British Gas doubled direct debit!

GingerTim

witchwood said:

pochase said:

£199 for electricity only is not the described low usage, especially if it was at old SVT rates. That is in the region of 800Kwh per month.

From your description of 3 hours immersion heater per day that is already 270KWh every month. 

That still leaves 500KWh, that is what I use in a high usage household, with dozens of gadgets, and several fridge/freezers and freezers.

I know! That is what is so confusing about it all. We have recently adjusted the immersion to 3 hours a day... during a powercut earlier in year it knocked the timer out and was on constantly... No heating, I fridge/freezer and 1 chest freezer ( all new and efficient) and other basic appliances. Not multiple gadgets etc! Monthly kwh range from 480 ( June) which I think is about right to over 900 in January. Yes the lights are on more but thats it really. Just spoken to someone and they are going to check smart meter etc. 

How long a period was this for? 

markin

At 30p minus the £600 credit its 6,000 kwh a year, So defiantly not a 'low user'.  The immersion would account for 2,555 at 7kwh/day,  leaving 3,445 for the rest, The immersion at 3 hrs could be over top, 80min would usually be enough

witchwood

Alnat1 said:

Slightly off topic but to help cut your costs, do you actually use all the hot water you heat? 3 hours is quite a long time.

You don't say how many live there so might be different to us, but we only heat water for 40 minutes, plenty for a couple of showers, hubby's shave and some left for cleaning etc. We manually put it on for 15 minutes if either of us wants a bath. You could try cutting the time down bit by bit to see if you can manage with less as this sounds as if it could be a big part of your bill.

4 of us... 2 teenagers and 2 adults. Hubby works nights so hot water goes on for an hour in morning so he can shower etc. Then 2 hours in evening 4-6 for rest of us to shower, washing up etc. The morning heat up usually gives us enough water through the day for other bits. Will maybe try just an hour in evening and see if it reduces. 

Robin9

witchwood said:

They have said we will pay nothing til December when they do a new bill... so only 2 DD a year? 

Yes 2 DD a year means its essential you keep your own records and do some simple sums.

480 KWH a month in Summer is very high - should be half of that !

Your winter consumption is suggesting you are supplementing your log burner - - are you using fan heaters, panel heater, flo0dlights, long showers

pochase

witchwood said:

QrizB said:

witchwood said:

They have now put us on to a variable dd, so hopefully we will only pay what we use and not what they think we will use.

Hopefully your first 2 or 3 months will br a nil DD as it'll be pasid from your credit. Just keep an eye on things and make sure it's all working as intended.

They have said we will pay nothing til December when they do a new bill... so only 2 DD a year? 

Are you sure about this? 

BG is only billing twice a year, but taking a monthly direct debit, which is a reason why there are huge credits visible on the account, they just have not billed yet. Once the bill is available, much of the credit disappears.

But I understand that you went onto the variable direct debit. That means you will be billed monthly, and they will take whatever you own also monthly, and not only in December. Of course if you have enough real credit you might not need to pay for a while.

markin

Robin9 said:

witchwood said:

They have said we will pay nothing til December when they do a new bill... so only 2 DD a year? 

Yes 2 DD a year means its essential you keep your own records and do some simple sums.

480 KWH a month in Summer is very high - should be half of that !

Your winter consumption is suggesting you are supplementing your log burner - - are you using fan heaters, panel heater, flo0dlights, long showers

16 per day, 7kwh for water and 9 for the house seems ok to me, the split could be 9 water 7 house. But the 900 in Jan must mean the is heating somewhere!

Is the timer digital or analogy dial? 
Bathroom/kitchen underfloor heating? The house must have come with some sort of heating?

witchwood

Robin9 said:

witchwood said:

They have said we will pay nothing til December when they do a new bill... so only 2 DD a year? 

Yes 2 DD a year means its essential you keep your own records and do some simple sums.

480 KWH a month in Summer is very high - should be half of that !

Your winter consumption is suggesting you are supplementing your log burner - - are you using fan heaters, panel heater, flo0dlights, long showers

Yes... going to transfer over to another account each month to cover the DDs. Occasionally fan heater on in bathroom and I may sneak an extra long shower if very cold! But not every day and heater on on average for maybe 20 mins in total a day for all of us. No panel heaters, floodlights. Never been able to compare other electric only users as the neighbours we have are all not 'average' in their usage ( one has solar panels, another has heated swimming pools and hot tubs etc) and a couple have gas tanks. The farm uses biomass and has holiday cottages and so there are no 'normal' users to compare to. We are happy in our use, and cant really save much with what we use/need... but now i'm worried that equipment is wrong... Last nov was showing a reading of 59989 and today its 66488. which I think is an average of 812kwh month. That does seem rather a lot for what we actually use. They are going to check it all out for us anyway. 

witchwood

pochase said:

witchwood said:

QrizB said:

witchwood said:

They have now put us on to a variable dd, so hopefully we will only pay what we use and not what they think we will use.

Hopefully your first 2 or 3 months will br a nil DD as it'll be pasid from your credit. Just keep an eye on things and make sure it's all working as intended.

They have said we will pay nothing til December when they do a new bill... so only 2 DD a year? 

Are you sure about this? 

BG is only billing twice a year, but taking a monthly direct debit, which is a reason why there are huge credits visible on the account, they just have not billed yet. Once the bill is available, much of the credit disappears.

But I understand that you went onto the variable direct debit. That means you will be billed monthly, and they will take whatever you own also monthly, and not only in December. Of course if you have enough real credit you might not need to pay for a while.

We have gone onto the variable dd today. Up until now we have been paying a monthly dd, and getting statements quarterly. After I changed today they said our next payment will be december and so assume it will be twice a year? Our last dd for 199 went out today. Our next one was due 1st aug, but they wanted to increase to 549. So we changed to variable. 

witchwood

markin said:

Is the timer digital or analogy dial? 
Bathroom/kitchen underfloor heating? The house must have come with some sort of heating?

Digital timer. No heating... we built it ourselves... log cabin. Only real heating is log burner, which we source the wood ourselves. There is a fan heater in bathroom, which may be used max 20 mins a day if very cold. Cabin is quite small, all on one level and the log burner does a good job of heating providing all bedroom doors open etc. 

Robin9

I would suggest daily readings and keep a diary