Scottish Power

Mstty

staceymacg said:

Mstty said:

staceymacg said:

Mstty said:

@staceymacg

Also your electricity usage as well.

@Mstty

That is our electricity. We are just electricity in the house. 

Thanks Stacey I must learn to read properly lol

On our fixed rate which matches our local price capped rate for elec and no economy 7 for 7100 kWh at 29.24p/kWh we have a direct debit set at £177.70

So a very rough guide for you, not knowing what standard variable rate your current supplier sets you at for your region.

£240-260 per month on the current capped rate but knowing we all use 65-75% of our total energy from October til April and that coincides with the next expected increase in energy capped rates if you were to budget for £300 a month on current usage you won't be surprised come October. (I have built in the £200 everyone gets off their bill in October in these rough calculations)

Whether you give this to your energy company or put it in a separate savings pot etc is up to you in the next 6 months as this is where you should use the least energy.

Finally, as has been mentioned there must be saving to be made. Washing machine/tumble dryer on in economy rates. Then off electrical items at the plug and don't leave things on burning electricity all day and night when not needed.

Thankyou!

Even £300 isn’t going to be affordable which is what’s stressing me out. What can we do if we literally can’t pay more than £200? 

In basic terms you are going to have to cut back on energy usage.

So we have turned out heating off last week and heat enough water for a shower per person.

We have cut our washing down and reduced tumble dryer loads (long story short we have to use the tumble dryer for pollen reduction) wash clothes at a lower temperature and an eco wash if you have it.

We turned everything off when not in use.

We expect a 10-15% reduction in power usage this year and hope for 20% if the current trend continues.

Other things you can do is review all your outgoings.

Broadband, mobile phones, subscriptions to paid for TV, music etc and either.cancel.them or if with sky call them up and ask to cancel and get put through to the cancellations team and they will give you a better deal if you must keep it( or have it in the first place) 

Don't boil full kettles measure what you need

Look in your food cupboards and look at what you use and do a food plan for the week with what you have plus a few essentials. Once you get into food plans they can save you hundreds a year. Batch cook so cook enough for two days and when you heat it up do so in the microwave as that is cheaper.

You can do it!!

[Deleted User]

Also if you're not using enough night time rate to make it worth while you could ask to be switched to just one day rate. But be aware if you have storage heaters this could work out more expensive. You need to work out what's best.
https://m.facebook.com/groups/966754150512356/permalink/1360207517833682/
This is a brilliant group helping others with their bills. 

staceymacg

Mstty said:

staceymacg said:

Mstty said:

staceymacg said:

Mstty said:

@staceymacg

Also your electricity usage as well.

@Mstty

That is our electricity. We are just electricity in the house. 

Thanks Stacey I must learn to read properly lol

On our fixed rate which matches our local price capped rate for elec and no economy 7 for 7100 kWh at 29.24p/kWh we have a direct debit set at £177.70

So a very rough guide for you, not knowing what standard variable rate your current supplier sets you at for your region.

£240-260 per month on the current capped rate but knowing we all use 65-75% of our total energy from October til April and that coincides with the next expected increase in energy capped rates if you were to budget for £300 a month on current usage you won't be surprised come October. (I have built in the £200 everyone gets off their bill in October in these rough calculations)

Whether you give this to your energy company or put it in a separate savings pot etc is up to you in the next 6 months as this is where you should use the least energy.

Finally, as has been mentioned there must be saving to be made. Washing machine/tumble dryer on in economy rates. Then off electrical items at the plug and don't leave things on burning electricity all day and night when not needed.

Thankyou!

Even £300 isn’t going to be affordable which is what’s stressing me out. What can we do if we literally can’t pay more than £200? 

In basic terms you are going to have to cut back on energy usage.

So we have turned out heating off last week and heat enough water for a shower per person.

We have cut our washing down and reduced tumble dryer loads (long story short we have to use the tumble dryer for pollen reduction) wash clothes at a lower temperature and an eco wash if you have it.

We turned everything off when not in use.

We expect a 10-15% reduction in power usage this year and hope for 20% if the current trend continues.

Other things you can do is review all your outgoings.

Broadband, mobile phones, subscriptions to paid for TV, music etc and either.cancel.them or if with sky call them up and ask to cancel and get put through to the cancellations team and they will give you a better deal if you must keep it( or have it in the first place) 

Don't boil full kettles measure what you need

Look in your food cupboards and look at what you use and do a food plan for the week with what you have plus a few essentials. Once you get into food plans they can save you hundreds a year. Batch cook so cook enough for two days and when you heat it up do so in the microwave as that is cheaper.

You can do it!!

It’s such a horrible time!!

