Main points,
Summary of average usage per day for the last 6 months is over 50% higher than this time last year.
Did some quick maths and it would appear over the last month we’ve used a £5/day.
As its a half yearly bill I appreciate it covers August to January and a lot of those days no heating will have been on.
Could my 10 yr old boiler suddenly have become that much less efficient in a year?

Has the weather not been colder for longer? One heating seems to have been on much more than previously. No science involved though, just a feeling…

Our new electricity meter at work is running 10 times faster than the old one!

Phone the company. I called to have a moan at them deciding my direct debit needed to be even higher, it was putting me into massive credit already, when the house had been empty for the first few months of winter.

Anyways, the guy chirpily said, “oh yes, we can put you on a cheaper tariff miss moanypants, do you mind not getting paper bills ?”.

Turns out they have lots of “pricing structures” you just need to whinge a bit to get on a better one. Every little helps. And don’t let them routinely raise your direct debit based on “we have analysed your usage and you will need to pay more towards the free loan you are currently supporting our business with” ITS ALL LIES.

The guy sheepishly confessed I had used £1 worth of gas the past three months “there must be something wrong with the meter” (REALLY ?? Do you really want to start that discussion ? Backtracked on that quick smart)

Anyway, might be worth 15 mins of you life to have a polite moan at them….

Yep they’re after an extra 30 quid a month, probably based on the fact that our usage is that much higher. Going to do a few meter readings over the next few days, did one last night, it would appear theres been some usage in the night but the boiler hasn’t been on which concerns me somewhat! 😯
Will be doing another reading tonight and if it moves a jot theyll be in doing a drop test on the meter!

I was going to say that last winter seemed milder than this year and I’m expecting my gas bill to be more but if the gas meter shows you’re still using gas when the boiler, gas fire, cooker etc. has been turned off then it sounds like you may have more of a problem than a dodgy meter!

Silly question, but have they actually read your meter, or have they just estimated it?

Is that you used 50% more money or 50% more gas?

Or a combination?

What torsoinalake said – estimates and utility companies are the bane of my life. The incompetance and inaccuracies I deal with beggar belief – I look after 50 empty properties as part of my job and spend far too much time spoon feeding utility companies.

Their estimated readings and subsequent changes to DDs is a massive scam IMO. They keep putting ours up way above what it should be, I can only assume because when they do it for thousands of people it’s a big stash of extra cash sitting in their bank accounts.

We keep having to ring up to ask why our new direct debit based on their estimates is way higher than the average amounts we’ve used over the last few years.

Had a great arguement when they wante dto put the DD up because usage had gone up.

Usage up 18% so DD up 150% reason, “well fuel prices will rise so we need to cover that.”, “Oh really, are you telling me that as a large multinational company you do not have the funds to cover your own bills and are effectively taking out loans from your customers, as opposed to billing them on actual costs of actual usage?”. “Erm let me see whar I can do, yes it appears for your usage there is a cheaper tariff that will reduce the monthly DD.”

As an energy nerd, Im more aware of how much fuel we use than most and this year has been consistently colder this winter than last.

In fact if you look at this chart from my local weather guy (who keeps brilliant online data for all his weather readings) you can see that the 2011-2012 winter was quite a bit milder than the mean (peach for 2011 Sept-Dec and blue for 2012 Jan-Mar) and milder than 2012/2013 winter which is on the mean or cooler than the mean.

http://www.malvernwx.co.uk/archive.htm

Over the last month we have averaged around 35Kg of 3% wood per day – being about 175kWh a day, or 58W/sqft/day which is quite a bit more than normal, but fortunately with a cheap supply that I have at the moment, that’s only about £5 a day for me for heating and hot water despite being a 3,000ft house.

I know I should be paying by DD but all these horror stories are what puts me off doing it.

It may be cheaper in theory but I’ve yet to hear from anyone who doing it who has saved any money. Think I’ll stick with old fashioned quarterly bills for now.

