Help regarding EON elec bill

[Andeh13]

Myself and my flat mate have recently moved into our final year uni accommodation. We are on the ground floor of a block of flats that are just under 2 years old. My flatmate moved in at the start of August and has been here for 6 weeks, i have been here for 2 weeks.

We are incredibly careful when it comes to our electricity usage. We have several anti-standby plugs for our computers and TV, so at night there is nothing with a standby light on. We both have hefty PCs(4 hours a day between us), but tend to use our laptops as much as possible(4 hours a day between us), and do our best to cook together. We use the TV for 6-7 hours a day. Despite all of this, we just got our first bill from EON and its come to £88, and we cant figure out why it is so expensive.

When we first moved in the water heater was set to heat up from 5.15 to 7.15 (default), so we were wondering fi this could be sucking a lot of the power up? but then again, thats only at night & since then we have shut it off and only put it on again every few days for several hours to boost the hot water supplies (is this a good way of doing it?).

My flatmate called them up and they said theres nothing excessive about our bill and that all their charges are fairly standard across the industry so there is nothing we can do.


This is a summary of our bill, how much we have used and the cost. if someone can have a quick look over it and advise us we'd appreciate it. We are in the process of changing suppliers to the utility Warehouse, but that will take a few more weeks as the national database doesn't have this address registered & EON is the one who has to register the address apparently. We asked EON to do this a few weeks ago. (again, is this normal & should it really take a month or two for EON to do this?)



thanks guys

[Jonatron]

It's those 123kWh @ 30.89p that made it so expensive. You'll have to look up your tariff to find out how many units at that price you need to pay for.

[Dareos]

Which? magazine had a feature on this recently. I am going to be going over it and switching ours accordingly, will let you know how it works out, but theres a lot of ripping off going on, price hikes etc, U Switch might be a way out for you.

[Clunk]

So the downside to the economy 7 thing is that they charge silly money for the rest of the electricity?

[LWA]

So the downside to the economy 7 thing is that they charge silly money for the rest of the electricity?

Exactly - when I looked into this, in order to justify Economy 7 I would need to do all washing, heating, water heating through the night (simply not feasible).

On a different point: Andehh have you registered your EON account on-line? From there you can change your tariff to on-line ones that are generally cheaper....

[Andeh13]

We have registered online, but all the other options seem to be just as expensive, with variations of 0.003p (sort of thing). This is so frustrating.

How do we go about changing suppliers, and how long does it normally take?

[oolon]

I use EDF energy online tariff 6, which seems to be half the price you are paying you NEED to switch. First thing is you need to get a Dual Fuel online tariff if you can, monthly pay via direct debit. My electric is Day first 1000Kwh per year 15.640p then 9.030p Night rate is 5.340p, gas is first 2680 Kwh @7.191p then 2.915p. Gas is strange you might have an metric or imperial meter, a given volume of gas carries a different amount of energy in summer and winter. Its converted into Kwh (calorific value). All prices you need to add VAT at 5% which is another con they do to obscure the price. I have no meter or supply charge which is why the initial day prices are higher. I also get Nectar points... not worth much but its free money

Shop around, you know your electric usage you can now use http://uswitch.com as its pretty much impossible to find plan tariff details from any energy suppler web site as dual fuel or online prices are done as "discounts", nominally for 2 years, so you need to swap around. EON who you are with are one of the best to see you tariff info if you sign up for their web site, you can even move to a new tariff online instantly, if you like the better price.

[oolon]

How do we go about changing suppliers, and how long does it normally take?

It can take 2 months to swap, that is how long it took me to move from EON to EDF, don't like EDFs web site sucks, difficult to use and little information but it is cheaper.

[666moe666]

I've noticed my girlfriends electricity bills are pretty high.
She is with N Power and lives by herself in a small flat, yet pays £50 a month.

The reason i think this is high is because this is what it averages out at pretty much all year round.
She works (and sleeps) for most of the time, the rest of the time she is usually at mine. She watches tele for about 2 hours a day on average and doesn't cook that often, when she does its just heating in the microwave.

Whats the verdict people?

[kalniel]

Too high moe.

Two gaming computers on for 4+ hours a day, TV on an hour or so. Electric oven and hobs used each night, and monthly bill around £30 at most.

But we don't have electric heating (well, a standby that we've never used). What's the heating on the flat?

[oolon]

Whats the verdict people?

I would check the price per unit she is paying, does she have gas heating/cooking or is it electric, what is the size of the property? If your in an electric only house that is not an unreasonable amount to pay.

[666moe666]

Electric heating, though, it isn't on at all in the summer and in the Winter she is barely ever in so it goes on for about 2 hrs a day for a couple of months.

Cooker is also electric but as i said, the microwave is as far as she goes. I have no idea how much it is per unit but i'm guessing it is way to high for a small 1 bedroom flat. I have told her to move company but she is moving out next month anyway. I shall make sure she sets herself up with a decent supplier this time.

[kalniel]

Electric heating,

That's fine then.

[Andeh13]

We have no gas, never turn the elec heating on & heat the water every few days for 5-6 hours at night. We cant understand how our night time usage is so high, we even went as far as flipping the breaks under our meter just to make sure it was connected to our flat.

Could the water heater being using al that electrcity, is is the only thing that gets used at night? We are swopping to the utility warehouse who seem much cheaper, they have told us it will take 4 weeks though. They seem very well priced & very competitive;

https://www.utilitywarehouse.co.uk/home/Energy/

[Zak33]

right.. first off.

Paying 30p ish per unit for the first few units is normal. It replaced paying a "service charge" for having the electric there in the first place. People used to pay for the priviledge of having it before it was used. I pay 30.252p per unit for the first 125kwh in a quarter of a year.

Paying around 11 to 12p per unit for alll the rest of the units (we're still talking daytime here) is also normal. I pay 11.123p per unit

Paying night time at around 5.5 p per unit is normal. I pay 5.318p

So the first thing I'd say is the tariff is pretty normal.

Next thing I'd say is that paying by direct debit in my case gives me a 10.7% discount off all the prices. Do you pay by DD? Can you?

I also get a dual fual discount for having gas with them, and that's worth £15 per year so around £3.75 per quarter. But you can't get that for having just electricity.

So... lets look into useage....

[Zak33]

in the last quarter of a year, I used
603 units of daytime over 98 days = 6.15 units per day
172 units of nightime over 98 days = 1.755 units per day

you've used
350 day units over 50 days = 7 units per day
456 night units over 50 days = 9.12 units per day

I use gas for heating water and cooking on a stove, so no electricity use there.. you have to do it all on electricity. But I DO have an electric double oven, used daily, 3 pc's, a 4 beedroom house with 3 PC's ....

so I surmise that you use a LOT more power than two people THINK they use.

Fancy listing EVERY ITEM in your house for me? Cos I bet you're buring your nuts off somewhere on electricity that you don't know about?

Have you got a PC running Foolding @ Home ? PS3 folding? An old fridge freezer that's crap? An electric fire that comes on on a timer that you don't know about? An external light that's on all the bloody time?