Jul 14 2009. Posted by - smanfa

Thankyou. we are on an economy 7 tarrif as we only have electric here. we tryed to put the payments up ages ago as we said it would cover it but they told us not to worry and wait until the next bill.

grady - is it gas or electricity?

With respect grady, you need to do a little research back on the posts already contributed before you dig up, re-establish or join an old thread. The dated answer to your late question was provided by the OP nearly 18 months ago.

is it gas or electricity?

Jalexa:

smanfa:

If you quote your annual consumption to the switching website, monthly payments of around £75 should be set which will avoid the nasty surprise in 12 months time.

Sorry my mistake. The £75/month is your current NPower tariff. The cheapest supplier from a price comparison website should be about £60/month.

thanks guys, Jalexa we do have storage heaters here but we havent used them they are switched off, we survived the winter with just a small plug in heater that was ment to be low on energy. all we have on in the evenings is the tv a lamp with energy saving bulbs and the pc plus the usual. all meter readings are actual it states on the bill although i hadnt looked at the meter until tonight. i shall definatly follow all of your advice and look into things thankyou x

smanfa:

A few points to add. Apologies if something has already been covered. First of all do you have storage heaters or are you using panel or convector heaters just plugged into 13A sockets?

Secondly is the 28 May bill reading an actual reading or an estimate? Your first householder lesson is always to provide actual readings whenever the supplier bills a quarterly estimated reading. Usually easy and inexpensive to do so. How to probably on the bill.

Next householder lesson, learn to use a price comparison website. Your annual consumption is remarkably frugal though at the price you might not think so. Go to a price comparison website and depending on what questions are asked enter your annual consumption of approx 2300 night and 4500 day (or approx 7000 total and 30% night). You will get a list of suppliers in price order, cheapest first.

The good news is by switching you might save up to £200. Price varies by region so I can't be specific about the saving. The other news is that a single rate tariff is almost exactly the same cost. If you don't have storage heaters a single rate tariff is an option (but doesn't save much or anything), if you have storage heaters you are probably stuck with Economy 7.

Regarding switching, yes you will have to pay Npower off. If you quote your annual consumption to the switching website, monthly payments of around £75 should be set which will avoid the nasty surprise in 12 months time.

HTH

Sorry, it's a lot of numbers and might not have been that clear. (Rambling on a bit)

For the first 728 units of the normal rate you pay a high cost per unit. After that you pay the lower additional units rate. (the first two lines)

Since your bill (May) you have used:

281 Low and 303 Normal

So 281 * 4.305p = £12.10

and 303 * 15.068p = £45.66

Would have done it in the last post, but needed to head home from work.

Good luck with it

Sparky

that still confusses me lol but my hubby gets it. i shall give them a call ion the morning and see what they can offer and see if i can pay the bill off there and then and if they cant reduce my bills ill look at changing. thankyou x

smanfa:I think this is the tarrif we are on and this is the charges for our tarrif. If we were to change suppliers after paying the bill do you think we could reduce the payments a little as they told us on the phone we were using around £54pm on average on electric but they want us to up our paymnets to over £100pm it doesnt make sense and they wont explain anything to us when we ask. If not changing suppliers do you think we should change our tarrif
Standard Economy 7 Electricity Monthly Direct Debit
Receipt Of Bill
Quarterly Variable Direct Debit Day rate first 728kWh per year 23.200p per kWh

24.360p per kWh

additional kWh

14.350p per kWh 15.068p per kWh
Night rate 4.100p per kWh 4.305p per kWh

I'm not sure why there are two rates for each line...

The rates for the daytime are expensive, and you can probably get cheaper.

The rates for the Night (Low / Eco7) are low.

It's worth looking around to compare (and you can use your readings to see how much they would cost).