We’ve just had this with our combined energy bil. We are nearly £400 in credit over the past year and they have sent out an estimated bill for the last quarter which is more than double our bill for the same period last year. As a result they want to increase my direct debit by an extra £30 a month!

I’ve sent in my correct readings but they are predicting that we will still be underpaying over the next 12 months. The best they could come up with is a £15 a month increase!

Is it just me or does this sound like madness?
Time for a change methinks.

Horror stories? I have everything I can on DD to make life easier. My gas bill is higher this year than last but it has been a colder winter.

To add some contrast, we took a refund at the end of last year as we were in credit, even though they advised us not to as it would possibly increase our payments. It didn’t, they just like you to bankroll their share-holders.

Have you thought about switching?

This thread has actually reminded me I need to pick up the phone and shout at a call center.

We moved house in September last year. The previous 18 months with nPower echoed many of the posts above – account consistently in credit, DD kept going up despite us providing regular meter readings and having a £200 refund at the end of last winter.

To date, we are still awaiting a final bill and refund from nPower which I expect to be another £200. All we have had so far is a ‘sorry for the delay in processing’ letter.

I am sure if the roles were reversed we would have had the bailiffs around by now.

My gas bills have gone up about 50% or so since I had a new meter installed, as the old one was deemed to be ‘possibly inaccurate’.

Which is strange, because my usage is apparently lower than last year. Still, at least I have a nice smart new accurate gas meter.

I got a leccy bill back in Nov after a visit from the meter reading numpty suggesting that I had tripled the size of my house and built a football stadium on the back garden with HDTV floodlights. Called them up to give them an “accurate” meter reading. FFWD to Feb and they still haven’t corrected it despite a call each month to tell them that I was not using £250 of leccy each month… total FKWITS!
Each time I call I get fobbed off with the same crap and they accept a payment of £40 odd pounds and promise to have it corrected.

I would boil my piss but am worred about how much it costs. 😈

The 50% extra usage is actually based on the amount I’ve averaged over the last six months. So as a quick example (cant remember exact figure) last yr we used say 50 kw/hr a day, this year we’re using 75kw/hr a day.
As an aside, our dd has been pretty much bang on and we are just £60 in credit which over 6 months doesn’t seem bad.

I switched to EBICO with a direct debit, they just asked how much I thought I needed to pay and haven’t changed it at all – despite the fact I changed to DD after 3 months of using them on a quarterly bill – so I’ve got 1 quarters worth of debt being (not) paid off by my DD’s. Very very reasonable people – would recommend.

I switched to EBICO with a direct debit, they just asked how much I thought I needed to pay and haven’t changed it at all – despite the fact I changed to DD after 3 months of using them on a quarterly bill – so I’ve got 1 quarters worth of debt being (not) paid off by my DD’s. Very very reasonable people – would recommend.

I’m with a decent supplier. Near the end of each month they email me a reminder, I read the two meters and enter the numbers on their website. They DD for exactly the leccy and gas that I’ve used and email me a bill. Simple, accurate and I know what I’m using.

Once in a while a chap comes round to check the leccy meter. Doesn’t seem so often now, perhaps because they’ve dealt with me for a few years.

surroundedbyhills – I suggest you look at changing suppliers, will get a refund and also cheaper bills – unless you happen to be on the cheapest already?

I get my boiler serviced every year. Last service revealed it was using 50% more gas than it should, so maybe get yours checked.

Mine came in and after paying £120 a month, I owe them £760 and they have estimated my usage for the next twelve months to be just under £1000 for electric and £1900 for gas. If only they could dig up the beautiful countryside and make wind farms, either that or I will have to give up work and do 24 hours a day on the turbo trainer wired up to a generator. lol I would check you are on the cheapest tariff, I did and will save £300 off that nearly £3000 fuel bill next year.

I posted this a couple of months back and have since changed cos I felt like to many companies were getting by on mugs like me sticking with the status quo….

Just got my annual assessment in from EDF energy.

