Average cost of electricity?
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Just after some advice regarding electricity bills, I live in a two bed (modern) flat and for the last 18 months have paid £57 a month for electricity, it is all electric with no gas.
A week ago e.on sent a statement saying that our usage was 4,940 KWH of electricity and saying that we were in debit £858.23, two days later they sent another statement saying that it was 8,875 KWH and we were in debit of £281.20 and they informed us in that statement that they wanted to increase the DD from £57 a month to £142.
I have rang them and given them new meter readings but they said they can’t tell us what the new DD payment will be until it updates on their system, which should be tomorrow, but she did say that from the new readings our usage was normal and the payment would probably be around £142 rather than £57.
Does £142 sound like a lot for a 2 bed flat, when we are out at work till about 6pm each day and it has only been in the last couple of weeks that we have started to use the heating and even then not for very long each time.
Would appreciate any advice, even if it’s just to tell me that £142 seems about right. Thanks
A week ago e.on sent a statement saying that our usage was 4,940 KWH of electricity and saying that we were in debit £858.23, two days later they sent another statement saying that it was 8,875 KWH and we were in debit of £281.20 and they informed us in that statement that they wanted to increase the DD from £57 a month to £142.
I have rang them and given them new meter readings but they said they can’t tell us what the new DD payment will be until it updates on their system, which should be tomorrow, but she did say that from the new readings our usage was normal and the payment would probably be around £142 rather than £57.
Does £142 sound like a lot for a 2 bed flat, when we are out at work till about 6pm each day and it has only been in the last couple of weeks that we have started to use the heating and even then not for very long each time.
Would appreciate any advice, even if it’s just to tell me that £142 seems about right. Thanks
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I am assuming you are using electric heating and cooking if there's no gas? This costs quite a lot sometimes. Driers... anything with elements (electric fires, heating, kettles etc) can amount up. It's easy to look at things and say "I haven't used the heating for 9 months" but the direct debit payment is taking into account an entire historic year, so in your case it seems like it's November to November.
Often what happens is that you use more than you were paying for, so paying £57 per month and using more like £100 per month means you'll build up a debt. The supplier will then re-assess based on the past year's consumption and divide it into 12 instalments (or 11 or 10 depending on how they work). This gives them your average payment every month. However, they also need to include any debit you owe them, so lets make it simple with an example.
You use £1,200 in an entire year. Every month this would be £100 on average. You have build up a debt of £600 because you only paid £50 per month. This means that they take the £1,200 which you are expected to use and divide it by 12 months to make £100 per month. Then they add on an extra £50 per month to cover your underpayments in the past (£600 divided by 12, because you have £600 debt).
I hope that makes sense!
In regards to the consumption, You're only going to be paying around £1,700 per year for £142 per month which is not massively over the top. If you want to look at averages, for combined energy costs it's around £1,400ish, but like I said, averages are not great to work with in this industry.
However, you can never rule out incorrect meter readings. Do you have economy 7 at all (meter has a least 2 readings on it)?
So, my advice would be:
- Check to see if they have the right readings on the bill
- Make sure they have them the right way around if you have Economy 7 (if you have an E7 tariff this is even more important)
- Ask them what the Direct Debit is including? Does it include the debt as well as the consumption? If it includes the £281 debt, then your consumption is more like around £120 per month you'd be paying normally.
It just seemed like such a leap,especially for a small flat that we are not in during the day,we are also good at turning things off when we arn't using them.
The industry is a mess to begin with, and it's made harder when there's loads of different types of meters all with different ways to read them.
You can do a test. It's called a burns test. This is for two reasons. Firstly to make sure the meter you're reading is yours (is it inside the flat or in a communal area?) and secondly to make sure the readings are "in the right boxes" meaning you're paying the day time consumption for the day reading and night for night.
If you can be bothered, an easy thing to do is check the meter now and then check it again in an hour or so and see which reading has changed. If the reading they're using for the day has changed, then it's all well and good, but if the night reading they're using has changed then there's an issue... this is often known as "twisted reads", where they get the day and night mixed up.
