Fight on our hands - electricity £100 per week

Robin9

@SkyChild

Other than the readings you gave when you moved in have you given them any other readings ?  If not the supplier is guessing.


Please give us the move in readings and todays.     As your meter has two registers  -  just because they are labeled high or low do now assume low means night !   

Compare the readings with the bill.

PS a DD of over £400 is quite possible. 

macman

Tell us the name of the tariff, and how many registers are on the bill. You don't pay two standing charges on E7, and there is only one meter. 
Post a pic of the meter or meters, as your post is not at all clear.
The assumption when bills or DD's rise is that it must be a faulty meter: in reality it's very rare.

EssexHebridean

Storage heaters - particularly modern High Heat Retention ones - don't need to be massively expensive to run. A lot of the trick with them is really learning how best to use the individual meter type - I've been on E7 with storage heaters for 20 years and I've really learned the benefit of getting to grips with making sure the heaters are set up correctly. Of course, even the best set up heaters can't complete with poor insulation meaning that you are losing the heat out of the building too fast - so that's something else to consider. 

Great advice already on the tariff question. 

dunstonh

We are on all-electric and have storage heaters (new ones, but still we knew that they are expensive to run)

Electric storage heaters are not necessarily expensive to run.  Providing you have the right tarrif (e.g. economy 7) and the timer is correct (if timed and not circuit switched)

. When I gave them another meter reading (14 days after the last one) it added another £200. When I phoned the man said it was because we have 2 meters and our bills would go up to £800 per month!!

Are you giving them both meter readings or just one?  i.e. the peak and off peak reading

Well it's one meter but with 2 rates on it. I have no idea why we have 2 - possibly a leftover from economy 7 or 10?

Its not a leftover.  If you have storage heaters, you are meant to heat them during the off peak cheap rate on economy 7.

Have you chosen an economy 7 tariff or are you on a single-rate tariff?
It sounds like you have gone single rate and are charging the storage heaters on the single rate and not the off peak economy 7 rate.

Jonboy_1984

How is your hot water being heated and controlled?

MikeJXE

We are all asking the same questions

He's at work and will answer later this evening or tomorrow 

SkyChild

Hi everyone, thanks for the input. So I phoned SSE who had added my actual meter readings ON to their estimated ones. (at move-in point and then every couple of weeks) She sorted that out for me there and then. Phew. 

SAC2334 said:

My freind up in Aberdeenshire was on 2 meter system on  a legacy meter called THTC one which used to be impossible to move away from with SSE .paying 25 p kwh night rate and 42 p day rate .

 He s now broken free of the hostage of SSE paying highest nigt rates in UK and switched to EDF who I think have about the lowest night rates in the UK paying 10 p kwh for the night rate . Some areas are down to around 8 p kwh for night rate .

So my advice is switch away to EDF asap as you are going to halve your night rate at least .  You will get nowhere with SSE ( Ovo run the customer service and billing now by the way ) He was trying for years until EDF came up and took over the 2 meters one of which was a Radio Teleswitch meter , so it can be done .Get switching !

As a former meter reader recording 2 rate meters for two decades , you need to first establish which of the 2 rates is the night rate and more importantly find out when it starts and when it stops. The meter itself will be registering in some way when its active. The small red light will start to flash when previosly it will have been not flashing at all. 
Get to grips with how many kwhs you are using daily on each rate then you can work out your spring and summer usage  which will be  mostly without the night rate active at all in summer. 
Once you have done that you can then tell the supplier what your usage is .You do not need a supplier telling you what your weekly/monthly usage , you will know better than them .

Yes that THTC looks familiar, I think that's what we are on. I'm phoning the tariff team today to ask if we can get switched over to Economy 7 or 10 and then will be looking for other suppliers. Good to know EDF are the cheapest (how do you know these things?)

We have also got the electrician down to check the meter and to help out with the water heater (my husband had it on all the time, rather than off-peak supply - that can't have helped)

So all in all, we seem to be making some progress. Direct debit is £250 at the moment which should hold things off until we get it settled, and we'll be looking to switch further down the line. Thanks everyone for the replies, sorry to be in a panic!

RedFraggle

I have 2 MPANS on one meter as my flat was built with 2 separate meters (late 90s) later replaced with a single meter combing the 2 MPANS. 
Each MPAN is on an E7 rate.
The term for this with energy suppliers is a "complex meter". The readings on the meter are 1, 2, R1, R2. The latter two from the are called "related meter readings".
I have separate E7 circuit that goes live with the teleswitch activates it at the E7 start time. 
My related meter readings never change as it is now defunct with the teleswitched single meter recording all use. 
Hope this helps

dunstonh

Good to know EDF are the cheapest (how do you know these things?)

They publish their prices.

We have also got the electrician down to check the meter and to help out with the water heater (my husband had it on all the time, rather than off-peak supply - that can't have helped)

Having it on all the time isn't helpful but until you are on economy 7, it wont matter if you heat it off peak.    Lack of E7 is your problem.

Take your readings from moving until now and multiply them by the EDF single rate and the EDF economy 7 rates.   That should give you an indication of the difference.

SkyChild

Excellent, thank you, I will do