Average Electricity Costs Poll 14 July 2005 at 10:36AM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Energy 417 replies 327.8K views

DavidP24

mkgirl1981 wrote: »

I'm quite shocked at how much people pay.
I live in a ground floor 1 bed flat, I'm the only one who lives here.
It's all electric & I have 1 storage heater in the living room & 1 in bedroom. Bathroom has a wall mounted fan heater.

I work quite long hours so when I'm at work I'm out for about 12/13 hours.
On my days off I usually spend one day at home relaxing & doing some housework & one day going out.
I usually leave the heater on in the living room quite low & don't use the one in bedroom as I have an electric blanket so put that on for a few mins if I'm cold.

I pay £9 per month dd and I still build up a bit of credit.
Am I just incredibly lucky? Or is anyone else similar to me paying roughly the same?

What you are effectively saying is that you do not use electricity because you are out.

valeriej43

Had a phone call fro Eon saying my dual fuel has to go up to £135 a month, more than a weeks pension, i know my electricity was quite high last year, but cut down drastically, i was paying Eon when i joined @ £86b a month,which i was told would cover it by the EON rep, he looked at my bill from previous supplier and came to the conclusion £86 would be enough, then got a shock as my bills were not being covered, i am furious that i was misled,
I was only a couple of payments behind when i got my last bill, so i dont see how i need to pay £135 now
I am now looking for a cheaper deal,or i will not use my heating

lstar337

This poll never really catered for the 'all-electric' crowd, did it.

My bill is more than £150 during winter, and still more than £30 during summer.

adamstewart5989

Average family spent 30 percent of his income on electricity bill payment. That is absolutely correct that electricty bills in winters are maximum, but we can reduce this bill by taking simple initiatives like switch off the appliances when not in use, also you can use electricity saver appliances to reduce the power consumption. Another way to reduce or I say to take total control on your electricity prices is to go prepaid. With these prepaid meters you can take total control over you money and electricity consumption. Most of the providers install these meters for free, to stop the overdue debt on poor people by the huge electricity bills

lstar337

adamstewart5989 wrote: »

Average family spent 30 percent of his income on electricity bill payment. That is absolutely correct that electricty bills in winters are maximum, but we can reduce this bill by taking simple initiatives like switch off the appliances when not in use, also you can use electricity saver appliances to reduce the power consumption.

Already do that, but switching off appliances amounts to pretty much nothing. Probably saves me less than a penny a day.

Heating is the real issue, and that can only be changed by sitting in the cold.

adamstewart5989 wrote: »

Another way to reduce or I say to take total control on your electricity prices is to go prepaid. With these prepaid meters you can take total control over you money and electricity consumption. Most of the providers install these meters for free, to stop the overdue debt on poor people by the huge electricity bills

Already got a pre-pay meter. It is also worth pointing out to others, that while pre-pays help with usage and budgeting, you often pay more for your electric as most suppliers only allow standard tarrif (most expensive) on these.

Chrysalis

its all a game of cat and mouse, and the ultimate result is consumers save nothing.

What happens if everyone in the country tommorow suddenly uses 20% less gas/electric?

Simple, the prices go up 20% to compensate the companies for loss of profit and we back to where we were. I would hazard a guess with all the power saving devices today and more efficient boilers, insulation etc. that today people are using much less than say 20 years ago but paying more due to inflation.

lstar337

Chrysalis wrote: »

its all a game of cat and mouse, and the ultimate result is consumers save nothing.

What happens if everyone in the country tommorow suddenly uses 20% less gas/electric?

Simple, the prices go up 20% to compensate the companies for loss of profit and we back to where we were. I would hazard a guess with all the power saving devices today and more efficient boilers, insulation etc. that today people are using much less than say 20 years ago but paying more due to inflation.

You have to stay ahead of the game though.

The people who are trying to cut consumption are saving money, but mostly only by keeping their bills the same. They are really only absorbing the cost increases. The people who don't drop their consumption will be paying more, while the ones that did, will be paying roughly what they paid before.

It isn't going to pay to not cut consumption, because the prices are going to rise anyway.

Chrysalis

lstar337 wrote: »

You have to stay ahead of the game though.

The people who are trying to cut consumption are saving money, but mostly only by keeping their bills the same. They are really only absorbing the cost increases. The people who don't drop their consumption will be paying more, while the ones that did, will be paying roughly what they paid before.

It isn't going to pay to not cut consumption, because the prices are going to rise anyway.

Thats true, in some cases people cant do anything to reduce and pay more as a result of the companies balancing their books to counter the reduced consumption.

adamstewart5989

lstar337 wrote: »

Already do that, but switching off appliances amounts to pretty much nothing. Probably saves me less than a penny a day.

Heating is the real issue, and that can only be changed by sitting in the cold.

Already got a pre-pay meter. It is also worth pointing out to others, that while pre-pays help with usage and budgeting, you often pay more for your electric as most suppliers only allow standard tarrif (most expensive) on these.

My prepaid electricity provider gives me cheapest electricity in Ireland. Actually the first 0 to 50 units consumed are charged at the rate of Ksh 2.00 per unit and Additional units from 51 to 1,500 units are charged at the rate of Ksh 8.10 per unit which is pretty less as compared to conventional supply.So you can not say all of them are expensive.

DragonQ

Yesterday I used 1.1 kWh during the day when I was at work (~7 hours). That's 155 W of constant usage, of which maybe 50 W is my server. The only other devices on are my network devices (modem, router, two switches) and the fridge. I guess the numbers sound about right, and there isn't much I can do to reduce it.