Utility Bills

It's not a good idea to let them view if you've bypassed the meter,....i'm not sure what the law states but sooner or later they'll have to come in and read it.
I wouldn't have a smart reader installed as they're probaly like the smart motorways.

 

You cannot refuse legitimate entry for the purposes of reading a meter. As far as I am aware, the supply industry agreed to a voluntary target (which came with penalties for failure) for installing smart meter readers but you are not legally obliged to have one fitted. As to your fixed tariff agreement, yes, it is a contract. Andy

 

Doesn't a fixed tariff just mean that they can't increase the price of a unit until the end of the term?

 

Have you checked their estimate against your readings though, they’ll usually go higher IME than the actual reading. You could be paying more than you need to it can work both ways.

It’s the cost per unit that counts not how many units you’ve used, you haven’t signed up to a fixed DD amount no matter the amount you use.

About 20 years I had to threaten my supplier with court to get my refund from overcharging, it was only £600 but I wanted it in my account not there’s.

You can refuse them entry for the purpose of a reading, I have in the past if I’m on my out.

 

Please dont abuse the meter readers. I did this when a student and you would not believe the abuse I got. I had to jack it in it was so bad. Im just a fuckin student trying to earn money ffs...

 

I pity the meter readers minimum wage and mostly being told to fck right off all day.

 

As others have said here, you're on a fixed price tariff until Feb 2024 and they can only change it if you fail to pay and run up a significant bill. Then they can remotely set you up as a pre-pay meter at an horrendous rate, don't give them the excuse to do that, you are in a very, very advantageous position with the price per unit you have locked in at present until Feb 2024.

Yours is a contract price per unit measured in kWh for both Gas and Electricity. Irrespective of the £125 you pay per month. You either provide a reading each month yourself and let them send a meter reader in to check it say every 6 months, or if you're incapable of reading it yourself then you can elect to have them come and read it for you regularly. Your choice. As has been mentioned earlier, you could well be in credit and the supplier has a duty to ensure that you don't get too far in arrears or in credit.

I'm guessing that your contract Gas charge is around £0.03 per kWh and Electricity is around £0.10 per kWh. I'm on a variable rate and today my gas is £0.0995 (approx 10 pence) per kWh and Electricity is £0.3259 (32.59 pence) per kWh this can change daily but has a price cap. This month we are using between 69-94kWh per day gas (£7-£10 per day), heating/hot water and gas hob cooking and between 10-20kWh (approx £4-8 per day including the standing charge) for electricity (wife's workshop IR heaters, lights, household appliances and oven cooking). As you can see I reckon this month my combined bill will be around £400 - the government £66 rebate = £333! I currently pay £225 per month, up from £190 per month this time last year when we didn't pay too much attention to how much energy we used.

Smart meters will be a good idea fitted before you come off the present tariff especially as they are talking about (but not flippin' doing too much about it unless you're an Octopus customer) of offering various tariffs at night for cheap electricity so you can run your high usage electricity machines - washing machine etc and get charged a lower rate - electricity has to go somewhere when it is on the Grid and so they need to sell it cheap... The smart meters take readings every 30 minutes on a private 5G network so then they know what you used and when. I have found them useful to cut my usage of electricity by ⅓ (finding zombie appliances and turning them off when not used) and my gas by ½ since last year - Nest ThermostatE smart thermostat helped me here together with another 150 mm of loft insulation (£800) to take me to 250-300mm.

For those out there interested in such things, search for a FREE App called "Loop" from your App Store for your phone. Once you give it permission, it will interrogate your smart meters for you, show you your daily usage of G & E, look at the aspect of your dwelling from Google Maps and give you an indication of how much you could cut you electricity spend with Solar Panels fitted, if you can find a fitter who's not overwhelmed. The ROI on them is close at the moment, but I would love to reduce my dependency on the Electric suppliers, move from a gas boiler to a heat pump, heat my hot water and store electricity for cold days either from the panels or cheaper overnight grid electricity. Its a fair capital outlay which I can take from my private pension, close to £15K for me, I won't see a capital return but as an 60 year old, it reduces my monthly outgoings which suits me as I get older.

 

Thanks. Very useful to use to understand the energy ratings of devices.

 

I’m on variable and pay by standing order which my supplier doesn’t seem to like very much.

I’m pretty far in credit. In two months I’m a few hundred quid in credit. My dads the same, nearly 2 grand !! in credit and my monthly bills aren’t bad at all. He gets 5% on his with ovo as well Which is why he hasn’t stopped overpaying.

it seems those on DD are getting shafted, but nearly everyone I speak to is in credit, some by pretty striking amounts as well.

I’m convinced they’ve cocked up the averages. I reckon they’ve lumped everything in to one data set (domestic and commercial) which has massively over estimated the usage for many households. I’m nowhere near what my supplier said I’d use and I’ve had the heating on A LOT.


Amongst friends and family alone, the amount we are in credit is pretty astonishing. I can see the energy firms getting in shit over this when and if they have to pay it all back.. Ofcourse they’ll be getting a handsome interest rate on the money held you can bet…. Suspicious ..