The reason to put you on 100 per month is either to bring your account back in credit but probably to cover the usage (which I'll explain below)

According to your readings you have used (till the May reading)

728 * 24.36p (or 23.2p would be lower) = £177.34

4559 - 728 = 3831 * 15.068p = £577.26

2228 * 4.305p (or lower at 4.1p) = £95.92

This would be a total of: £850.52 which you might have to add VAT to (you'll have to check the bill)

So divided by the 10 months would be about £80 per month!! which does seem high. or even 9 months = £95 per month!

Percentage wise you used about 33% Economy 7 costing you 11.28% or you are paying an average of 12.5p per kWh. (+VAT??)

Sparky.

Thanks Sparky that has helped alot, i think we have gone wrong being on Eco7 as the washing machine is put on in the mornings as were in bed by 11pm and oven is on at 6pm for dinner. most electric is used between 6pm and 11pm so eco7 wouldn't really benefit us just took some looking into to make us realise where we have gone wrong. we have no heating on at all from about april as our flat gets very hot and we brought one of those heaters thats ment to be 1p phr or whatever for the winter as without it on during the day the flat was freezing by the time we got home. anyhow thankyou again for all of your help i shall get on to sorting out the change of tarrif or even supplier and get the bill paid

Hi Smanfa,

There is some guidance out there on making the most of Economy 7 and even some on NPower's own website I think.

As I understand it, to make the most, you need to ensure that you do not use expensive heating or washing machines during Peak hours (7am - Midnight), but use them during the 12 - 7am economy 7 time.

If you are out of the house for most of this time, it shouldn't be too bad, especially if you have a bath or shower before work, and put the washing machine on at midnight (if possible)

If you are heating then this is something that you need to ensure is off during the day if you are not there. There are some tips to cutting down your bill.

Regarding calculating your bill, I think where you have dual fuel (gas and electric) it is probably about 20-30 for each per month.

If it is a middle floor or upper floor flat then the heating from lower floors should help you!

If you run the electric oven, cooker, washing machine, dishwasher, heating and hot water all by electric, then these can put your bills up.

If you put the charges on a post, someone will be able to give you an idea if it is expensive rates or not.

Typically the Low rate is about 1/2 the Normal rate. This is where they make their money from you, in the normal rate!

Sparky

PS It doesn't hurt to have a look at switching, but before you can switch you will still have to pay what you owe NPower.

I think this is the tarrif we are on and this is the charges for our tarrif. If we were to change suppliers after paying the bill do you think we could reduce the payments a little as they told us on the phone we were using around £54pm on average on electric but they want us to up our paymnets to over £100pm it doesnt make sense and they wont explain anything to us when we ask. If not changing suppliers do you think we should change our tarrif
Standard Economy 7 Electricity Monthly Direct Debit
Receipt Of Bill
Quarterly Variable Direct Debit Day rate first 728kWh per year 23.200p per kWh 24.360p per kWh additional kWh 14.350p per kWh 15.068p per kWh
Night rate 4.100p per kWh 4.305p per kWh

this helps alot thankyou. So do you think we would be better coming off of economy 7 as we dont seem to be benifiting from it? we dont understand the charging units as its a all over the place theres 6 different charging units on the bill. i just thought the bill seemed high as we are both out from 8am-6pm all week and rarely use much in the home when we are here. Thankyou again for your help

Hi there,

Moving in: L 38754 N 20049

Last Bill: L 41082 and N 24608

Difference: L 2228 and N 4559

The L(ow) and N(ormal) determine the different rates (the Low Economy 7 rate and Normal rate)

See the link: http://www.moneysupermarket.com/c/utilities/meters-guide/2/ for more info on reading it.

As it is Electric, you basically subtract the old reading from the new reading leaving you with a number of units.

You are then charged a price per unit dependant on Economy 7 or Normal.

Unfortunately I can't see what your prices per unit would be. These should be on your bill. Or you could look them up with your postcode on the Npower website:

http://www.npower.com/web/At_home/electricity_and_gas/prices_and_discounts/index.htm

NPower only offer the economy 7 between 12 and 7am or 1 and 8am (in BST).

Hope this helps

Sparky.

thankyou

smanfa:

OK. Out for the evening. Will look at this later if it hasn't been explained by then.