HUGE increase in monthly gas and electricity bill imminent

eastcorkram

Anthony21289 said:

One thing about Smart controls for heating and that is if you set them at a temperature then the heating comes on earlier than the times set as they want to be at the temperature set on the control by the time stated.

I am afraid you may have a problem with your Smart control. We have a Hive and I can 100% confirm that bolier starts exactly at the times we set.

Ours definitely doesn't. If I have it set at say, 20 degrees as from 05.30, if it's a cold night, it will come on usually between 3.30 and four AM .

victor2

Anthony21289 said:

One thing about Smart controls for heating and that is if you set them at a temperature then the heating comes on earlier than the times set as they want to be at the temperature set on the control by the time stated.

I am afraid you may have a problem with your Smart control. We have a Hive and I can 100% confirm that bolier starts exactly at the times we set.

Not necessarily. Some systems are "smarter" and can be programmed to achieve set temperatures at set times, by controlling the heating accordingly.

MWT

wild666 said:

One thing about Smart controls for heating and that is if you set them at a temperature then the heating comes on earlier than the times set as they want to be at the temperature set on the control by the time stated.

Anthony21289 said:

I am afraid you may have a problem with your Smart control. We have a Hive and I can 100% confirm that bolier starts exactly at the times we set.

This is usually an option, so you can set for 'comfort' which will seek to ensure the temperature is achieved by the set time, or 'eco' which will seek to only run the heating when it is required and will sometimes also have the ability to delay the start time or shut down before the end time once it 'learns' how fast your property heats and cools.

wild666 said:

This was costing the club over £400 per month to heat the place and they are now discussing whether to revert back to the old time clock to save money as they paid less than half of the £400 per month before they switched to the smart option. 

No need to spend money changing the controls, just get someone to read the manual and change the settings...

MattMattMattUK

eastcorkram said:

Anthony21289 said:

One thing about Smart controls for heating and that is if you set them at a temperature then the heating comes on earlier than the times set as they want to be at the temperature set on the control by the time stated.

I am afraid you may have a problem with your Smart control. We have a Hive and I can 100% confirm that bolier starts exactly at the times we set.

Ours definitely doesn't. If I have it set at say, 20 degrees as from 05.30, if it's a cold night, it will come on usually between 3.30 and four AM .

It could be aiming to hit the target temperature by the certain time, it might also have a minimum comfort level, these are often set to 12c, my heating kicks in at 12 by default, although I could disable that option if I wished. It has only ever done it once though when I had to open all the windows in the middle of winter to get rid of the smell of some fish I managed to burn (pan frying, phone rang, got distracted, burnt fish is a horrible smell). 

wild666

Anthony21289 said:

One thing about Smart controls for heating and that is if you set them at a temperature then the heating comes on earlier than the times set as they want to be at the temperature set on the control by the time stated.

I am afraid you may have a problem with your Smart control. We have a Hive and I can 100% confirm that bolier starts exactly at the times we set.

Maybe there is an option in the controls to have the heating get up to the temperature by the time set or come on at the time set? This isn't for my home but a club I am secretary of!  

Astria

Anthony21289 said:

One thing about Smart controls for heating and that is if you set them at a temperature then the heating comes on earlier than the times set as they want to be at the temperature set on the control by the time stated.

I am afraid you may have a problem with your Smart control. We have a Hive and I can 100% confirm that bolier starts exactly at the times we set.

Although I did notice an option to have it adjust the start time depending on the outside temperature - ie, the colder it is outside and the longer is detects how long the builder needs to warm up, the earlier it will come on so you could have it at the desired temperature by the time specified. There's also an option to control how accurately it matches the temperature on the thermostat - ie, by turning off the boiler before the thermostat has reached the temperature so it doesn't overshoot. I have them both disabled.

ManMadeWays

wild666 said:

One thing about Smart controls for heating and that is if you set them at a temperature then the heating comes on earlier than the times set as they want to be at the temperature set on the control by the time stated.
I used to brush and iron the snooker tables at my local club and the heating was on at 06:30 AM when I went in to do them. This was costing the club over £400 per month to heat the place and they are now discussing whether to revert back to the old time clock to save money as they paid less than half of the £400 per month before they switched to the smart option. 

Most Smart controls have a 'comfort' option that has a learning algorithm to turn the heating on to reach a specified temperature at a specified time [or just on and off at time specified]. Mine can be turned off, but bedrooms only get an hour of heat each morning/evening, I want to be warm when I get up and go to bed , and the lounge goes on at 6.30 pm ready for me to watch TV, . Are they sure its not just a rate change causing the increase ?

Anthony21289

Thank you for all the responses to my comment about Smart controls. All very interesting, but ours works fine and not my current concern, which is about what is going to happen from April.

I have now found that our son-in-law is in the same position as us, except he is with SSE. Between us we have been trawling the "Big Six" and getting similar results. They won't take on new customers (so won't quote) and recommend non-customers to stay where they are and just go on to Standard Variable, when the fixed tariff ends. Is this experience shared by others on this Forum?

feenics

Yes, this has been my experience. I too am reviewing the options now my tariff is ending and basically there's nothing to do except sit tight.

EssexHebridean

Absolutely. The weekly emails from MSE have been covering this situation for months now along with giving the "sit tight" advice - I'd suggest signing up to receive them (And encouraging your SIL to do the same!) as that might help you to keep up to date on things like this in the future. 

When I checked (out of interest) the Cheap Energy Club for availability of deals earlier this week there were literally only a handful of suppliers even showing offers, and those were all for extortionate fixes.