Cost of electricity.

Jonny ///M

Jonny ///M

Jonny ///M

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Joined
23 Nov 2004
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Well according to my mum the electricity went up.

It has used £40 in around 8 days.That seems high to me so what about you guys?

This is only a 2 bedroom house with the loft converted.I use the pc all the time,downstairs is usually just the TV plus lights and my brother is never in.

The token meter says its taking 14.16pence per Kwh,is that high or low?
 
Seems pretty high to me, for a three bed, well insulated house without gas (so everything, including heating, is electric) we pay around £90-100 a quarter... That's with two pcs, and no shortage of gadgets

I will say that token meters tend to be a lot higher than monthly or quarterly bills though, so I couldn't say whether you're paying over the odds for definite.
 
Well my radiator in my room doesnt work,emmmmm the gas used £20 within 8 days and thats on a token meter.

The only thing i can think of is the loft converstion.....
 
TiZoR said:
mines about 50 quid a week on electric

which the electric company say thats fine [ yeahright ]

this is a 3 bed house with every energy saving things pluged in
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So either my mums talking ***** or the companies are talking *****!

Shes positive the price has rocketed.
 
I'm amazed how difficult it is to find the price charged per kWh by leading electricity firms here in the UK, what's the big secret?

Anyway one independant site was quoting an average of 7p/kWh back in Jan 2006, up 14% from Jan 2005.

So you are possibly paying over the odds.
 
norm said:
I'm amazed how difficult it is to find the price charged per kWh by leading electricity firms here in the UK, what's the big secret?
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Confusion is good for companies in a competative market... It sucks for consumers though.
 
uswitch lists the prices of a KWH if you look in the more details. I made someone on chacha search for ages for that though. :p
 
It's worth noting with gas/electricity you pay in tiers. Tier 1 is for the first x amount of units you use e.g. 900kWh, after that you pay tier 2 prices at a reduced rate.

Based on the numbers you quoted you're using 35kWh a day, which is a lot. My PC uses about 110w with monitor, so at that rate it'd take about 9hrs to use up a kWh.

Do you have immersion heating? That runs at a couple of kW, so could be a reason.
 
Were on a token system and we had to have a new one put in as the old one couldnt increase price, however now we owe them more money and so pay more than a unit is worth..

Anyway currently 4 Adults + 2 Infants with Gas Heating we use 20 a week and thats only that high as we need the tumble dryer for half the items at the moment..

Couple of tv's + sky boxes, 2 pcs, 1 fridge, 1 fridge freezer, 2 freezers + electirc cooker plus other normal items..
 
Mine is about 10p/KWH at the moment whch is quite cheap. British Gas is a couple of pence more and you'll be charged more again if you're on a prepay meter. If you have Economy 7 where the leccy is cheaper at nght the daytime electricity is astronomical and could well be 14-15p/KWH or more. It was over 12p/KWH in about 2003 which is when I last had a place on that scheme.

So yeah if you have an inefficient house and you've got the heating on all day it will be clocking up quite quickly :(
 
Energize said:
We pay 8.xx per KW so yes it is high!

£40 lasts us about 20 days.
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Hmmm,is it possible that the meter is stating the "charge Kwh" as the amound put in "£XXXX" over the the total Kw we have used instead of just the rate we get charged.

Ignore me,i dont think that makes sense^^
 
Jonny ///M said:
Hmmm,is it possible that the meter is stating the "charge Kwh" as the amound put in "£XXXX" over the the total Kw we have used instead of just the rate we get charged.

Ignore me,i dont think that makes sense^^
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Whoosh!

Anyway, speak to your supplier if you're having a problem and you're worried about what's happening. There could be a debt on the meter, there could be a problem with the settings. There's lots of issues at the moment with suppliers not updating prepayment meters for the last few years price increases and then suddenly realising and adding debts to meters at the same time that they increase the price per kWh.

It's worth following up...

If your supplier is being a plonker about it all, try www.energywatch.org.uk - for them to investigate you'll need to have made a complaint direct to the supplier first though.
 
Jonny ///M said:
Hmmm,is it possible that the meter is stating the "charge Kwh" as the amound put in "£XXXX" over the the total Kw we have used instead of just the rate we get charged.

Ignore me,i dont think that makes sense^^
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Makes absolute sense. Some of the companies set the meter at a rate which is designed to recover the cost of units used and any fixed charges for the billing period (that applies to any two rate tariffs or tariffs with primary/secondary rates as well). Therefore lets say on average you use 1000 units per quarter and they have a basic charge of £10 per quarter. If the published rate per unit is 10p then the cost of your bill would be £110. If the meter was set to recover 10p only you'd have a supplementary bill at the end of the quarter of £10. Because of that the meter in this case would be set at say 11p per kWh to make sure you had no outstanding amount at the end of the quarter, or whatever the billing period is.

Factor in any outstanding debt and that gets added onto the unit "price" as well. Some of the companies are also increasing rates at the moment because THEY underrecovered because of the prices rises over the last 12 months or so. i.e. you might have been paying 8p but the actual price increased to something higher than that. Because the suppliers couldn't get round the meters to reset them in time you may have been underpaying and the new rate is designed to cover your current costs and any "debt" which may have accrued.

Not all the companies are doing this though, some are writing it off as it's not your fault you've incurred the debt, not all though.

You need to speak to the supplier and find out exactly what the situation is. Meantime have a look at this lot, it's a while since I've done anything on domestics but they used to be one of the cheapest suppliers for those on prepayment meters.

http://www.ebico.co.uk/en/open/pages/whatwedoen.php
 
dod said:
Makes absolute sense. Some of the companies set the meter at a rate which is designed to recover the cost of units used and any fixed charges for the billing period (that applies to any two rate tariffs or tariffs with primary/secondary rates as well). Therefore lets say on average you use 1000 units per quarter and they have a basic charge of £10 per quarter. If the published rate per unit is 10p then the cost of your bill would be £110. If the meter was set to recover 10p only you'd have a supplementary bill at the end of the quarter of £10. Because of that the meter in this case would be set at say 11p per kWh to make sure you had no outstanding amount at the end of the quarter, or whatever the billing period is.

Factor in any outstanding debt and that gets added onto the unit "price" as well. Some of the companies are also increasing rates at the moment because THEY underrecovered because of the prices rises over the last 12 months or so. i.e. you might have been paying 8p but the actual price increased to something higher than that. Because the suppliers couldn't get round the meters to reset them in time you may have been underpaying and the new rate is designed to cover your current costs and any "debt" which may have accrued.

Not all the companies are doing this though, some are writing it off as it's not your fault you've incurred the debt, not all though.

You need to speak to the supplier and find out exactly what the situation is. Meantime have a look at this lot, it's a while since I've done anything on domestics but they used to be one of the cheapest suppliers for those on prepayment meters.

http://www.ebico.co.uk/en/open/pages/whatwedoen.php
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I'll speak to my mum to chase it up anyway.

From what your saying we pay a basic charge no matter what electricity we use,then for the first X number Kw used we get charged at 10p then the next amount used is 8p per kw and so on? Sort of like tax brackets?

Then ontop of all that we are paying back the debt that we earned because the company underabsorbed?? :rolleyes: AND ontop of that paying a higher rate per Kw because that the new set rate?
 
My mum and dad have been harping on about the electric going down really quickly this past fortnight aswell. usual amounts not lasting as long and nothing has changed, deffo something going on. token meter aswell.
 
my dad had a go at me about the electric too :/

it went up by about 50quid this quarter ( i think its quarterly...wasnt listening)

but yeah, he seemed quite mad! But it does appear there is somewhat of a trend.. no?
 
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