Energy Prices

[scottsdad]

My no-tumble-dryer experiment for September is over. Comparing Sep 22 to Sep 21, there are only 2 differences. First, I didn't use the tumble dryer. Second, I am in the office 3 days per week instead of 2. 

I saved 126 kWh. That works out as about £42 at today's electricity prices. I dare say I am much more energy conscious this year also, so may have naturally reduced usage a bit here and there. No longer boiling the kettle just for fun. 

Needless to say that the washing is hanging out again today. 

[Joe Terrapin]

Anyone on here challenged their meter readings successfully? My mother stays alone in a 2 bed flat and is being charged £210 a month for her energy use. She only has electricity and has disabled the shitty storage heaters installed. She heats one room in her house(when she needs to) using an oil filled electric radiator and her other costs are 1 shower a day and one hot meal.She boils the kettle about 3 times a day. Her hot water is on a timer and comes on twice a day for an hour. I got an electrician out to check everything and it appears all in order. I'm convinced her meter is faulty but EDF her current supplier insist it isn't despite them not checking it physically. She is using twice as much energy as me and my wife despite us having gas a bigger house and more usage, I'm looking for a definitive way to check her meter readings are accurate.

[TxRover]

4 minutes ago, Joe Terrapin said:

Anyone on here challenged their meter readings successfully? My mother stays alone in a 2 bed flat and is being charged £210 a month for her energy use. She only has electricity and has disabled the shitty storage heaters installed. She heats one room in her house(when she needs to) using an oil filled electric radiator and her other costs are 1 shower a day and one hot meal.She boils the kettle about 3 times a day. Her hot water is on a timer and comes on twice a day for an hour. I got an electrician out to check everything and it appears all in order. I'm convinced her meter is faulty but EDF her current supplier insist it isn't despite them not checking it physically. She is using twice as much energy as me and my wife despite us having gas a bigger house and more usage, I'm looking for a definitive way to check her meter readings are accurate.

Here, for once, the real answer is a smart meter with a usage display. Otherwise, check for vampire devices. There are also plug meter devices that show your use when you plug something into/through it…let’s you estimate totals.

[resk]

6 minutes ago, Joe Terrapin said:

Anyone on here challenged their meter readings successfully? My mother stays alone in a 2 bed flat and is being charged £210 a month for her energy use. She only has electricity and has disabled the shitty storage heaters installed. She heats one room in her house(when she needs to) using an oil filled electric radiator and her other costs are 1 shower a day and one hot meal.She boils the kettle about 3 times a day. Her hot water is on a timer and comes on twice a day for an hour. I got an electrician out to check everything and it appears all in order. I'm convinced her meter is faulty but EDF her current supplier insist it isn't despite them not checking it physically. She is using twice as much energy as me and my wife despite us having gas a bigger house and more usage, I'm looking for a definitive way to check her meter readings are accurate.

Heating and hot water from electricity is generally much more expensive than using gas, so it might be the real usage unfortunately.  I suppose you could take an exact meter reading, switch everything off for half a day or something, then check the reading hasn't changed?

[Zetterlund]

52 minutes ago, Joe Terrapin said:

Anyone on here challenged their meter readings successfully? My mother stays alone in a 2 bed flat and is being charged £210 a month for her energy use. She only has electricity and has disabled the shitty storage heaters installed. She heats one room in her house(when she needs to) using an oil filled electric radiator and her other costs are 1 shower a day and one hot meal.She boils the kettle about 3 times a day. Her hot water is on a timer and comes on twice a day for an hour. I got an electrician out to check everything and it appears all in order. I'm convinced her meter is faulty but EDF her current supplier insist it isn't despite them not checking it physically. She is using twice as much energy as me and my wife despite us having gas a bigger house and more usage, I'm looking for a definitive way to check her meter readings are accurate.

Most of the devices you listed will state the wattage on the label so it should be reasonably straightforward to keep count of usage over the course of a day. Eg hot water immersion heater, typically 3kW x 2hrs a day = 6kWh, oil heater 2kW, shower 9kW etc.

Also a good suggestion about the plug-in watt meter, which can be had for under 20 quid.

Unfortunately it may be correct, especially if her tariff recently increased to current prices.

[HEY_SIDNEY]

1 hour ago, Joe Terrapin said:

Anyone on here challenged their meter readings successfully? My mother stays alone in a 2 bed flat and is being charged £210 a month for her energy use. She only has electricity and has disabled the shitty storage heaters installed. She heats one room in her house(when she needs to) using an oil filled electric radiator and her other costs are 1 shower a day and one hot meal.She boils the kettle about 3 times a day. Her hot water is on a timer and comes on twice a day for an hour. I got an electrician out to check everything and it appears all in order. I'm convinced her meter is faulty but EDF her current supplier insist it isn't despite them not checking it physically. She is using twice as much energy as me and my wife despite us having gas a bigger house and more usage, I'm looking for a definitive way to check her meter readings are accurate.

Ask EDF to place a check meter at the property - there may be a few people on here that will say that check meters are rigged in favour of the supplier, they aren’t. If you are still not happy you can ask for an independent one to take place but in my experience these can take anything up to 12 months and are sometimes more hassle than they are worth, also the striker rate for independent v supplier are almost identical (showing that supplier check meters are pretty accurate) 

You have also had a spark round to check 

As a few others have posted, all heating and water etc done through the elec is more costly. 
is the flat well insulated ? Double glazing? High ceilings? First floor or not? Blah blah blah. 
 

