in a very different position to us though. They pay a £100 a month towards energy costs. 

Is their financial situation much better than yours or worse?

If better, then you need to have a serious conversation about them upping their contribution towards the bills.

You should not struggle if they are comfortable on their pensions etc.

Much better off! 

Well they need to put their hand in their pocket then!!!

Do they contribute to other household costs, food etc. or do they provide for themselves?

JSCM

I always provide meter readings. Totally understand that yes this is based on a winters month usage but there is no real difference in usage in the summer as they put air con on to keep cool! Brilliant too about the clip on meter. We do have a separate meter for them but it doesn’t distinguish between day and night. 

mysteryUser

I guess that all electricity for the two dwellings is being recorded on a single meter?

There's energy monitoring devices you can get, which would allow you to know how much energy particular circuits are using. Ideally they should be paying for their actual usage rather than a fixed amount each month. 

Do they use the air con for heating? Some air con units are far more efficient at providing heating than an oil filled radiator. Checking the model / specs / efficiency may be wise and ensuring that if it is more efficient that it is the main source of heat would be good. 

JSCM

Sea_Shell said:

JSCM said:

Sea_Shell said:

JSCM said:

It’s well insulated which is why they have no conventional heating. Problem is they relocated from Spain and rather than wrapping up like the rest of us they will put their air con on - a big mistake putting that in - and oil filled radiator. Also their attitude is at their age they shouldn’t be penny pinching. They are financially in a very different position to us though. They pay a £100 a month towards energy costs. 

Is their financial situation much better than yours or worse?

If better, then you need to have a serious conversation about them upping their contribution towards the bills.

You should not struggle if they are comfortable on their pensions etc.

Much better off! 

Well they need to put their hand in their pocket then!!!

Do they contribute to other household costs, food etc. or do they provide for themselves?

Provide that for themselves. We pay water and right of access from our property onto a car park which they use as their main entrance and exit to their bungalow. 

danrv

JSCM said:

they will put their air con on - a big mistake putting that in

I assume that’s a single split. Likely to be cheaper to run than the oil filled rads as AC inverters can have a COP of up to 3.

bagand96

JSCM said:

bagand96 said:

Do you have your use figures in kWh?  At a quick guess the gas looks about right for  the middle of the winter in a gas CH home.  The electricity could also be correct given that your parents are using electricity for heating and as you say are quite liberal with their use.  I would expect that a large proportion of that £335 would be for heat (electricity is around 4 times more expensive per kWh than gas)

1256 KWH day at 22.65p
211 KWH night at 11.96p
Standing charge 22.717p per day

So the bill is correct at £335, assuming it's the previously mentioned 4th December - 15th January.  It's about 32kWh a day which is high.  The bulk of it is likely to be the oil radiators in the garage which use peak daytime electricity.  Given you are on economy 7 you may consider night storage heaters for the garage?  These will heat up overnight on cheap electricity and then the heat can be used throughout the day.  You'd need to investigate their install cost though and if it would be worthwhile and also consider capacity so they would satisfy your parents heat requirements (not much point in spending out on NSH if they don't provide enough heat and you end up topping up on electric radiators!)

JSCM said:

I always provide meter readings. Totally understand that yes this is based on a winters month usage but there is no real difference in usage in the summer as they put air con on to keep cool! Brilliant too about the clip on meter. We do have a separate meter for them but it doesn’t distinguish between day and night. 

If you already have a separate meter for them then you already know what proportion of the energy they are using.  As has been suggested above this may be a case of sitting down with them and having a sensible conversation of use and costs.

JSCM

So keep an eye on over a week to work out rough daily cost x our day rate? 

kazwookie

Get them to pay more

Get a meter fitted to their accommodation

Get the air con disconnected so they cannot use it!

You need to sit them down and have a tough conversation with them.

JSCM

kazwookie said:

Get them to pay more

Get a meter fitted to their accommodation

Get the air con disconnected so they cannot use it!

You need to sit them down and have a tough conversation with them.

Am I right in thinking air cons use a lot of electric? 

Gerry1

Might be worth extending the gas supply to the garage and installing GCH, otherwise consider storage heaters.  Neither is cheap to install, but peak rate electricity is expensive and will soon be even more so.

In the meantime do the sums and see whether E7 is cost effective, it probably isn't.  You can probably get your supplier to bill at single rate without a meter change.