Are we being ripped off?

Hippyer

Hi. I'm not really very knowledgable about how much gas and electric should cost but my girlfriend has just moved into a new flat and insists on turning the hot water off whenever she is not using it because she thinks it's costing too much.

We are now at the stage where we only use the gas for showers.
She boils the kettle and adds cold water to do the washing up.

Anyway I'm fricking freezing when I come round here.
She moved in 2 weeks ago and has so far spent £20.

£10 a week for a shower every day, is this right? and me the odd day I stay over.

She lives in a rented flat where she has to buy the top up cards from the letting agent she rents from.
The cards state matrixmetering.com

If anyone can tell me whether she's being overcautious or otherwise I'd really appreciate it.

Cardew

There are very strict regulations about the price landlords can charge tenants for gas/electricity these days. The days of overcharging should be gone.

Ask what price she is paying for gas and electricity per kWh.

£10 a week in winter is very cheap.

onlymee_2

£10 per week just for a shower each day, thats almost £1.50 per shower !!

is the shower cheaper in summer ???

Hippyer

hi this is the girlfriend.i dont know how many kilo watts per hour,how would i find this out? i buy a card for £10... which gives me 100 units of gas. Ten minutes heat or water uses 10 units which is £1
so it works out as 10 pence per minute/ per unit.the numbers on my actual gas meter seem to tick round rather quickly.

Hippyer

onlymee wrote: »

£10 per week just for a shower each day, thats almost £1.50 per shower !!

is the shower cheaper in summer ???

She only moved in 2 weeks ago so don't know yet

SwanJon

Does the meter have any screens on it that might tell you how much it is programmed at?
Take a reading when you load money on, and again when you've used it.
Check if the meter has ft3 or m3 on it, and then stick the answers on here and we can work out how much you are paying per kWh.
Or you could ask the letting agents. Then find out who the supplier is and see how much they charge.
As Cardew says, then cannot profit from selling you energy.

MarkyMarkD

Cardew didn't say they can't profit; he said that they can't over-charge. I don't think the two are the same thing.

Cardew

Hippyer wrote: »

hi this is the girlfriend.i dont know how many kilo watts per hour,how would i find this out? i buy a card for £10... which gives me 100 units of gas. Ten minutes heat or water uses 10 units which is £1
so it works out as 10 pence per minute/ per unit.the numbers on my actual gas meter seem to tick round rather quickly.

What do you mean by "10 minutes heat"?

It is also unclear what a "unit of gas" is on your meter.

It cannot be a kWh as the cost for these is between 2.5p and 3.0p. It can't be the 'normal' gas unit on a domestic meter as these are equal to either 11 or 31 kWh.

Looking at the website it would appear that your landlord can set the meter to make a 'unit' as big or as small as he wishes.

Hippyer

Cardew wrote: »

What do you mean by "10 minutes heat"?

It is also unclear what a "unit of gas" is on your meter.

It cannot be a kWh as the cost for these is between 2.5p and 3.0p. It can't be the 'normal' gas unit on a domestic meter as these are equal to either 11 or 31 kWh.

Looking at the website it would appear that your landlord can set the meter to make a 'unit' as big or as small as he wishes.

That's not good news. Where does she stand legally on this?

I'm not staying over at hers tonight so I can't look at the metre to look for ft3 or m3.
I will look tomorrow and report back.

From memory, as my girlfriend has said, she has bought a £10 card from the letting agent and put it in, adding 100 units to the LED display figure on the meter. These are the only figures displayed on the meter (as far as I can remember)
There is a wind up dial below the meter which starts up when we put the gas on.

This does turn round reasonably fast, but I have no idea in comparison to what the norm is for these types of things.

Anyway, as I said I will report back tomorrow.

Thanks all for taking the time to reply.

SwanJon

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

Cardew didn't say they can't profit; he said that they can't over-charge. I don't think the two are the same thing.

Cardew didn't, but Energywatch & Ofgem do.
http://www.energywatch.org.uk/uploads/Maximum_Resale_Price.pdf

MarkyMarkD

Interesting, SwanJon. That certainly didn't used to be the case - whilst there was a maximum resale price, it was more than cost.