Help please, with my EDF DD increase..

Robin9

Please read the electricity meter and give EDF the readings.

Do you have an EDF online account - easy to give readings that way.

Muttleythefrog

Dan32343 said:

Yes, it is an imperial meter, FT3 written on it....

For 01Oct21-29thMarch2022 it states gas units used; 712=22897kWh
On the same bill is the Electricity:
Period: 21Dec21 - 29thMarch 2022
Previous reading: 53751 ESTIMATED
Latest Reading: 54560 ESTIMATED
Electricity units used 809kWh

The latest bill I have is:
Period:  30th March 2022 - 31st March 2022
Previous Reading: 621 OUR READ.
Latest Reading: 631 ESTIMATED
Gas units used: 323kWh
Charge: £12.25 (So presumably this is how much its costing per day, if the date states 30th March to 31st March?)

Period: 01April 2022 - 20thJune 2022
Previous Reading: 631 ESTIMATED
Latest Reading: 802 OUR READ
Gas units used: 5526kWh

This is for two (ill) people, (and a dog!) in a house, central heating comes on maybe 4 or 5 or 6 times a day for an hour per time...

Any thoughts? Are we high users then? Of gas elec? Are we being overcharged somehow? Why has my DD quadrupled in a couple of years?! How to judge it comparatively?
Cant get my head around it...

Ouch..... wasn't expecting that.... then yes my calculation is way out.... you'd have to multiply gas units used according to meter by around 31.5 to get a figure of the kWh usage (as they have been doing on your bills)... let me try to make sense of this then...

Firstly... all these estimated readings is problematic.... should be giving them regular readings as from here we can only rely on actual readings. The companies will get meters read every so often but probably not often enough and we have had the pandemic probably affecting things too.

Gas....  I can only use figure 621 around 30/3/2022 and 802 around 20/6/2022 and 1444 according to you today.
That'd be 5700kWh over almost 3 months of moderate weather.... and 20200 over 8.5 months of roughly moderate weather overall.. they roughly equate to each other to make sense.... so for nearly a year 30/3/2022 to 6/3/2023 is 26000 kWh... so let's say about 28500kWH a year... that is very high..... and unless there is again an error of calculation needs to be explained. It could well be affected significantly by heating... it does sound like you use it a lot - 5 hours a day is a lot and I wonder how efficient the home is and what boiler system you have. 

Electricity - they're estimates so we have no real information to help you.... all I can say is they estimate that over around 3 months they think you used 809kWh... if so that would mean they seem to think you're fairly average in use at somewhere around 3000kWh a year. My question logically would be are their estimates accurate....

So on the face of it you are using large amounts of gas and probably are considered typical users of electricity. If you are using this level of gas and electricity then roughly annual bill at current rates (standard tariff which I assume you're now on... but check) would be around £4300 (average is supposed to be around £2500). If they're setting your Direct Debit at £454 it isn't a million miles out and could make sense... gas and electricity prices have risen dramatically in the last couple years and unless you're on some old fixed deal you surely will be facing them. So really you need some solid advice.... get a handle on the real readings and if they validate that your gas usage is this high then this needs looking at as to how and why and what can be done about it... it may be that your home needs energy efficiency measures as possible.... boiler examined and potentially changed etc. You might use gas for other things but primarily it is likely heating and heating water if by gas will explain very high usage of it... the quickest way to probably analyse that is by looking at seasonal variations in gas usage but we simply don't have the data to do it.

If someone else could verify my analysis here... helpful...lol

(As a quick add on.... to show you how much property and features can affect gas central heating - we moved from a 2 bed 50s semi using about 11000 kWh gas to a 2 bed modern flat and use about 2500 kWh gas and in between we stayed in a 3 bed early 20th century semi house using about 15000kWh.. all had similar boiler of similar age and ironically we also use gas for hob heating in flat and set thermo higher at 23C)

EssexHebridean

You would indeed appear to be high users - understandably so if there is a need to keep the home at a warmer temperature than some may find acceptable. 

The DD Amount quadrupling will at least in part be down to the way prices have gone over that same couple of year time period - compare the unit rates you were being charged two years ago, and then those you're being charged now, and that will give you an idea of the percentage increases. 323kWh of gas now would be around £35 if my maths are holding up. 

It might be worth playing about the with the central heating to see if having it running more constantly at a slightly lower temperature (so avoiding the "troughs" where it gets colder) might be cost effective - generally speaking the first hour of operation each time it turns on is the most expensive I believe? others should be able to advice how and indeed if this might work!