My electricity bill has just tripled: how about yours? Alternative suppliers?
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Sasaferrato
Super Refuser!
Just had those kind people at Scottish Power send me an E-mail inviting me to send in my meter readings.
£671.59 less £201 of government help = £470.59 to pay.
£671.59 less £201 of government help = £470.59 to pay.
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
Just had those kind people at Scottish Power send me an E-mail inviting me to send in my meter readings.
£671.59 less £201 of government help = £470.59 to pay.
I assume that's for three months?
gentlegreen
I hummus, therefore I am ...
Octopus are going to make me give up thinking of my electricity use in term of months.
They take my DD on a particular day, but update my balance every time I give a meter reading - currently every 5 days...
I'll be winding down in a month or so anyway when I stop using any heating.
They take my DD on a particular day, but update my balance every time I give a meter reading - currently every 5 days...
I'll be winding down in a month or so anyway when I stop using any heating.
Sasaferrato
Super Refuser!
Yep.
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
According to Sky News, there's some good news in the budget, people with pre-payment meters will no longer pay more than other customers.
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
I've just checked my spreadsheet, if I had used the same amount of gas as Dec-Feb last winter it would have cost me, inc. SC & VAT, £482 + around £100 on the electric side, so £582 in total, with the government support reduced to £381, but I am in a much warmer part of the country and there's only me here most of the time.
However with the new boiler/fridge-freezer/air-fryer instead of using the electric oven, plus all the other measures I've taken to reduce use of both, whilst remaining warm, gas came in at £208 + £100 on electric, total £308 or after government support just £107 for the 3 months,
That has actually just both stunned and chuffed me, because I knew I had halved my electric before winter, so I've only been monitoring the gas use, which has also now been halved, I simply hadn't done the calculation of combining the total of cost for both electric & gas over the 3 months, minus the government support.
ETA - It's just occurred to me that saving during those three months is just £1 short of what I paid for fridge-freezer (£220) and air-fryer (£55), that's nuts.
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skyscraper101
0891 50 50 50
I'm moving out of my current place at the end of April into another place that is only served by Eon (I'm currently with Shell).
I'm currently £335.25 in credit with Shell and I'm fairly sure that will cover me to the end of my tenancy but they won't let me reduce my direct debit to anything less than £114 p/m - so likely I'm going to have an unnecessary surplus on my account by the time I close it. Should I just accept this and let it be? Or is there a better way? I have no idea how long they take to refund closed accounts by I generally assume all energy firms are shit and take ages.
I'm currently £335.25 in credit with Shell and I'm fairly sure that will cover me to the end of my tenancy but they won't let me reduce my direct debit to anything less than £114 p/m - so likely I'm going to have an unnecessary surplus on my account by the time I close it. Should I just accept this and let it be? Or is there a better way? I have no idea how long they take to refund closed accounts by I generally assume all energy firms are shit and take ages.
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
If you have only tried to lower the DD online, you could try ringing them and explaining the situation.
I don't understand 'another place that is only served by Eon', surely you could get Shell to take over the supply at the new place?
skyscraper101
0891 50 50 50
The place I'm moving to is is a block which is only served by one energy supplier for heat and hot water. Actually, maybe electricity could still be done by Shell? Good point I'll check.
NoXion
Craicy the Squirrel
There's nothing strange about wanting to avoid smart meters in order to keep more of my privacy. My electricity supplier doesn't need to know the kind of data that smart meters harvest. Fuck smart meters, it's intrusive bullshit being pushed on people with the excuse of "saving energy". Fuck off.
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
Well mine has saved me at least £100 on gas for the period Dec-now, simply by monitoring use/cost and working out the cheapest way of keeping this place warm, and that's not by leaving it on all day when I am at home, but heating it a bit more than my target temperature allowing it to dip below that before giving it another blast.
I can now look at the forecast for day, and straight away I know how many blasts & what temperature settings I need, then I can guess at how much will it cost, and I am always within 20p of that cost per day.
skyscraper101
0891 50 50 50
The only thing I like about them is being able to provide a visual on how much energy you're using by the hour, but I otherwise totally agree. They can make do with me reading my meter every month.