Page 1

Dear sir we are putting your monthly dd up to £153pm (currently £134)
This will be made up of:
£36 for gas
£40 for electric
£42 for under payment gas
£27 for under payment elec
£8 for gas debt.

Page 2

you are currently £46.00 in credit.

So I reaches for the phone……

conversation goes a bit like this:

White101: WHY?????
EDF: Well we estimate that your costs for next year will be £1665 which works out at £139pm, however at this stage of the year we think your credit is low at £46 and you should be in more credit.
White101: How about I give you £140 pm and I’ll keep the credit in my bank not yours?
EDF: yes sir that’ll be fine, I’ll change it now
White101: Ok then how come I’m only paying £76 for gas and elec where does the rest of the £64 bill come from?
EDF: standing charges sir.
White101: Doesnt mention them on the bill here!
EDF: well it should.
White 101: No sh!t sherlock!!!

check your bills people

FYI we live in a 3 bed semi, 2 big ins and 1 teen, all walls insulated, loft done (both in the last 3 months) all argon filled glazing.

exactly the same situation as the OP.
I need to take a closer look at the numbers but I suspect it’s a combination of increased usage and increased price.
going to look at a new supplier as I doubt we are getting the best deal

Gas bill? You’re lucky to have gas. We’re stuck with oil so you have zero sympathy from me 🙂

Gas bill? You’re lucky to have gas. We’re stuck with oil so you have zero sympathy from me

Oil? Profligate toff. Some of us have electricity only, and think we are blessed.
.
/ends old monty python references.

Sadly this also means we are on the biggest rip-off tariff going, as only one supplier on one tariff does ‘Total Control Total Heating’ and we cannot change suppliers. Cost on a 4-bed house a month? £250.

i ll say this again.. of the hundreds of homes i visit only two actually record measure thier own consumption .. yet everyone moans about how much they are paying..

two simple rules.. the price goes up expect to pay more.. its colder outside you ll use more..

most companies now have a standing charge element which varies from a tenner a month to 50/60 a month so your stuck with taht even when everything off..

to the poster that says his gas is being used even though the boiler is off overnight… it may be off but some combis ( most) pre heat the hot water and will cycle through out the day. most have internal thermostats as well and will cycle if thier internal temp drops below 5/8 degrees centigrade..

I just dial in my gas and electric meeter readings every quarter over the phone using the keypad, that way our bills are always accurate. Our supplier is Atlantic.

I’m not seeing how it is in the best interests of the gas/elec companies to make their estimates falsely high. Well, I can short term but not long term. In an energy market where prices have been going up in unit price year on year considerably above inflation it is fair to assume that next year will be higher still. If they over estimate your usage you are effectively paying for your future use of gas/elec ahead of time. They might have your money but you effectively have their gas/electricity. Being over estimated on your usage is probably one of the best methods of investment right now with bank interest rates so low. Cash in your investment by switching suppliers every couple of years.

As this is STW, reduce your energy bills by fitting a wood burning stove. Our usage is significantly down since installing one, we now only use gas CH at the start of any cold day.

My DD to EDF is £86 for gas & elec, 5 bed house, 2 adults & 3 kids.

It is helped a lot by being well insulated and my obsessiveness over air tightness when extending the house.

i am with British Gas and send in a gas and electric meter reading at the start of every month. 5 days later they email me a bill for the calculated amount and this is taken by direct debit a few days later.

That way i only pay for what i use and dont have any of this nonsense of paying a set direct debit each month which is normally too high.

Since paying for gas and electric this way i have never had anyone out to read or check my meter.

As this is STW, reduce your energy bills by fitting a wood burning stove.

While we’re going there, a friend of mine published this this week
http://www.isonomia.co.uk/?p=1558

Its mainly to draw peoples attention to the knowing about both authorised clean burn appliances and also smoke free fuels for use in Clean Air designated areas. Worth bearing in mind for any budding STW Woodburners who dont live in the sticks.