Does anybody know of any good sites that would give a good estimate of
annual electricity usage. My bills just seem way too high not helped hy
haphazard billing periods by the supplier which makes direct comparisons
difficult. My supllier is NPower.

Kevin

On Wed, 8 Sep 2010 22:36:15 +0100, Zen83237 wrote:
Does anybody know of any good sites that would give a good estimate of
annual electricity usage. My bills just seem way too high not helped hy
haphazard billing periods by the supplier which makes direct comparisons
difficult. My supllier is NPower.

Kevin

I think you can get a free electricity consumption meter from npower.
The internet is full of electricity consumption estimators. They
all do pretty much the same thing, so provided you pick one that
uses british terminoogy and prices, you should be fine with any of
them.


--
http://www.thisreallyismyhost.99k.or...0022615991.php

"pete" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 8 Sep 2010 22:36:15 +0100, Zen83237 wrote:
Does anybody know of any good sites that would give a good estimate of
annual electricity usage. My bills just seem way too high not helped hy
haphazard billing periods by the supplier which makes direct comparisons
difficult. My supllier is NPower.

Kevin

I think you can get a free electricity consumption meter from npower.
The internet is full of electricity consumption estimators. They
all do pretty much the same thing, so provided you pick one that
uses british terminoogy and prices, you should be fine with any of
them.

The fact that npower will give you a 'free' consumption meter should tell
you something! ;-)

Can you not roughly work out your annual kwh for gas and electric? If so,
then something like uswitch.com will be able to help. At the end of the day,
unless you are a very low user, then an annual estimate is as good as a
quarterly one in my opinion.

I've just switched to Ovo. Got fed up with Scottish Power and their
'wonderful' capped rates. Have now got a fixed rate for another year with
Ovo, which should work out cheaper than I've paid for the last 12 months -
well, once we're past the winter 'bolstering' direct debit payments.

JW

On Wed, 8 Sep 2010 23:33:18 +0100, John Whitworth wrote:

Can you not roughly work out your annual kwh for gas and electric?

Every one ought to be able to. Either from old bills and the actual
meter readings on them (not any estimates) or by reading the meter
then again say a week later and multiplying by 52. The readings from
old bills method going back a year or three if possible is probably
the best. A week may not be long enough but will give a rough idea.

--
Cheers
Dave.

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ll.co.uk...
On Wed, 8 Sep 2010 23:33:18 +0100, John Whitworth wrote:

Can you not roughly work out your annual kwh for gas and electric?

Every one ought to be able to. Either from old bills and the actual
meter readings on them (not any estimates) or by reading the meter
then again say a week later and multiplying by 52. The readings from
old bills method going back a year or three if possible is probably
the best. A week may not be long enough but will give a rough idea.

--
Cheers
Dave.

The x52 method is likely to be wildly inaccurate, as it will not take
account of extra winter fuel costs (or lower summer fuel costs), whether
that be gas heating or tumble dryer usage.

But yes, old bills is likely to be the best way.

JW

On Thu, 9 Sep 2010 08:26:57 +0100, John Whitworth wrote:

A week may not be long enough but will give a rough idea.

The x52 method is likely to be wildly inaccurate, as it will not take
account of extra winter fuel costs (or lower summer fuel costs), whether
that be gas heating or tumble dryer usage.

The electricity used by a gas boiler is minimal in the overall scheme
of things. Lighting is likely to be far more significant, particulary
if you have kids who only know how to turn lights on. B-)

Having said that our winter/summer electricity consumption is only
about 1, maybe 2, units/day different. We cook by electric but don't
have a tumble dryer (horrible things) and don't space heat by
electric. Consumption is around 20 units/day.

--
Cheers
Dave.

In message o.uk, Dave
Liquorice writes
On Wed, 8 Sep 2010 23:33:18 +0100, John Whitworth wrote:

Can you not roughly work out your annual kwh for gas and electric?

Every one ought to be able to. Either from old bills and the actual
meter readings on them (not any estimates) or by reading the meter
then again say a week later and multiplying by 52. The readings from
old bills method going back a year or three if possible is probably
the best. A week may not be long enough but will give a rough idea.


