How best to help my neighbour?

[Deleted User]

ellymoo said:

Thank you both for your replies.

I'm only going on what he tells me and the information I get at the time - he told me he didn't use his heating, then after all that he said he had a fan heater. I am struggling a bit with this but I am not making stuff up. I do however know that he doesn't use any of the appliances we take for granted (dishwasher, etc.). I have told him that the convector heater is expensive but in fairness to him, given that he doesn't use anything else, he should be able to heat his bedroom a bit in the morning without it costing him £200 a month.

I have no idea what a 'standard household' is supposed to be but I doubt it is him. 

His charges are

43.855p

15.811p (I figure this is night)

Standing charge 54.05p 

It looks like the immersion heater and fan heater use about the same. I will advise him to have his immersion on for an hour and see if that makes a difference. He doesn't use a smartphone (he doesn't even send texts) so I can't set up the app but I have already asked him to plug in his smart meter panel and look at the usage of his convector heater. Hopefully that might persuade him to move to the storage heaters.

Would an oil filled radiator be cheaper for him? I don't think his Economy 7 is saving him any money unless he uses the storage heaters!

He is currently £102 in debt but as the weather gets warmer I suspect he would clear that quickly.

Using the rates provided then 7 units offpeak and 10 units peak plus standing charge will cost him £6.43 a day. Where are you getting the online daily cost of £18 from?

pochase

@[Deleted User]
OP is saying 13 to 17KWh peak, not 10KWh plus the 7KWh off peak. Last year average usage between Janaury and March was 19.5KWh and 4.09KWh which would make it £9.77..  Still far off from £18.

I assume they are looking at the IHD with potentially very wrong unit rates or a very cold day.

TheElectricCow

ellymoo said:

Scottish Power are trying to put my neighbour's payments up AGAIN to £220 per month (currently £180). I don't understand it. He doesn't use his storage heaters at all. We've got a timer for his hot water and it's on for 2 hours in the Economy 7 hours (0400-0600). He even unplugs his kettle for heaven's sake. He doesn't have his smart meter panel on in case it uses electricity (but I've now persuaded him to put it on so he can monitor energy usage). 

He uses about 7 units an evening and around 13-17 units a day. SP say that his usage is what they'd expect for a standard household - but his isn't a standard household. He has no appliances. The only thing we can think of is his convection heater which he puts on first thing in the morning when it's cold, so he's going to take meter readings before and after the heater has been on. Apart from that I'm at my wit's end about how to handle this. Looking at his usage online sometimes he is (apparently) using £18 of electricity a day although the SP lady said that this wasn't accurate. She said his usage has gone up by 200 units a year but wasn't able to tell me what that means although she said it wasn't much. 

Should we move to another supplier? Any advice gratefully received.

That’s quite high consumption for someone living the way you’ve described. Everyone’s living situation is different so a direct comparison between households has very limited usefulness, but just for some perspective I’m also very tight on the energy use and my flat typically uses 3-5 units per day total including having two extra fridge/freezers running and washing machine/dishwasher use as needed.

To be using up to 17 units per day there must be something he’s not aware of eating power, unless he’s perhaps using the heater much more than he realises. Taking readings before and after heating is definitely a good call here.

A new supplier might help with any customer service issues with SP and could offer a more useful platform for checking past energy use but it won’t solve the underlying problem of the energy consumption - the fact seems to be that the electric is being used somewhere and that will remain the case no matter what supplier he’s with.

ellymoo

Thanks all for your replies. He's been taking daily meter readings so I will pop them up here later. He's now stopped using the heater so we will see if that makes more of a difference than he realises. I really appreciate your responses. 

ellymoo

theoretica said:

Have you actually confirmed that his meter is reading the use in his flat and not some other neighbour?

I am pretty sure it is - I may have to go over and check.

ellymoo

[Deleted User] said:

ellymoo said:

Thank you both for your replies.