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
It's certainly helped you save on the gas (rather than actually having saved it) - isn't that just learning best practice though? Not leaving it on when you're out and effectively using a thermostat switching on slightly below your target temperature and switching off slightly above your target temperature?
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existentialist
Tired and unemotional
They'll eventually become mandatory, presumably when there is sufficient critical mass of people who have voluntarily converted over.
So that's TWO reasons why I don't plan on voluntarily converting over.
So that's TWO reasons why I don't plan on voluntarily converting over.
MickiQ
In My Defence I was left Unsupervised
I can't imagine they're making any new non-smart meters now so surely they must have a limited stock of those available. When those run out I would imagine any replacements offered will be smart or nothing.
Eon my supplier at the time replaced my non-smart leccy meter with another some years ago since the old one was making "I am about to explode" noises so whilst they may be reliable, I know they do break down.
equationgirl
Respect my existence or expect my resistance
I've had to go on a payment plan of £300 pm with British Gas. They were sending bills at random intervals and I swear the calculations are dubious. I could not reproduce them no matter what I did.
Fuck all the utilities, quite frankly, they're coining it in at our expense.
Fuck all the utilities, quite frankly, they're coining it in at our expense.
MickiQ
In My Defence I was left Unsupervised
My house (built in 1990) has both meters in separate boxes on the outside as did my last house. My first one and my parents (I've only lived in a total of four houses in my entire life) they were inside. Mine were in a cupboard next to the front door and I can't remember where my parents were. They moved shortly after I moved out which may or may not be a co-incidence. Is it mandatory to stick them outside now or just accepted as good practice?
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
and as I've noted our valley doesn't have mobile phone reception so one would be fuck all use here, too, not that that will stop them.
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
There's no way I would have been able to work out how much it was costing per hour/day and understand how the CH works in this particular well insulated place without the smart meter, I simply would not have known the system I've developed around it and thus make those extra savings, especially as the general advice is to keep it on when at home [not at night] and don't let it cool down and re-heat, because it's exactly the opposite here.
skyscraper101
0891 50 50 50
Interesting
Same here. The guy came round and half arsed it because he couldn't do the gas bit. Said he'd come back to sort it and never did. So I had a smart meter for electric and I still had to do a manual gas reading every month. Load of bollocks.
Same here. The guy came round and half arsed it because he couldn't do the gas bit. Said he'd come back to sort it and never did. So I had a smart meter for electric and I still had to do a manual gas reading every month. Load of bollocks.
MickiQ
In My Defence I was left Unsupervised
According to the guy who fitted mine the phone sim is in the leccy one so if he had got them the other way round you would still have to submit manual gas readings from the smart meter.
moochedit
I'm not feeding seagulls
My house which was built in about 1930 has inside meters in a cupboard under the stairs (both are smart now). My mums and brothers houses which are much newer than mine have the meters outside. I guess the reason may be that in 1930 it was commen for married women to stay at home so it was expected someone would be in during the day when the meter reader called.
Leafster
.
I had a slightly different problem. They didn't actually come out to me but asked me to give them measurements of the spaces available. They also asked me to take photos of the existing gas meter and the space around it. At this point they confirmed I could have a smart electricity meter but that I had a 'medium pressure' gas meter which they couldn't swap for a smart gas meter. They said they'd let me know when they could change the gas meter so I could have both done together. It's been two years and they still haven't contacted me.
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
Sky News reporting the government has confirmed the energy price guarantee, that was due to increase to £3k from April, will remain at £2.5k for another three months.
Of course, after that the forecast is that the OFGEM price cap will dropped below £2.5k anyway.
Of course, after that the forecast is that the OFGEM price cap will dropped below £2.5k anyway.
gentlegreen
I hummus, therefore I am ...
If my life goes to plan, that will be my only option
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CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
Quite a few properties where I live have gas meters hanging outside.
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