Reduced Energy Bills Achieved

[Ferdinand]

The energy company (I use First Energy because they are large but with non-awful customer service) have just reduced my monthly payment for gas / elec to £65 from £80 of their own accord (which probably means a smaller reduction than is actually needed).

 

That means that within a year it has shrunk from £120 to £65, or £660 per year. 

 

The only change we have made is to install a stonking 10kWP solar array in January, which is East/West and still rather shaded, and to switch suppliers - which reduced the payment from £120 to £80. Don't underestimate the power of switching and competition. 

 

The house is a refurbed 4 bed chalet bungalow at just under 2000sqft with 2 people, which is generally good but we aren't obsessive.

 

I am sure that others have done as well or better, and we still can, and I  wanted to record the numbers. Solar energy generated is going to be about 5500kWh (=another £600 in subsidy) for the year, which hints at how shaded our installation was and still is.

 

Ferdinand

 

Edited October 17, 2016 by Ferdinand

[ProDave]

What I want to know though is the cost per unit of electricity and gas from each supplier? THAT is what is important.

 

Could it be you have just been over paying and built up a large credit with them so they are reducing the monthly amount to slowly pay down that credit (i.e no REAL saving?)

 

I plot the weekly electricity and solar PV meter readings so I know how many units I use and generate each week, and there is a definite correlation, good week of high solar PV = reduction in usage reading for that week.
 

[Ferdinand]

I haven't been that thorough in my recording :-).

 

It isn't just a buildup of credit since the switch was only a few months ago.

 

I will see if I can find some numbers off bills.

 

F

[AliG]

I switched gas supplies last month. The price had fallen to 1.69p per kWh + 5% VAT. I was paying around 2.6p last year and use over 3p as a long term number when working out heating costs. If you don't switch you get put on a standard tariff which is close to 2x this amount.

 

It becomes very hard to justify aggressive spending on insulation in purely financial terms.

[Ferdinand]

 

@AliG

What are your standing charges?

 

My current tariffs are from First Energy 

 

Electric:

 

Unit rate 11.016p per kWh

Standing charge 14.42p per day

 

Gas

 

Unit rate 2.307p per kWh

Standing charge 14.42p per day

 

Tariff Comparison Rates (= attempt at overall rate given certain assumption are

 

Electric: 12.71p per kWh

Gas: 2.73p per kWh

 

Assumed usage in that calc (on which I think the monthly payment is based)

 

Electric: 3100 kWh

Gas: 12500 kWh

 

Area = 190 sqm (ish)

Energy per sqm = 82.1 kWh per sqm per year

 

(Largely meaningless) Energy Usage figure from 2010 EPC = 156 kWh/m² per year

According to the MSE Cheap Energy Club I am within £10 of the best tariff I could currently get.

 

Ferdinand

Edited October 18, 2016 by Ferdinand

[AliG]

Standing charges are high as gas use in current house is  £1500 a year. Probably around 50-60000 kWh. I haven't moved into my new super insulated house yet. Plus as mentioned elsewhere before my wife has 2 baths a day!

 

We are 400sqm so running about 150 kWh a square metre which I guess would be consistent with the EPC, although the house has never been assessed. If it was just me the costs would be lower but a happy marriage is cheaper than lower bills! 

 

The break even for your gas contract versus mine will be around 17500 kWh a year, so looks like you are on the right contract for you.

 

My electricity usage is similar to yours. I have a 4kw PV array so my costs are dominated by gas.

 

I just put my current house which is a 15 yr old timber frame house into the heat loss calculator. It looks like it would have something like 4-5x the heating costs per square metre of the new place.

 

These are guesses on the current place vs the new place. They give a figure consistent with my current energy usage. -

 

Walls 0.3 vs 0.15

Roof 0.16 vs 0.12

Windows 1.6 vs 0.75

Air changes/hour - 1? vs MVHR - Not sure on this one. But the figuring for air heat loss is terrifying, it comes out at 2/3 of the cost of heating the current house. The current house has a suspended timber ground floor with rock wool strung between the joists. Wind blows up inside all the walls, through sockets etc. I was quite surprised that the house isn't on a concrete slab, I just assumed it would be before it was built.

 

It really hammers home that due to the size of my new place airtightness is the thing to work on.

 

 

Your tariff details         About your gas tariff    Supplier E.ON (E.ON Energy Solutions Ltd)     Tariff name E.ON Saver Plus Fixed 1 Year v2     Tariff type Fixed price     Payment method Fixed monthly direct debit     Unit rate 1.689p per kWh     Standing charge 63.441p per day     Tariff ends on 12 months from the date you switch      Price guaranteed until 12 months from the date you switch      Exit fees (if you cancel this tariff before the end date) £30     Discounts and additional charges Paperless billing discount: £5.00 a year       Dual fuel discount: £10.00 a year     Additional products or services included Not applicable         About your electricity tariff    Supplier E.ON (E.ON Energy Solutions Ltd)     Tariff name E.ON Saver Plus Fixed 1 Year v2     Tariff type Fixed price     Payment method Fixed monthly direct debit     Unit rate 8.904p per kWh     Standing charge 26.754p per day     Tariff ends on 12 months from the date you switch      Price guaranteed until 12 months from the date you switch      Exit fees (if you cancel this tariff before the end date) £30     Discounts and additional charges Paperless billing discount: £5.00 a year       Dual fuel discount: £10.00 a year

Edited October 18, 2016 by AliG

[daiking]

We've been looking for a new supply. In all the upheaval, I have no records of any sort and only have the current supplier records to go on. Which I don't think are worth much because we have not had an extended period of normal living in the house. Even so, usage seems to have been about approx. 60%/40% Elec/Gas in the period of June 15 to June 16 which is when the major building work was done, whilst we lived in the house.

 

Total cost over that period was £1100 which I surprised by. thought it would have been higher. However I'm surprised by how little gas we've used - Gas fire, Combi Boiler for DHW and CH compared to electricity, cooking, washing, tumble dryer, lights and other appliances.

 

Suspect the washing machine and dryer are chewing up a considerable amount of that although the double single ovens probably don't help. The induction hob, although massive is supposed to be an efficient method of cooking.

 

I really need to be measuring stuff to establish what the problems are.

[SteamyTea]

On 17/10/2016 at 11:53, ProDave said:

What I want to know though is the cost per unit of electricity and gas from each supplier? THAT is what is important.

That is something that should be forced upon the energy companies and the price comparison sites, would need the standing charge as well.

It could be done within a week if there was a will.  It makes me wonder if OFGEM know anything about the industry.

All a customer would need to know then is their usage in kWh, and that is on the bill.

 

Edited November 30, 2016 by SteamyTea

[daiking]

Just seen a comment on GBF about typical homes requiring 150kWh/m2/year and building regs requiring <52kWh/m2/year.

 

Jun 15 to Jun 16, gas consumption was 12.4kWh so were at about 95kWh for heating and hot water. I'll see how that settles down as we finish some improvements (insulation) and settle into more of a home routine.