Utility Warehouse back bill and bill hike

Caz3121

Reviewreader9 said:

.Our neighbours have the same sized house and a charger for their car and their bills are still half ours! They even have games consoles and a dryer and a chest freezer, we have none of those! Our bills going from 90.00 to 145.00 to 330.00 doesn’t make any sense, it’s too big of a jump for there not to be something  strange going on

is your neighbours tariff the same as yours - cost per unit?
do they have a EV tariff?
do they also have a hybrid or full EV?

GingerTim

Reviewreader9 said:

GingerTim said:

Reviewreader9 said:

dunstonh said:

Reviewreader9 said:

dunstonh said:

Reviewreader9 said:

We do not have a dryer, American fridge/freezer, chest freezer, games consoles, underfloor heating etc etc and are very strict about lights, using things in eco setting and unplugging things not in use including the tv!

We also only have gas central heating.

the only thing we do have is a car charger for our hybrid which is only sometimes used due to it being a hybrid and it shouldn’t cost more than a tenner a week on average?

A hybrid is a major bit of new information.   How much does it take to fill it up?
Many are around the 35 kW per charge range.

EVs are cheap if you are on economy 7 or an EV tarrif but if you are charging the vehicle at standard rates then it will cost more.  

On a cheap off-peak/EV tariff with an efficient EV, it can cost £1 for every 100 miles. PHEVS are not as efficient as EVS, and you haven't said if you have an off-peak/EV tariff.  It looks like you don't   On a standard tariff for a PHEV with around 35kW its closer to £10 for every charge from empty to full.  (the range of possibilities here is wide).

When we used to have a PHEV, it was charged almost every day.  It typically grabbed 5-20kW.  (that equates to 5-20 units).   With you averaging 18kWh per day, it is a good chance that the PHEV is the cause of your additional use.

Is 500 units in a month a lot? 

Its a lot more than you told UW and Octopus (referring back to your first post).  More than double the average but you have a PHEV. So, you won't be expected to be near average.

You now need to see how much energy your PHEV is using.    That data should be in the car/app for the vehicle.

I have t currently got the car, it’s back with Mazda for a software update so I’ll see if it’s in the app on my phone. It only does I think about 40 miles on a full charge so it doesn’t take long to charge 

So, if charging from empty to full, you are looking at a ballpark of 18kWh per charge.

How many times a week do you charge it?

We tend to plug it in every night but as it’s only hybrid rather than full electric and only does 40mile on elec it is charged in about 3 hours and apparently only costs £2.25 to charge

Without wishing to be Johnny Pedant, you say 'apparently only costs'. Is this based on manufacturer information or from meter readings?

Manufacturer Information

In that case you should take actual readings to work out how much it actually costs, as the manufacturer's info is essentially a guess. @dunstonh has given a better sense above. 

What is your tariff's unit rate and standing charge?

matt_drummer

Reviewreader9 said:

When the car charger was fitted, our usage slightly increased but not by much. Our neighbours have the same sized house and a charger for their car and their bills are still half ours! They even have games consoles and a dryer and a chest freezer, we have none of those! Our bills going from 90.00 to 145.00 to 330.00 doesn’t make any sense, it’s too big of a jump for there not to be something  strange going on

How much do you put in the car each day in kWh?

If you fully charge it every day it will use around £150 a month on its own on a standard variable electricity tariff.

My brother has just bought a Mazda CX60, it's not a small efficient car!

It doesn't matter what your neighbours use. 

I have a four bedroom house, two full evs, a heat pump and a hot tub and pay about minus £1,000 a year!

(because I have solar panels, batteries and a really good electricity tariff)

It doesn't matter what others use, unless you have access to detailed information about them it could be they are as confused as you seem.

If you are charging your car every day it will use, relatively, a lot of electricity each month.

dunstonh

When the car charger was fitted, our usage slightly increased but not by much. 

How long ago was that?  Was it when energy costs were cheaper?

Our neighbours have the same sized house and a charger for their car and their bills are still half ours! 

You are in arrears.   Your direct debit reflects the fact you need to catch up, and also build Summer credit ahead and the next 12 months use.    Is your neighbour in the same situation?  Do they have the same tarrif and use as you (not the direct debit but the kWh).

The direct debit and what electricity you use are two different things.  You need to focus on your use.

Its kWh multiplied by the tariff rate = the cost of the electricity you have used.  Plus, the standing charge and VAT.

 Our bills going from 90.00 to 145.00 to 330.00 doesn’t make any sense, it’s too big of a jump for there not to be something  strange going on

Based on what you have described, it makes perfect sense.     There is nothing strange going on here.