The week might work here for electric I think, which isn't used for
heating /HW or cooking here. But gas would be way off the mark I imagine
as we use it for heating a largish Victorian house.

But yes, even erratic bills should give you enough to work on.

To the OP, there have been a number of thread here before on this topic.
- One a few weeks ago. Advice is always the same really.

1. Check that no high consumption stuff is running unexpectedly

2. If on E7, check the times it is on for and that stuff is actually
running on it.

3. Get to know your consumption/uses. Read/record the meter regularly,
us a plug in meter to check consumption of individual items, and a whole
hose meter to monitor general consumption (some of these can record to a
computer - there was a a thread on this as well recently IIRC)

The former can be bought for £10 -15, the later can be bought, or got
for free sometimes from electricity suppliers.

You might find it useful to post what consumption figures you do have to
the group for comparison. And also remember that prices have gone up a
fair bit over the years, consumption, rather than cost is a better
measure.
--
Chris French

"chris French" wrote in message
...
In message o.uk, Dave
Liquorice writes
On Wed, 8 Sep 2010 23:33:18 +0100, John Whitworth wrote:

Can you not roughly work out your annual kwh for gas and electric?

Every one ought to be able to. Either from old bills and the actual
meter readings on them (not any estimates) or by reading the meter
then again say a week later and multiplying by 52. The readings from
old bills method going back a year or three if possible is probably
the best. A week may not be long enough but will give a rough idea.


The week might work here for electric I think, which isn't used for
heating /HW or cooking here. But gas would be way off the mark I imagine
as we use it for heating a largish Victorian house.

But yes, even erratic bills should give you enough to work on.

To the OP, there have been a number of thread here before on this topic. -
One a few weeks ago. Advice is always the same really.

1. Check that no high consumption stuff is running unexpectedly

2. If on E7, check the times it is on for and that stuff is actually
running on it.

3. Get to know your consumption/uses. Read/record the meter regularly, us
a plug in meter to check consumption of individual items, and a whole hose
meter to monitor general consumption (some of these can record to a
computer - there was a a thread on this as well recently IIRC)

The former can be bought for £10 -15, the later can be bought, or got for
free sometimes from electricity suppliers.

You might find it useful to post what consumption figures you do have to
the group for comparison. And also remember that prices have gone up a
fair bit over the years, consumption, rather than cost is a better
measure.
--
Chris French

What sparked my concern was that being unemployed several months ago I got a
bill of several hundred pounds that I simply couldn't pay. NPower agreed to
spread the bill over monthly payments including an amount for current use,
the figure was £186 per month. Now they want to up it to £389 per month to
cover past and future use but the £186 per month was supposed to cover that
so what the hell has gone wrong.
The figure of £389 covers use for the future based on a current estimated
bill and I think that their estimate is way off the mark unless their is a
fault or I really am consuming vast amounts of power but on what I have no
idea.

Kevin

Zen83237 wrote:

Does anybody know of any good sites that would give a good estimate of
annual electricity usage. My bills just seem way too high not helped hy
haphazard billing periods by the supplier which makes direct comparisons
difficult. My supllier is NPower.

You are not making it particularly clear exactly what your
problem is.

Do you know, from your actual meter readings what your usage is?

What have you been charged for this?

What is your supplier, and which tariff?

Have you looked on a comparison site to see which would be your
best option? They will all tell you what you would pay when you
input your usage.

Good advice he
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/uti...electricity?dd

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Have dancing shoes, will ceilidh.

"Chris J Dixon" wrote in message
...
Zen83237 wrote:

Does anybody know of any good sites that would give a good estimate of
annual electricity usage. My bills just seem way too high not helped hy
haphazard billing periods by the supplier which makes direct comparisons
difficult. My supllier is NPower.

You are not making it particularly clear exactly what your
problem is.

Do you know, from your actual meter readings what your usage is?

What have you been charged for this?

What is your supplier, and which tariff?

Have you looked on a comparison site to see which would be your
best option? They will all tell you what you would pay when you
input your usage.

Good advice he
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/uti...electricity?dd

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Have dancing shoes, will ceilidh.

