Electric bills

[Nigel Bridgman-Elliot]

You might want to check out these postings about people having similar trouble. (And maybe even contacting them to find out what happened!)

 

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/total-control-electric-2435.aspx

[osprey12]

Thanks for all your comments, it's given me plenty of food for thought. I'm obviously not alone with this problem and I will post any update that might be helpful to anyone in the future.

I haven't been up all night burning the electric just getting off to work!

Cheers.

[hellsbells]

We had a token meter which was being fed every 3 to 4 days with roughly £30 a time. I phoned Scottish Hydro and was told to keep a close eye on the readings and phone back with results. I did this and the upshot was we were not being charged enough. We didn't have any outstanding bills so we asked for a new meter to be installed. We got a new meter and a closing balance which was about £800 in credit. We thought this was good as Hydro had set up a direct debit for £45 per month. This was ok till an estimate came in about a year later and according to them we now owed £770 and the direct debit now had to be increased to £140 per month plus another £45 per month to pay the outstanding £770 so the upshot is we now pay £185 per month for using 4 storage heaters and the everyday things like lights washing machine fridge etc etc but we use gas for cooking. We are seriously considering getting a loan and putting in other heating to our house.

[khitajrah]

I've been told about this: Energycare Plus package with the Hydro for those who are spending over 10% of their total household income on energy bills.

 

- Qualifying customers receive up to 20% discount on their current fuel prices, regardless of which payment method they use.

- Free energy efficiency advice to help save even more money on future bills.

- Free energy efficiency measures, from low-energy light bulbs to a free fridge or a discounted fridge/freezer.

- Free benefit entitlement check

[khitajrah]

If there is a cold wind coming up through the floor, (wooden floor?) I'd suggest if you've carpet to lay newspaper under it, and if you can afford it, underlay.

 

How long do you reckon it would take for the newspaper to get mouldy?? Ick.

 

There is a large rug in the living room at the moment which makes a bit of a difference, but we're going to invest in carpet in the near future. The kitchen has the same problem - sometimes the floor is so cold you have to put hygiene aside and wear your boots indoors to cook the tea, and that floor has underlay under the wooden flooring.

[MaxFusion]

I pay my hydro bill online, think there's a saving in just having paperless billing for a start....but still only £210 for the quarter up to end of october.

 

I think there was a price rise sometime in the last quarter as well because it's charged in two parts, up to 24/aug then 25/aug - 29/Oct

rates were

THTC 5.84p

Standard units 10.9p

Standing Charge 31.08p/day

 

new rates (from 25/aug)

THTC 7.74p

Standard Units 14.28p

Standing Charge 31.08p

[Nigel Bridgman-Elliot]

Its usual practice for carpet fitters to stick paper underneath when they are laying (Especially foam backed carpet to stop it sticking to the floor.) and in the old days people used newspaper.

 

I would think though that with all that breeze it wouldn't stand much of a chance getting mouldy

 

(But perhaps someone more in the building trade can comment on that one.)

 

I'm interested to know the floor construction, is the house on stilts ? are the airbricks placed such that a howling gale is passing into them ? (Perhaps careful placing of a few spare bricks, not as to block the airbricks intake, but to deflect some of the incoming wind so as to reduce the amount of air passing under your floor might be advisible, again hopefully some builder type with more experience than I might comment as to why your floors might be especially cold.)

 

Are they solid floors, is the house old, new ?

 

Double glazed, loft insulated ?

(If not double glazed, a thick lined curtain with a pelmet does almost as well, and keeping stuff in the loft can do almost as well as real loft insulation. (Though I think you can get grants these days for the stuff if you cannot afford it new.) old doors for example to then pile stuff on top of are good for that.)

 

Windswept spot ? (A free trees/bushes near the house can help reduce the wind effect.)

 

Is the house particlarly drafty ? (Eg. do the doors all fit well with draft proofing all around and at the bottom ?)