Lets look at it again:

a) When you joined the tariff, you gave incorrect information to the supplier and set your monthly direct debit too low for the level of your use.   You told them you were average.   But in reality, you were almost 3 times the average.
b) For three years, you underpaid what you should have paid and accumulated a debt.
c) Now, you have to not only have an increase to reflect what you should have been paying previously based on your actual use, you also have the arrears you need to catch up on.

£145pm ballpark is about right for 18kWh per day.
The extra £190 is to pay your arrears.  Once you have repaid your arrears, the monthly cost can return to around £150pm.   Effectively you have had an interest free loan.

QrizB

Reviewreader9 said:

GingerTim said:

Reviewreader9 said:

We tend to plug it in every night but as it’s only hybrid rather than full electric and only does 40mile on elec it is charged in about 3 hours and apparently only costs £2.25 to charge

Without wishing to be Johnny Pedant, you say 'apparently only costs'. Is this based on manufacturer information or from meter readings?

Manufacturer Information

Most (not all) home EV chargers come with an app that will tell you how much electricity you're using for each charge and (if you've provided tariff details) what it costs.
Does yours have one, and (if so) what does it have to say?

Qyburn

Reviewreader9 said:

Our bills going from 90.00 to 145.00 to 330.00 doesn’t make any sense, it’s too big of a jump for there not to be something  strange going on

You're never going to get anywhere until you start thinking in terms of kWh, rather than pounds.

To spell it out your monthly payments aren't set based on that particular month's use. They're a guess at the amount, which taken over a period of maybe a year, might cover your use over that period. That guess might be wildly out.

If your payment went from £90 a month to £145 then to £330, nobody is saying that you used to only use £90 and now you're using £330. Those figures tell nothing about your use, it could have increased, decreased, or stayed the same.

If you still want to think in terms of pounds, then start from actual kWh and actual tariff and get real figures. Consider that in an earlier post you believed car charging "shouldn’t cost more than a tenner a week",  then you were led to believe each charge cost £2.25. In reality it looks more like £4.50 per charge, but even that is based on a guess of your price per kWh.

Reviewreader9

QrizB said:

Reviewreader9 said:

GingerTim said:

Reviewreader9 said:

We tend to plug it in every night but as it’s only hybrid rather than full electric and only does 40mile on elec it is charged in about 3 hours and apparently only costs £2.25 to charge

Without wishing to be Johnny Pedant, you say 'apparently only costs'. Is this based on manufacturer information or from meter readings?

Manufacturer Information

Most (not all) home EV chargers come with an app that will tell you how much electricity you're using for each charge and (if you've provided tariff details) what it costs.
Does yours have one, and (if so) what does it have to say?

We do t have one of those no

Reviewreader9

dunstonh said:

When the car charger was fitted, our usage slightly increased but not by much. 

How long ago was that?  Was it when energy costs were cheaper?

Our neighbours have the same sized house and a charger for their car and their bills are still half ours! 

You are in arrears.   Your direct debit reflects the fact you need to catch up, and also build Summer credit ahead and the next 12 months use.    Is your neighbour in the same situation?  Do they have the same tarrif and use as you (not the direct debit but the kWh).

The direct debit and what electricity you use are two different things.  You need to focus on your use.

Its kWh multiplied by the tariff rate = the cost of the electricity you have used.  Plus, the standing charge and VAT.

 Our bills going from 90.00 to 145.00 to 330.00 doesn’t make any sense, it’s too big of a jump for there not to be something  strange going on

Based on what you have described, it makes perfect sense.     There is nothing strange going on here.

Lets look at it again:

a) When you joined the tariff, you gave incorrect information to the supplier and set your monthly direct debit too low for the level of your use.   You told them you were average.   But in reality, you were almost 3 times the average.
b) For three years, you underpaid what you should have paid and accumulated a debt.
c) Now, you have to not only have an increase to reflect what you should have been paying previously based on your actual use, you also have the arrears you need to catch up on.

£145pm ballpark is about right for 18kWh per day.
The extra £190 is to pay your arrears.  Once you have repaid your arrears, the monthly cost can return to around £150pm.   Effectively you have had an interest free loan.

We only have them the readings from the meter and told them the size of house when they asked etc etc then sent them more meter readings to show our use so we did t give them incorrect information.


they said that while we have an open complaint t about the arrears, it is on hold so we shouldn’t be paying anything off that at the moment, therefore, this 330.00 is on top of the arrears

dunstonh

We only have them the readings from the meter and told them the size of house when they asked etc etc then sent them more meter readings to show our use so we did t give them incorrect information.

Not giving them sufficient information and guessing wrong is still the wrong information.

they said that while we have an open complaint t about the arrears, it is on hold so we shouldn’t be paying anything off that at the moment, therefore, this 330.00 is on top of the arrears

You pay for what you use.

Robin9

@Reviewreader9


Why didn't you go for UW's EV tariff and charge overnight ?