astronomical energy bill for building site - what to do

[SteamyTea]

1 hour ago, Omnibuswoman said:

There's also the whole gender thing to contend with

 

Apparently, every 15 minutes, someone in the UK has their head kicked in by a Dr. Martin boot.

So change.

 

To these.

And point out that you are going to be there for months.

 

 

Edited March 8, 2023 by SteamyTea

[Kelvin]

Yes the gender thing can be a challenge as my other half has found and she’s pretty tough. She in sales so has a way about her that wins people over. If you are direct with people but stay reasonable  I found it works better. 

[Carrerahill]

On 06/03/2023 at 18:15, Omnibuswoman said:

 

It just says that we will ensure that there is water and electricity on site for the build.

Does it mention welfare facilities? 

 

What if, for example, they had an electric van, and were charging it up, even at the normal 13A plug lead at 3kW solid all day? A line must be drawn in the sand.

 

I think power for a build and power for heating the welfare cabin could be deemed quite different. 

 

[Kelvin]

All of the groundwork for my site  has been done without a welfare hut. He has one and would have used if it was peeing down all day. It’s freezing up here too. The kit erection team don’t need one just a loo and the trades for the rest of the build have also said they don’t need one. In fact one of the guys said that if you make the site too comfortable folk get lazy. 

[Carrerahill]

On 06/03/2023 at 17:19, Omnibuswoman said:

Having found that Octopus can install a SMETS2 3 phase meter for us, in mid Feb we gave British Gas notice along with a meter reading. Imagine the shock when we received a bill for £1,500 (for electricity use since 3rd November when the work started). 

I think that Dan should know that the site has cost £1500 to run, I would raise it as a friendly comment, even give them the benefit of the doubt, albeit clearly not, that maybe they had left it on a couple of nights/weekends by accident and that the bill was £1500 could they check the heater was being used for lunch break only with maybe, a tea break.

 

They are being paid to work, not drink tea in a warm cabin. If this doesn't remedy the situation, you could also have the heater put on a timer locked away, a little boost 30minutes before site typically starts to take the chill off - they should arrive and start working, not have tea anyway, and then again 40 minutes just before and through lunch time. That should be plenty. If you had it hardwired and locked in so they cannot mess with it, and it is found to have been tampered with, then you can complain. 

 

Most of these guys would typically be happy to sit in their van out the cold!

[Dave Jones]

who provided the cabin ?

 

 

[Omnibuswoman]

36 minutes ago, Dave Jones said:

who provided the cabin ?

 

 

 

It's our workshop - we built it prior to the build commencing for welfare facilities (it has a tiny kitchen and a loo), and to store materials and tools.

[Dave Jones]

unfortunately another bad move. A site toilet is all thats needed. 

 

Trades shouldn't be leaving tools on site to get pinched, and if they do are you now liable for them as its your shed ?

 

All these little mistakes snowball.

[Omnibuswoman]

29 minutes ago, Dave Jones said:

unfortunately another bad move. A site toilet is all thats needed. 

 

Trades shouldn't be leaving tools on site to get pinched, and if they do are you now liable for them as its your shed ?

 

All these little mistakes snowball.

 

No, we're not liable - the site is insured by the builder, as per our contract, so it's his liability if anything is stolen from site.

[Carrerahill]

59 minutes ago, Omnibuswoman said:

 

It's our workshop - we built it prior to the build commencing for welfare facilities (it has a tiny kitchen and a loo), and to store materials and tools.

That was very decent of you, I would remind Dan of this facility, and incorporate the words, "fair use" into the conversation. This is a policy often used in holiday rentals for electric and free Wifi and all sorts, and it is just for these situation - I think you work out (I am happy to help you do a load analysis and work out a fair kWh per day rate) rate that they can use it, anything over that they must pay you for the electricity. That might solve things, if not, at least you get paid.

 

Let me assume you have a 2kW heater in there, if it was on for even 3 hours a day that would be 6kWh a day, so 168kWh - I think that could easily be halved for a non work-shy workforce, but leave it at that. Then there might be kettle boiling. If the kettle boils for over 1 hour a day then you need to start talking, so another 62kWh a month, running total: 248kW. Then I assume tool usage, this is a bit of a variable and I don't know what tools, if just charging power tools and the odd bit of corded saw or drill use - tops 2kWh a day, so another 62. Total: 310kWh a month. I think that is fair - they they are running a power tool a lot that is a heavy consumer, then maybe add a little more. What is that £100-125 a month depending on your tariff. 

 

The good news is, as they are your facilities you can configure the heating to suit if you need to.

 

Are you far from site? 

[Wumpus]

If it’s any help at all, our contractors use about 10kWh per day for everything, including the site office heating, kettle, power for tools etc. They are pretty good about switching stuff off when not in use and I am OK to pay for it. This is for a team of 2-6 depending on the day. It was a lot less in the summer of course.

[Omnibuswoman]

2 hours ago, Carrerahill said:

Are you far from site? 

 

Thanks for the figures - that's a very helpful starting point for when we speak to Dan about him meeting some of the exess cost.

 

Yes, we are 240 miles away, so are only visiting once a month on average for a long weekend. We were meant to go down this evening for a few days, but we both have covid so have had to postpone the visit.

[Carrerahill]

17 hours ago, Wumpus said:

If it’s any help at all, our contractors use about 10kWh per day for everything, including the site office heating, kettle, power for tools etc. They are pretty good about switching stuff off when not in use and I am OK to pay for it. This is for a team of 2-6 depending on the day. It was a lot less in the summer of course.

That lands pretty much dead on with my summary. Sounds fair.