 

(Here I've 5 layers of carpet on my floor and it certainly keeps out the drafts! even so I had to around the edge of the carpet/floor join and use sprayfoam to plug gaps, but that was mainly to keep the neighbours cockroaches from gaining entry..)

[Guest willz320]

I have coin meters which take pound coins! (How archaic!) One is for heating - which powers two storage heaters - and the other meter is for all the electrics (incl bedroom heaters and cooker, etc)

 

Electrics cost between £30-40 per month all year round. Because of insulation, haeting is only on between October and February/March. But the heating costs £40-50 per month. For two heaters!

 

But in comparison to other folk - seems like I am getting a good deal. In fact - I dont think the meter rate has ever been changed!

[mgb2010]

Anyone here with the THTC (Total Heating Total Control) twin meter system gets much cheaper power for two or three hours twice a day, principally to recharge the storage heaters and heat water. If memory serves the timer switch kicks in between something like 4pm - 6pm and 4am - 6am every day in summer, and 3pm - 5pm and 3am - 5am in winter.

That's what we are on, but don't use the heating. We use oil for the central heating; gas for the cooker; fridge freeezer, washing machine etc are A or A+ rated; every bulb in the house is an energy saver. We still pay £150 a month in electricity.

We have three meters, the radio meter, a normal circuit meter and the THTC circuit meter. Between the three different readings they all tally up, but I still don't know what's using all the juice!

[Nigel Bridgman-Elliot]

Years ago I spent a weekend watching the meter dial to try and figure out what was using so much juice in our then home, and found it was the freezer, it was using 10 times what any average one would use !

 

(Nowdays its a bit easier to google your make/model and maybe find out if you've an efficient design, or like me, had the worst model in the UK! which was obviously why it was cheap 2nd hand..)

 

Amusingly, what uses the most juice now is all the AC I need to keep cool.. (Hence some desire to move someplace colder!)

 

One of these might be useful to check specific plug in devices:

 

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=38343

 

 

Perhaps a business oppertunity for someone to provide a low cost checking service, or at the very least, buy a model and rent it out on a weekly/fornightly basis..

[crofter]

Its usual practice for carpet fitters to stick paper underneath when they are laying (Especially foam backed carpet to stop it sticking to the floor.) and in the old days people used newspaper.

 

It is a real nuisance though, because when you take up the old carpets you tend to waste a lot of time reading old news stories from the 70's or whatever (well, I do )

[Nigel Bridgman-Elliot]

I read them as well I think the oldest ones was from 1890's we found in a house in Cumbria, and recently recovered a 1946 Times newspaper from downstairs when the builders gutted the room there.

 

Better to find that than nothing when someones put down a rubber backed carpet and you spend all day scraping the squished gunk off!

 

FX [ runs and hides at the idea of doing anymore carpet/flooring laying, ever! ]

 

I have been considering carpet tiles though, whilst a pain to cut (I wonder what is the best way to cut them, hydraulic press ? I just used carpet scissors and it took forever..), they do allow for easy repair/replacement, hardwearing, but probably burn well in a fire

[MaxFusion]

I wonder what is the best way to cut them

a good sharp stanley knife and some of them slash proof gloves

 

http://www.westernsafety.com/showagloves/showapg1.html

cut resistant gloves half way down the page

[hellsbells]

I used to live in the in the same houses as khitajrah and the house floors are all the same. Our house living room carpet would rise in various places. The kitchen lino had a permanent bulge in winter and the council wouldnt help so we had to either put up with it or put hardboard sheets on the floors ourselves.

[Guest Anonymous]

Not knowing the type of house in this situation I can only guess, but if it's like the one I used to live in, blocking off some of the ventilators in the foundation walls would be a big help. I actually fitted covers with smaller holes to stop mice sneaking in, and discovered that it made a big difference to the draught problem.

Under floor insulation was also fitted by the council and that cured the problem completely. I think the council has/had a policy of fitting under floor insulation in all their properties,, I could be wrong about that, maybe it was just houses of a certain type.