Eon nextflex tariff 80p/kWh!

Jibber123

I've just spoke to my brother in law as his mum has received a £1800 electricity bill for February. When I asked the unit rate I was told it was 80p/kWh, which seems very high. She lives alone and doesn't have gas so uses electric to cook, heat and hot water and has a small electric oil radiator in the kitchen where she spends most of the day. The bill did show 1300kWh for the month which seems very high. I'm going to pop round and take a look if anything's left on first off, then install an energy monitor CT clamp on the consumer unit to check for usage and if we can't find anything then get them to check the meter calibration. Any ideas why the unit rate is so high? I don't think she needs to be on a dual rate as she's not got storage heaters so can probably benefit from the cheaper unit rate all day.

Mstty

It's going to be the normal story.

Need actual meter reads in kWh to see if they are correct and not estimates.

Very very unlikely being charged at 80p kwh so check the bills fully and each page as the EPG discount will be on there somewhere.

1300kwh for a month is not even on the very high side for all electric without modern technology such as heat pumps and not using storage heaters (if that is indeed the case)

With 1300kwh use and a 1800kwh bill it suggests there is a debt on the account so you may have to go back and find out the full story on previous bills.

Robin9

Who normally reads the meters ?  Read them tomorrow and dig out her bills - note the readings and look for the letter A, C  E  on the bills. 

Has she had the £66's and the winter £500 plus any benefit related payments. ?
#

If not storage -  then what  ?

Spoonie_Turtle

I see you mention at the end about being on dual rate.  The 80p would be the undiscounted rate but if she's not making use of night rate particularly then she's at the very least cooking and using the pil radiator on expensive daytime rate electricity, and possibly a lot more too.  Potentially the only benefit of the night rate is for hot water but chances are savings from that vs the single rate are wiped out by the extra expense of everything else on daytime rate.

You definitely need to see her bills, see the actual rate(s) being charged and whether it's based on actual readings.  Then seeing the daytime and nighttime usage to see if she'd be better off on single rate (almost certainly, if she doesn't have storage heaters).

What is her heating other than the oil radiator?

Jibber123

She has an open fire in the front room but now she's on her own she doesn't use it that much unless its really cold. Her only heating is the electric oil rad in the kitchen. Like a lot of older generation people who were reliant on electric only heating, weather storage heaters or point of use heaters, they always paid a bit more as electric was a bit more that gas per unit but over the past couple of years the unit rates have increased at a phenomenal rate. My mum showed me an old electricity a bill from 2015, her economy 10 night rate was 1.13p/kWh! that's an increase of nearly 7000% in 7 years if my wages went up by that much i would be earning over £2,000,000 a year and could afford to replace storage heaters with heat pumps, solar and battery, sadly my salary like many others has barley increased. This is especially hard for the elderly who don't work and may well not live long enough to see the full benefits of investing in new technology's.

Scot_39

80p tariff rate on E10 peak rate is a perfectly normal now - not a silly or extortionate number these days - only made bearable for many by the current 33.4p discount.  Even higher by non DD payment and in some regions.

That 80p will drop - but so will the discount - to 16.6p+VAT = 17.4p?

[But as per your last post - and your 56p on SP bills - you appear to be again ignoring the EPG discount - currently 31.84p+VAT - so 33.4p (discount 17p ? on those SP bills).]

Which still makes the E10 peak c46-47p after discount - so yes above the EPG.

But there will then also be an off-peak rate - probably closer to 23-25p after discount - c56/7p before

And you either need to compare the 47p/23p against the 34p EPG ave - better still her regional value for payment method  OR

Compare the 80p/56p - against the Ofgem rate - 67p / kWh SR DD avg - her actual ? -  prior to EPG discount

And unless a person is using a large enough % at off peak rates - for me that was 40-42% for years - but now over 53% since Jan rises - then they really ought to rethink being on E10.

My old second Heatwise meter only fed my NSH circuits - my new E10 meter feeds everything. 

So is her oil filled heater using E10 off peak rate at all. 

What are the off-peak times for her supply, does the off-peak apply to the whole house or just the immersion and NSH circuits ???

You simply need to look right away at what uses most - whether that is timed / and wired - so benefiting from off-peak rates.

When are the off peak periods.

Could the times be adjusted around to better fit

(e.g. when I can - I wont cook till 1pm or 8pm many nights in winter - to use off peak rather than peak rate. My E10 10hrs split in 3 night afternoon and evening. I try to use all heavy draw items (shower, washing machine, oven etc) - during those off-peak hours (not just my heating) - in summer my average would be too low to benefit if I didn't - even at old 42% - 53% marginal when do.

And as far as correct tariff - over the year is her average night use enough to make it cheaper than SR. 

Night Rate * % Night/100 + Day Rate * % Day/100 = Average vs Single Rate Price

Or if have an actual total cost statement and estimate for a total use - just compare it against total units used * EPG discounted single rate price for payment method in the correct region.

Or if you like if used 10,000 units annually, 33% night - means she

bought 3,300 at night rate + 6,700 at day rate = total, /10,000 = average

Or if you like compare that total with cost of 10,000 units at Single Rate

My cut off been around 40-42% for years - until EOn raised both peak and off peak as a result of Ofgem MR vs SR changes - now 53%.

As I say - get the annual use trends - last 12m will be on some firms bills, on annual review letters and with possibly tariff change letters issued for Apr, Oct, Jan and withing the next week or so, Apr 23.

If its more expensive

Then consider secondary costs - for when a meter change - might impact wiring and device power - e.g. makes all circuits live (hopefully better than HW NS circuits dead) - like mechanical / electronic timer switches / boost switches etc for hot water immersion heater, NSH panels (mines are switched fused spurs already) etc.

The "crime" is paying 47p (not 80p ) when could be paying 23p off peak with right kit like a modern HHR NSH - or even 23p OP MR or 34p flat - for a plug in oil filled radiator.

The cost of which changes with actual price (the EPG discounted pricing - not the raw tariff right now) - the rational does not.