EDF - petrified?

BooJewels

Thanks @Gerry1 - that was why I started the paragraph with 'even if' as that was a sort of worst case scenario illustration as to one of the problems to address - of which there are several that should be easy enough to work through to improve her situation.  Paying for what she actually uses - if only in the short term - is one of the solutions.

Brie

you say that you've turned off the rads in the rooms not being used.  I assume you have also closed the doors and put draft excluders.

I like the idea of emailing them about the unreasonable amount of the DD and telling them what you can afford based on your actual usage.  

BUFF

Marvel1 said:

BUFF said:

RoseGold2021 said:

Ah! See when I called EDF, they advised going on the Fixed, as it locked in the rate until November 2023, which sounded better - given I had just moved in, and the previous owner was with them.  
 
I am going to speak to them tomorrow, and try and get to the bottom of it! What on earth would I be paying if I had a family, 3 bedroom house?! £5000?? :-/ 

They were looking after themselves rather than you ...

Tbh it pretty much costs the same to heat your house irrespective of how many people are in it unless you don't heat parts of it. Your hot water & electricity usage would be higher though.

May I suggest that you should start to work out what is using your energy & how it can be reduced? To give you an idea I live on my own in a 3 bedroom house & your 2 month electricity usage is ~ what I use for 6 months. 

Surely if for example if 1 person and you have say heating on 1 hour in morning and 2 hours evening.

Family with children will probably  have it on longer, it will cost more and not the same as above?

Also running maybe additional electric devices.

Unless you have an incredibly well insulated house e.g. Passivhaus where body heat can make a difference then it will take roughly the same amount to heat a house to the same temp whether there is 1, 3 or 13 people in the house.

I did mention that electricity (& hot water) usage would probably increase if there were more people.

BobT36

Ideally you'd work out if anything is using shedloads of electricity (fully switch off most things besides computers, rather than leave on standby etc). 
Also you'd sort out that heating, if you're paying a lot, do you really need it potentially on 8+ hours a day? Wrap up warm and knock it on only when you need it. I literally sit in a thin, breathable shirt, tracksuit bottoms, fluffy socks, slippers and a fleece jacket. I occasionally put on a warmer shirt underneath and even fluffier heat holder outer socks if it gets very cold. This means my heating is fully OFF most of the time (on Ice setting), and I turn it on only for a couple of hours in the absolute coldest times, and only when my extra socks / thicker shirt doesn't warm me up enough. That way you're taking your heating use from 8 hours every day to 0. It's not like I'm sat like an eskimo with 4 layers, either. 

Then get some actual reads at the beginning of the month, and then another a month later, work out usage at your rates, and tell the energy company that's what you want to pay. No-one should have to pay for more than they actually use during winter. (I just do top-up payments if I use slightly more). 

As to the washing machine, why not hang your gymwear somewhere it won't bother you? Do you have multiple sets? You could use different sets a few times, then wash them all together, rather than running the machine multiple times. 

Then try a complaint and see if you can get moved onto the variable tarrif.