Electric prices

Esty76

Can anyone help. My mam lives in 1 bedroom bungalow on her own, has1 tv, sky, charges her phone, sits with candles cis her ekectruc us di high. She used to have e7 now has gas ch. Her electric is 55 a month. Mine I live in 3 bed semi, 6 people, 3 xboxes 4 tvs etc kids leave lights on etc, my combined gas and lec  is 145 a month so us my mams tapping onto old e7 wiring? Contacted ovo they saud sge has to pay 120 for a test. But this test is just meter. How do we know if something else a miss? They won't help. Advice please? She's literally using candles now she's so scared of usung lights. 

FrugaiMacDugal

Is she still on an E7 meter, with different day and night rates?

Do you have actual readings for the last year, what are the rates and standing charge?

Spoonie_Turtle

She might benefit from knowing that if she has LED lights then the cost of having those on will be negligible.  CFL energy saving bulbs likewise.  

We grew up with being told lights guzzled energy and it's true the incandescent bulbs used a lot for the amount of light they put out, and halogen ones are also fairly high usage relative to the light they give, but LED bulbs will cost literally pennies to use in a month. Cheaper than burning candles, honestly, and for more light.  (If she had say an 8W LED bulb equivalent to a 60W incandescent, used for an average of 6hrs a day, it would cost about 40p for the month.  And be nice and bright.)

Having the lights on won't make a noticeable difference to her actual bill.  Things that do heating and cooling will make up the bulk of it, and it's important to find out how much she's actually using and how much she's being charged - not going by the direct debit amount - to know where she actually stands and whether she needs to track down any big usage and/or change tariff.

GingerTim

And following on from Spoonie's message, using candles is not only more expensive than putting the lights on, but a significant safety risk. I'd be encouraging her strongly to stop using them.

glennevis

Here's a guide to how much energy household appliances use:

https://www.edfenergy.com/energywise/which-household-appliances-use-the-most-electricity

kimwp

The standing charge will make a decent amount of the bill, regardless of use.

wrf12345

If she has an old sky box it will guzzle energy on standby, turning off at the mains will stop that but takes ages to get going again. You can possibly fiddle with the TV picture settings to get usage way down if you have a plug-in power meter to check usage, modern TV's use a lot less if it is an old one (early Xmas present). A table lamp with 3W LED bulb will be a lot safer than candles if there is a problem replacing all the other bulbs with LEDs. £15-20 of the usage is fixed standing charge.

spot1034

Is she still on an E7 tariff? If so and, as would seem likely in the circumstances you describe, she is no longer benefitting from it, most suppliers will agree to adding the night and day readings together and charging them at the tariff's single rate. There is no need to change meters or anything like that. It is just a billing issue and can be done straight away. 

debitcardmayhem

It may help if you can put a bill on here, and blank out her personal details, and MPAN numbers.
As others have said does she have low energy lights, they dont use much and are very much safer than candles.
Also what does she use to cook, and has she got gas fired heating, using electric to heat will be expensive, and also is the hot water het by electric.

Robin9

Please think in terms of units (kWh) rather than £.

Please post the meter readings for your Mum (and yourself)  for today and about 12 months ago. Please note the letters A C E S or our read / your read.

Does your Mum perhaps use a electric heater - panel/radiant - instead of using the gas. Gas is cheaper than electric.

As above is your Mum still on a E7 tariff ?   That could be a big mistake.


And get rid of those candles -  dangerous, bad for eyesight.  (Keep in a box in the fridge)


And is your Mum (and you) in credit/debit with your accounts.

MWT

Esty76 said:

Her electric is 55 a month.

That sounds like a Direct Debit payment rather than her actual use, but if that is covering her use and she is not running up a larger balance then I'm not sure that anything is actually wrong...

That probably covers around 5kWh a day.

Do find out which tariff she is on as she could be paying more than she needs to if it is still an E7 tariff.

Also, as above, make sure she has modern LED light bulbs and none of the little halogen spotlights or old incandescents anywhere, as they do use a lot energy.