Cost of electricity.

[Jonny ///M]

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?

 

[Jonny ///M]

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.....

 

[Jonny ///M]

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

So either my mums talking ***** or the companies are talking *****!

Shes positive the price has rocketed.

 

[Jonny ///M]

We pay 8.xx per KW so yes it is high!

£40 lasts us about 20 days.

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]

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

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?? AND ontop of that paying a higher rate per Kw because that the new set rate?

 

[Jonny ///M]

Sounds about right :shrug:

Contact your supplier, or visit their website and find out what you should be paying (per KwH), rather than asking on here...

Well i did try to look on the supplier site but they dont seem to tell it like it is.

Why not ask on here though? Everybody uses electricity and it would put what we use in perspective so i dont see the problem......

 

[Jonny ///M]

Because we're all on different tariffs, have different providers, have different-sized homes with different numbers of people and different usage levels...

FWIW my last bill, 1-bed flat, just me, Economy 7, under £50 for the quarter. No gas. But that is useless to you as my circumstances and tariff etc. are all different so you're none the wiser.

I understand that but there does appear to be a trend of the cost increasing and whoever it was that pointed out why that was.