I'm only going on what he tells me and the information I get at the time - he told me he didn't use his heating, then after all that he said he had a fan heater. I am struggling a bit with this but I am not making stuff up. I do however know that he doesn't use any of the appliances we take for granted (dishwasher, etc.). I have told him that the convector heater is expensive but in fairness to him, given that he doesn't use anything else, he should be able to heat his bedroom a bit in the morning without it costing him £200 a month.

I have no idea what a 'standard household' is supposed to be but I doubt it is him. 

His charges are

43.855p

15.811p (I figure this is night)

Standing charge 54.05p 

It looks like the immersion heater and fan heater use about the same. I will advise him to have his immersion on for an hour and see if that makes a difference. He doesn't use a smartphone (he doesn't even send texts) so I can't set up the app but I have already asked him to plug in his smart meter panel and look at the usage of his convector heater. Hopefully that might persuade him to move to the storage heaters.

Would an oil filled radiator be cheaper for him? I don't think his Economy 7 is saving him any money unless he uses the storage heaters!

He is currently £102 in debt but as the weather gets warmer I suspect he would clear that quickly.

Using the rates provided then 7 units offpeak and 10 units peak plus standing charge will cost him £6.43 a day. Where are you getting the online daily cost of £18 from?

That cost is from the Scottish Power website where it says you can see your daily usage - but when I spoke to them on the phone they said that that wasn't really accurate. So it doesn't help very much!

ellymoo

P has been keeping daily readings. He takes them at 0730 and 1930 daily. Here are some, if they help at all! Thank you.

Jan:
23rd:
05490 / 01749
05508 / 01749

24th:
05514 / 01756
05535 / 01756

25th:
05542 / 01763
05560 / 01763

26th:
05565 / 01772
05581 / 01772

27th:
05586 / 01779
05600 / 01779

28th:
05607 / 01786
05618 / 01786

29th:
05623 / 01794
05634 / 01794

Feb:
27th:
06161 / 01989
06182 / 01989

28th:
06188 / 01997
06200 / 01997

March
1st:
06205 / 02002
06226 / 02002

2nd:
06232 / 02009
06244 / 02009

3rd:
06249 / 02015
06261 / 02015

4th:
06267 / 02020
06283 / 02020

5th:
06288 / 02027
06309 / 02028

6th:
06315 / 02036
06331 / 02037

7th:
06337 / 02041
06353 / 02041

8th:
06362 / 02045
06387 / 02045

9th:
06392 / 02053
06413 / 02053

10th:
06420 / 02060
06440 / 02061

11th:
06446 / 02069
06470 / 02070

12th:
06478 / 02018
06486 / 02079

April:
17th:
06978 / 02280
06985 / 02281

18th:
06988 / 02284
06994 / 02284

19th:
06997 / 02288
06999 / 02288

20th:
02001 / 02292
02002 / 02292

21st:
02004 / 02296
02008 / 02296

22nd:
02012 / 02299
02017 / 02299

23rd: 
02022 / 02304
02024 / 02304

24th: 02029 / 02307
02036 / 02307

25th
02039 / 02312
02044 / 02312

26th:
02046 / 02316
02051 / 02316

pochase

Why are the day time readings suddenly completely different in April

18th:
06988 / 02284
06994 / 02284

19th:
06997 / 02288
06999 / 02288

20th:
02001 / 02292
02002 / 02292

From 20th onwards the readings are suddenly in the 2xxx range. Are that wrong readings?

Otherwise the day time reading is "only" 50KWh for 7 days, and 24KWH for night. Compared to the winter readings much lower, but 10KWh a day (now without heating?) is not somebody who lives amonost without energy.

End of Januar to end of February was over 800KWh.

ellymoo

Oh I'm sorry that's me misreading his writing. I think they go from 06997 on 19th to 07001 on 20th.

I think I will need to get someone to look at his flat as this doesn't make any sense. I will see if someone can send an engineer or something :vague: I have a dishwasher, a washing machine and gas heating. My monthly usage is around 900KW so you can see why this doesn't make sense to me!