Utility bills help/advice.

Pestilence

Pestilence

Pestilence

Soldato
Joined
22 Feb 2008
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Hi folks. Today my NPower bill for electricity and gas fell through the door and I just want to check with peeps here whether this seems normal or excessive.

For the period of 25/02/08 - 30/09/08 :

Electricity - £513.59
Gas - £170.41

Now, we're a married couple living in a 3-bed end terrace with no children. We're both out at work during most days so pretty much all of the TV watching etc. is done in the evening. I simply can't fathom how it could cost this much. Apparently from 25/02/08 to 28/08/08 we've used 2699kWh of electricity on the daytime rate yet only 1201 at night. This seems fishy to me.

Now they've upped the monthly payments to £178, which we simply can't afford to pay every month. Has anyone else got some comparable figures? Am I right to be freaked out right now?
 
Yep, dates are correct, it's a 7-month bill for some reason.

Looking at the estimates on the rear, they are estimating that over the next 18 months we're going to use £1630 of electricity and £1065 of gas. This seems like a stupendous amount of money to me, no?

I'm going to have to get a look at the meter. How can you tell if it's not reading properly or moving too quickly etc?

To answer your questions, rollins, our water is electrically heated though we use an electric shower so don't have the heating on very often. Our last bill was comparable to this one so since then we've gone with jumpers and blankets instead of putting the heating on (despite the Mrs. whinging every 3 minutes).

We do have a tumble dryer, but again we stopped using it and bought a couple of clothes horses instead after the last bill.

I mean, the ONLY thing that is constantly left on in this house is my PC as it acts as a download/media server - surely this can't be responsible for such a monstrous bill itself?

Later on, I think I'll go back through historical bills to see if I can figure out what has changed.
 
First thing to check is whether the meter readings at the beginning and end of that very long billing period are actual readings (by you or a meter reader) or are they estimates. If estimates then take a reading now and look back through old bills and find the last actual reading. Then get out the calculator.

The amounts you quote don't sound that far out to me. But it wouldn't do any harm to switch to the best energy supplier - according to the readers of which? ;)
 
Pestilence said:
Apparently from 25/02/08 to 28/08/08 we've used 2699kWh of electricity on the daytime rate yet only 1201 at night. This seems fishy to me.
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Can you confirm that the Supply Number on your electricity bill start with '02'? It sounds like it will do - but why? Do you have and use electric storage radiators? If not, then we need to speak.
 
2blue4u said:
Can you confirm that the Supply Number on your electricity bill start with '02'? It sounds like it will do - but why? Do you have and use electric storage radiators? If not, then we need to speak.
Click to expand...

Supply number does indeed start with 02. We don't use storage heaters in the house, just a normal boiler-based central heating system w/ standard water radiators.
 
Part of the problem is you are on an Economy 7 Tariff, hence the day and night rates. These are only worth having if you use a significant amount of energy during the 7 night hours, which vary region to region. These tariffs charge a higher rate than standard tariffs for daytime use, but are much cheaper during the night hence why they work well if you have storage heaters. I guess someone has put you on E7 because you heat your water using electric, I've heard if your night use is not greater than a third of your total use then you won't save money on E7.

Do you know what times your immersion heater runs, and/or do you use the Boost function a lot? If so, that will bump your bill up. I used to live in a flat with electric water heating, and I found turning the thermostat up from 65 to 75 degrees saved me money because I didn't need to use the boost for hot water in the evenings and pay day rate for heating water.

The other thing to do is get on a comparison site and see if there are cheaper suppliers, there are massive differences if you're just on the suppliers bog standard tariff. Don't buy via the comparison site, take a note of the tariff details and register for Quidco and do the switch through there - I got £75 last time I switched.
 
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Just figured that out myself. We're on Economy 7 and our night usage (which we didn't know were between the hours of 1am and 8am) is minimal compared to the rest, so we're getting raped on our normal usage.

Need to swap to a standard tariff, but can't get through to Npower -- been in queue for 20 minutes now and they close at 6 so will call on Monday.

You would have thought any professional company would keep an eye out for customers and make you aware if you're not making the savings you'd expect. Money-grubbing barstewards.
 
Right, had a look around and have found much cheaper tariffs elsewhere. Thing is, if I were to sign up right now to a different supplier and switch over, are Npower likely to ask me to settle the entire outstanding amount, or can I continue to pay it to them in monthly increments?

Would seem a bit cruel to demand the whole lot be paid, which would in turn ensure that I'm stuck with them forever as I don't have that type of money just lying around.
 
The only reason a supplier can refuse to release you to another supplier is if the account is in dispute. If only a single monthly or quarterly bill is outstanding then they won't or shouldn't block the transfer. But you can't carry over a reducing balance to your new supplier.

And get off Economy 7.
 
You might want to keep you eye out It might cost you to change the meter to a single rate if they can’t just change it on there systems but it only about £40.00 to change the meter over!

Hope you get it sorted out
 
Changing from an Econ 7 tariff to a Standard tariff doesn't require a meter change. Both registers are used to calculate the total consumption.

When a meter change is needed, different suppliers charge hugely varying amounts. I would say that £40 was on the low side.
 
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