[Joe Terrapin]

I'll try the check meter approach from EDF. I get that electricity is more expensive however our usage of that commodity is at least the same as my Mothers without taking into account our gas usage. Thanks for the pointers.

[Clown Job]

20 hours ago, scottsdad said:

My no-tumble-dryer experiment for September is over. Comparing Sep 22 to Sep 21, there are only 2 differences. First, I didn't use the tumble dryer. Second, I am in the office 3 days per week instead of 2. 

I saved 126 kWh. That works out as about £42 at today's electricity prices. I dare say I am much more energy conscious this year also, so may have naturally reduced usage a bit here and there. No longer boiling the kettle just for fun. 

Needless to say that the washing is hanging out again today. 

One of my neighbours has been hanging the washing out inside her greenhouse so it doesn’t get wet with the rain

[Crazy Days]

Mother in Law got letter from SSEB or whoever they are now stating that her meter needs changed as it is over 15 years old and may not be accurate.

Never heard of this before,  has anyone else come across this?

[bobbykdy]

24 minutes ago, Crazy Days said:

Mother in Law got letter from SSEB or whoever they are now stating that her meter needs changed as it is over 15 years old and may not be accurate.

Never heard of this before,  has anyone else come across this?

Mine much older than that (electric went round the clock 3 or 4 years back) and never had anything said about it. Yet.

[Billy Jean King]

Got a notification from Sainsbury's energy that they were reducing my DD by £66 pm Oct & Nov then £67 Dec to March to allow for the £400 rebate. Checked my monthly payment amount and it was only £50 less than previous months so they appear to have upped the baseline monthly payment despite me being on a fix to Oct 2023 and being almost £300 in credit. Needless to say I simply went in and amended my payments to last month minus £66 !
Need to watch these companies like a hawk right now.

[scottsdad]

Despite making a big saving in kWh, my energy bill has come in almost £60 more than last month. I guess the rebate will cover this.

[BFTD]

Just tried to log in to Shell Energy and was presented with this.

Oaksoft, give the rest of us a fucking chance!

[BFTD]

Well, that was worth waiting for.

[HEY_SIDNEY]

1 hour ago, scottsdad said:

Despite making a big saving in kWh, my energy bill has come in almost £60 more than last month. I guess the rebate will cover this.

interesting as prices only increased 3 days ago. Unless of course you have came off an old fixed tariff and paying the SVT price pre increase 1/10/22 (if u arent a pay as u customer - can never remember whos what on this lol)

If you have reduced the amount of kWh and the price hasnt changed that makes literally no sense.
Has your reduction in kWh reduced from last month or do you feel like you've reduced?

[scottsdad]

1 hour ago, HEY_SIDNEY said:

interesting as prices only increased 3 days ago. Unless of course you have came off an old fixed tariff and paying the SVT price pre increase 1/10/22 (if u arent a pay as u customer - can never remember whos what on this lol)

If you have reduced the amount of kWh and the price hasnt changed that makes literally no sense.
Has your reduction in kWh reduced from last month or do you feel like you've reduced?

My fixed tariff contract ended at the end of August, hence the jump.

[scottsdad]

8 minutes ago, oaksoft said:

Would have been interesting to see what your bill could have been without those savings.

My bill has gone up £20 this month compared to last despite another family member moving back home.

Usage is virtually identical after making a few tweaks.

So far we've been lucky to have enough dry weather to pretty much dry our clothes with maybe an extra overnight hanging indoors.

Haven't had central heating on at all. Use oil heaters for about 10-15 minutes with doors shut to warm any rooms feeling a bit parky (only a couple of occasions) and that's been more than good enough.

The rebate means we are now £168 in credit which we'll certainly need when winter hits.

So far, so good.

Best to compare 2021 with this year, I think. People have been reducing energy use for months now. My August use was very low, too, compared to last year.

Dry weather is the key for me. I don't mind a washing pile building up a bit if I can blast through it in the space of 2 dry days. But when we reach deeper in to winter and it gets wetter, the capacity of my air dryers might be reached and I end up using the dreaded machine.

[HEY_SIDNEY]

2 hours ago, scottsdad said:

My fixed tariff contract ended at the end of August, hence the jump.

Well makes perfect send, just shows what a great fixed price you had for you tariff. 
Easy enough with hindsight but the credit you could have had if you had monitored more closely through that tariff could have been a real buffer fr this increase.
Good work but on reducing consumption though

[TxRover]

13 hours ago, oaksoft said:

So far we've been lucky to have enough dry weather to pretty much dry our clothes with maybe an extra overnight hanging indoors.

I must admit all the talk of air drying reminded me of one of the “quirks” over here in the Colonies. Most communities have covenants written into the purchase contracts that regulate things…like a prohibition on the outdoor drying of laundry that is in any way visible from the street, or sometimes at all. It’ll be fascinating to see what happens as power costs here continue to rise. I also have never seen a laundry drying rack/spinner offered in a store here.

[HeWhoWalksBehindTheRows]

I have a pal staying with me for a wee while. Christ, now I know how my old boy must have felt. There's nothing more heartbreaking than coming home and he's left a light on or the bathroom fan, or something plugged in fully charged. I'm a TV plug out the wall kinda guy so this is new territory for me.