"tarquinlinbin" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 10:12:42 -0000, "xena"
wrote:

Looking at all the recent posts on high electricity bills has led me to
wonder if there's any way of checking the running costs of appliances
without having to try and work it out from the manufacturer's specs.

I have in mind a small adapter that plugs in between the appliance plug
and
the wall socket that measured the current drawn, or something like that.
If
it was really clever, you could put in the rate you pay for your
electricity
and the device would tell you how much per hour the appliance costs to
run!

I don't know if this is possible, or if it has been done, but I reckon it
sounds like quite a nifty gadget. Anyone fancy designing one?


It is very wise to monitor both gas and electric useage these days.
There is a greater margin of error due to third party meter
readers,switching suppliers and all the other complications of a
"competitive" fuel industry. For example, I have been locked in a
battle for nearly a year with Powergen. I get dual fuel from them
though it is more like Duel fuel !!. For nearly 8 months they didnt
send any bills. I contacted them constantly telling them i wanted
quarterly bills,i emailed them,no sense,no reply,i was eventually told
they were upgrading their computer systems and couldnt send any bills.
Fine, but they were doing this for months. I wrote and suggested that
they must be nearly bankrupt as if they couldnt generate bills,they
must'nt be getting any income!!. When they did start sending
bills,they might as well have been in Hebrew because i couldnt
understand them and they came thick, fast and incomprehensible. No
sooner had one been paid than another arrived,then another. I've had
them to energywatch and ive now swtiched supplier but they are still
hounding me. I will be seeing them in court soon as i have refused to
pay their latest bill.

The open gas and electricity market is one of the biggest fiascos to
hit this country for a long time..

Many companies that were given licenses were not up to it. They didn't have
the systems in place for billing and customer support. The government is
very cagey now and want to see positive proof you can run such an
organisation properly. Virgin applied and was turned down, that is how
strict they are now.

If Powergen have been negligent you should win, and it appears so by erratic
nature of your bills and lack of detail on them. You hav eto tell people
what you are biling them for.

Best of luck




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