If it's in a communal area then to test if that meter is actually yours, you turn the power off completely (if it's safe to do) by the trip switch, and then check if the meter reads remain static. Then you turn things back on and turn a lot of stuff on temporarily and the meter readings should then tick around.
If you have a digital meter then you might have 3 readings... day, night and total (day + night = total).
Economy 7 can suggest you have storage heating? This is meant to charge over night (when it's cheap) and then can be used when required, but often E7 meters are installed without storage equipment, so if you have an E7 tariff it might be better converting to a standard tariff is you have no storage equipment (usually because E7 day time rates - usually up to around 11pm - are about 10p more expensive than standard ones).
(estimated future usage based on previous years consumption* + debit balance) /no. of future payments till your review date
*if you have not lived in the property previously, they will use the (I think) the previous occupiers figures and if not that will use industry averages.
BTW what you pay is NOT I repeat NOT what you are actually using. It is unlikely that your readings are incorrect even if you have an e7 meter, however you should double check them if in doubt. Even if you are not sure wich readings are which the agent who serves you will be able to see your previous readings and will match them up correctly. Even if the agent does not pick up on the mix up the system will check the reading and if it thinks it is duff, it will prompt the agent., if not reject it outright.
From a massive bill to being in credit and everything in between.
I would change but I shudder at the consequences.
So don't believe the bills, the whole utilities industry seems run by cowboys on meds.
The problem is that there's seventy five billion companies involved in getting a simple meter read from you to the energy company. The meter is owned by one company, the meter reader is from another company, and then the utility company has to wait for a "flow" to come through... and then the utility company is likely to use a different system to what the meter companies use so there's another level of conversion from their systems to the utility company's system.
The industry is an absolute mess. Addresses are all over the place, there's mis-matching meter information between companies, meter reads come in randomly but the companies release them, historic data is ignored etc etc etc... arrrgh! I'm so glad I am out of it now
I will also use Carmen Queasy's advise with checking out that the readings have come from my meter and that there wasn't a mix up there.
PS Carmen Queasy,couldn't help notice you are in Boro after living in Manchester,I'm from Boro living in Manchester but may consider moving back to Boro in the future........if I can face it ;-)
our electric is £90/ month. We have no gas, and we spend about £1000 pa on oil.
so our total is about £2K per annum. Yours sounds high, but it depends what you use.
If you have heating on all day, then it will be high.
Heat is the main user of electric
so - Heating / Washing Machine/ Tumble Dryer/ Cooker are the main culprits.
2 bedroom flat, all electric, E7 that powers 2 storage heaters and the water heater.
Don't use the tumble dryer, about 3 or 4 loads of washing a week, cook most nights. Electric shower, and a 'normal' heater in the bedroom we use thats switched on most of the time at the moment but set fairly low so only comes on when it gets really cold.
We don't get in till work till after 6pm and have only just started putting the heating on in the last couple of weeks,we don't have a tumble drier or electric shower and have the hot water tank on a timer so that it isn't on all the time. We pay more than my parents who live in a 4 bed house, but they also have gas so it's a bit harder to make a comparison.
Thanks for your input guys!
But, we've been in our flat for 18months and last week we received a letter from a different provider saying "we know it's difficult to remember to pay your bills when you move, so don't worry we've set up an account starting on July 12th 2010 so you don't need to do anything until your bill arrives". Rang them up, it's a mistake apparently. They don't say!
Plus my sister did a bit of temping with a company that owned lots of property, a gas company were sending them a bill for a a building that had burnt down. She tried to persuade them it wasn't there anymore and they wouldn't close the account without a final meter reading; to which my sister said "but there's no building there, no meter to read" in the end they sent someone out to the property but then send a letter telling my sister that they'd tried to read the meter but had not been able to access the property, would she send them the meter reading..... it went round in circles...
So, anyway, the moral of the story is - don't trust any gas/electricty people!