Scottish Power increasing my direct debit to £130!!

kirstymccr

I had a call from scottish power to say that they are increasing my direct debit from £104 to £130 - apparently i use £70 a month gas and £50 a month electric.

I have a two bedroom house with central heating and gas hob - does this sound normal? I know that my boiler is about 15 years old and im not sure how well insulated the house is. I have been using the heating on a timer but im going to stop this and only switch on when i feel i need to

shelovestobuystuff

Have a look here for an idea of what others are paying
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=811975

skylight

First things first. Have you actually checked your meter readings with theirs?? Check your hot water emersion heater, that you haven't left it on (I shamefully did this one winter).

My hot water and heating are separate timers. My hot water is heated for one hour per day and the tank is well lagged so it stays nice and hot (also check your hot water tank and check the heat setting is not too high - you could probably drop it a degree or two without noticing) and I now only have my heating on when I want it.
The house is probably not insulated much with that sort of usage. Do you own it or on benefits? Because grants are available to some for getting insulation. Single glazed windows and doors? Heavy curtains help (tuck them behind the radiators or the heat just goes up behind them and out the window!)

Get all your bills for the last year and work out your yearly usage. Then get to a comparison site and check out other peoples offerings.

I live in a 2-bed end terrace with 4 kids and my gas and electric combined is only £60-70 a month, but I do have cavity wall insulation and loft done too.

kirstymccr

I have checked the reading they are correct - unfortunately!!
I have one of those heating systems that you cant put heating on without hot water! My wee bro is a plumber and he says is one of the older types of boiler and i really should replace with a combi. I own the house but work so not able to claim the grants for insulation. Would it be worthwhile to pay for it? My windows are double glazed but again they were prob put in 10 years ago so may need replaced.

I will try the heavy curtains though
Thanks

oramgepekoe

We're with Scottish Power and have a 3 bed house with someone home all day. We pay £70 per month and are not in arrears.

Have you given them a proper reading recently or are you on estimated bills?

What tariff are you on? They introduced a new one last summer, 'online energy saver 5', and this may be cheaper for you.

kirstymccr

Im on online 4 i think - the readings are correct - unfortunately!! I will enquire about online 5 thanks

skylight

Check all the suppliers. Ebico.co.uk are usually the cheapest.

As for insulation, you may not get a grant for it, but you can get it a bit cheaper from places and its not terrible in cost. The thread above mentioned (that you posted on) has some details for homeowners somewhere on it! (British Gas do loft and wall insulation for about £500 for non-customers). My biggest heat loss at the moment is through my front door - a horrid wooden thing with glass strips in it.

I agree with your brother about a Combi boiler! These new things can pay for themselves in a year. At least ask him to price one up for you, I assume he could get one at cost and fit it for you?? (Threaten him if he doesn't!)

Its all money though! (Which I am well aware is not all that easy to come by!) But you are paying SP £1560 a year anyway (at £130pm DD) so even if you had a new combi boiler AND insulation (guessing £1k total for both) then thats £600 utility bills with your new cheaper supplier in the first year.


Also make sure you turn everything off at the plug and not leave things on standby.

kirstymccr

I'll try ebico.co.uk - I definately don't want to pay SP £1560 a year - thats shocking when you out it like that!! thanks your figures have given me an idea of what i need to pay Yes my wee bro is good so i'll prob just pay for the boiler and he won't want much to fit it - few drinks more than likely should do the job!

I

Cardew

You should be aware that Ebico will be raising their prices soon.

I agree with your brother about a Combi boiler! These new things can pay for themselves in a year.

Care to give some figures or assumptions to support that statement?

Also how is a new boiler going to affect electricity consumption.

You will be very lucky to get a break even in 5 years.

MarkyMarkD

I agree with Cardew's challenge.

Combi boilers are not particularly more efficient than traditional systems. The illusion that a lot of money is wasted by maintaining a cylinder of hot water is an illusion, if the cylinder is well insulated which any modern one is.

Combi systems provide hot water at a significantly reduced pressure, particularly in the winter months, which makes them a lot less convenient than traditional systems. For example, it can take 2-3 times as long to fill a bath.

The hot water proportion of most people's central heating bills is a minority; a combi will save a small proportion of a small proportion of your total heating bill.

If your readings are correct and the SP £70 a month usage for gas is a genuine, full year, calculation, then you are simply wasting energy by keeping the house too warm or leaving windows open or something similar.

I expect that you don't have thermostatic valves on your radiators. We have our heating on many hours of the day, but with thermostatic valves each room is the right temperature - which means very low indeed, in the rooms which are not in frequent use - and we spend around £40 a month on gas in a 5-bedroom house.

Regarding electricity, do you have economy 7? If you do, do you do everything you possibly can overnight? Do you dry things using a tumble dryer when you could use a clothes airer or a washing line?

Once again, with a small child, we spend under £35 a month on electricity.

kirstymccr

Thanks for your advice, i think my old system is about to give up the ghost anyway so it would prob be a good time to look at the prices for new system. I don't have thermostatic valves as the radiators are quite old too so this is something else i will look at.

I dont have economy 7. I thought that was only for properties with no supply of gas or oil? I use my tumble dryer for bedding only and try and dry my clothes on airer but i do use dishwasher daily and washing machine every second day so i should look at reducing this. I cant believe some people pay half what i do and have a bigger property - that extra £70 would be much better in my pocket than theirs!