Well what I am looking for is how my consumption and bills compare with the
average. My bills, electricity wise, appear to be extortionate and there is
appears to be no excessive use of power so either the average is high,
NPower are overcharging or there is a fault.
Checking the average of my own bills is much help. For example between
raising an estimated bill, me getting it, reading the meter myself a month
may have gone by so a year on and I look at the bills again what period did
the reading cover. I am not sure I could even find all the bills going back
over the last year.

Kevin

On Thu, 09 Sep 2010 22:25:35 +0100, Zen83237 wrote:

Well what I am looking for is how my consumption and bills compare with
the average. My bills, electricity wise, appear to be extortionate and
there is appears to be no excessive use of power so either the average
is high, NPower are overcharging or there is a fault. Checking the
average of my own bills is much help. For example between raising an
estimated bill, me getting it, reading the meter myself a month may have
gone by so a year on and I look at the bills again what period did the
reading cover. I am not sure I could even find all the bills going back
over the last year.

If you tell us the size of your house (number of bedrooms, detached, semi-
detached, terraced) etc., and also how many kWh you are using (per annum)
for gas, and for electricity, we should be able to comment. The number of
kWh is invariant of supplier or price.

If you have a bill for now, and one for say a year ago, you can subtract
one reading from another, and just do the fairly simple calculation
(which is on your bill) for the whole year. Remember, you only need the
kWh so that's trivial for electricity and not hard for gas. If it's more
than a year, scale it; it won't be perfect because it'll be biased for
whichever season is covered twice, but better than nothing.

--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

In message , Zen83237
writes

"Chris J Dixon" wrote in message
.. .
Zen83237 wrote:

Does anybody know of any good sites that would give a good estimate of
annual electricity usage. My bills just seem way too high not helped hy
haphazard billing periods by the supplier which makes direct comparisons
difficult. My supllier is NPower.

You are not making it particularly clear exactly what your
problem is.

Do you know, from your actual meter readings what your usage is?

What have you been charged for this?

What is your supplier, and which tariff?

Have you looked on a comparison site to see which would be your
best option? They will all tell you what you would pay when you
input your usage.


Well what I am looking for is how my consumption and bills compare with the
average.

As has been suggested, if you post details here, we can comment, should
be able to give an idea if your consumption is high or low etc.

My bills, electricity wise, appear to be extortionate and there is
appears to be no excessive use of power so either the average is high,
NPower are overcharging or there is a fault.


Checking the average of my own bills is much help.

Did you mean that sentence to include a 'not'? I don't see why not - it
is the record of your consumption and how much you were charged.


For example between
raising an estimated bill, me getting it, reading the meter myself a month
may have gone by so a year on and I look at the bills again what period did
the reading cover.

The bill will include the dates of the reading(s) (assuming that you
give a new reading in time to get a replaced bill for the estimated
bill). so it;s not hard to work out the period the readings cover. not
having a years worth of bills will make it harder to see if your
consumption is high over the year - but if you don't use it for heating,
or use a tumble drier lots in the winter, it won't vary to much over the
summer/winter.

--
Chris French

1 - find your past bills, so you can accurate assess your consumption
over the year.

2 - ask them how much you still owe on previously unpaid, and over
what period it is to be repaid (months).

3 - calculate based on your annual consumption what you should be
paying each month, and add in the repayment of previous.

4 - stick it in writing if necessary.

You should keep electricity & gas bills for at least the past 2 years
when dealing with suppliers. If you can quote back the kWhr figures
for the past year and that previous they generally cave-in when trying
it on re ramping up D/D payments. It is a very lucrative practice for
them and just another reason why the privatisation of the elec
industry was a disaster; it drove a lot of heavy electrical usage
companies first to their own gas-powered generating plant and then
offshore.

On Thu, 9 Sep 2010 16:27:20 -0700 (PDT), js.b1 wrote:

You should keep electricity & gas bills for at least the past 2 years
when dealing with suppliers.

If on PAYE you should be keeping records for 6 years if on Self
Assement 7 years (IIRC). Just in case HMRC decide to have a detailed
look at your finances...

--
Cheers
Dave.