We already do a lot to try and cut back. We heat our water tank once during the night for the day which means it’s usually cold by dinner time. I meal plan as it’s easier with a toddler! We have cancelled everything we can. 

Mstty

If you are 100% certain no more reductions can be made then you could be eligible for the following.

https://community.scottishpower.co.uk/t5/Extra-Help/Hardship-Fund/ta-p/53

Section62

staceymacg said:

We heat our water tank once during the night for the day which means it’s usually cold by dinner time.

How is the immersion heater controlled?  Is it switched automatically by the meter, or do you have your own timeswitch, or do you switch it on and off manually?

If you have control of the times it is switched on and off then make sure you do so towards the end of the night tariff, not right at the start.  It shouldn't take more than a couple of hours to heat up. Experiment to find out how long it actually needs and aim for the 'off' time to be as late as possible in the cheaper rate.

But first make sure you know whether you are on an E7 tariff, and what times your meter switches over - if you have an old meter with a timeclock they can vary widely from the normal 'night' hours.

QrizB

staceymacg said:

QrizB said:

Welcome to the forum.

staceymacg said:

We are currently in a fixed tariff until the end of May 2022 with Scottish Power. We are paying £195 a month at the moment. 

Scottish Power have quoted us £440 a month for a fixed tariff after our current ends. This is not possible for us to pay.

Most fixed tariffs currently on offer are are not good value.

Do you know your typical annual consumption of gas and electricity, in kWh? It should be printed on your latest bill. If you can tell us that we can calculate your likely monthly bill on the current capped variable tariff, and give you a guess of what it could become when the cap is next revised in October.

Our annual usage is 10746, with 33% of that being at night time! Grateful for your help.

You've had a lot of good replies since I asked the question, but for what it's worth here's my calculation.

• If your annual consumption is 3550 kWh night  / 7300kWh day.
• Using EDF's E7 direct debit rates for the East Midlands (if you tell me your region I can try looking up SP's rates).
• I get an annual bill of £3215, that's equivalent to £270/month.

I agree with others who have said that 7300kWh/yr on the day rate is huge. The day / night split should be the other way around. Are you certain that you're not being billed on reversed meter readings? That's not unknown.

If you were using 7300 night and 3550 day, the bill would be £2400/yr, £200/month. a big difference.

Do you have access to your meter so you can check, or are you in a flat with the meters locked away in a central cupboard somewhere?

If your billing *is* correct, what sort of heating do you have? Are you using peak-rate heating not storage heaters?

theoretica

Do you think your water tank is cooling towards evening because you have used up the hot water, or because it is losing heat through not enough insulation - how warm does the outside of the insulation feel? 

Summer is a time where there is less use of heating, so you really need to be looking at a plan for next autumn and winter.  Can you make best use of other people's heating? Free places like museums and libraries... Will your toddler be eligible for free childcare?

caeler

Scottish Power shocked my friend in this way yesterday as her fix ends 1 May 2022, if she accepted the new fix it would go from £90 to £320 a month. We worked out the standard variable rate and it’ll be £145. Not an option that was made immediately obvious to her until I said something. She was in such a panic. She does plan to address consumption now too as an extra £55 will still be hard to find.  Poor show energy companies, do better. 

staceymacg

caeler said:

Scottish Power shocked my friend in this way yesterday as her fix ends 1 May 2022, if she accepted the new fix it would go from £90 to £320 a month. We worked out the standard variable rate and it’ll be £145. Not an option that was made immediately obvious to her until I said something. She was in such a panic. She does plan to address consumption now too as an extra £55 will still be hard to find.  Poor show energy companies, do better. 

Can you help me out with the variable tariff? We live in the west highlands of Scotland if that’s any help! 

QrizB

staceymacg said:

caeler said:

Scottish Power shocked my friend in this way yesterday as her fix ends 1 May 2022, if she accepted the new fix it would go from £90 to £320 a month. We worked out the standard variable rate and it’ll be £145. Not an option that was made immediately obvious to her until I said something. She was in such a panic. She does plan to address consumption now too as an extra £55 will still be hard to find.  Poor show energy companies, do better. 

Can you help me out with the variable tariff? We live in the west highlands of Scotland if that’s any help! 

Scotland is split in two halves, South and North. I'm guessing you're North.

If I put a Thurso postcode into https://www2.scottishpower.co.uk/tariff-information.process?execution=e1s2 I get the following rates for the standard variable Economy 7 tariff:

16.036p/kWh night, 34.044p/kWh day, 50.14p/day standing charge.

Using those rates with your your annual consumption is 3550 kWh night  / 7300kWh day I get a bill of £3238/yr, £270/month.

I'm still wondering why your day usage is quite so high. If you've got storage heaters there's no good reason for it to be anything like that large.