Electricity costs

[shannonlt]

I don't really know how this all works tbh. But I've seen articles saying there's supposed to be a cap at around 35p/kwh or so, yet mine is double this?
Can anyone advise where we're going wrong?

We're getting in some amount of debt with this now, especially as I'm on mat leave so reduced money. We're in a small, 2 bed electric flat and our bill is over £500/month - our electric bill is more than our rent!

Suppliers can have a higher day time rate if they have other lower rates - evens out.

You are an a split rate (economy 7 type), and are using most of your units at the higher rate.

What is the "control" rate for?

It looks like you're not on a standard tariff, with higher rates during the date and lower at night. Not sure what the ''control' bit is. Bit strange that it says you're on a standard tariff, yet there are multiple different rates. You also seem to have an estimated bill rather than one based on actual readings.

We were being charged for economy 7 (higher daytime rate) at the higher rate 24/7 despite being on a standard tariff and not having an economy 7 meter. A phonecall sorted it out and we were refunded hundreds of pounds from just a few months usage.

Someone has been coming out once a month or so to do readings then the bill gets updated on the app - usually end up owing more, tbh.

No idea what the control bit is. It's a really old meter I think, we can't submit our own readings at all because it's out dated and complicated.

Should I try moving to a plan that doesn't do different day/overnight rates?

Before I would just refuse to use the heating but the flat is really cold and now with a baby I try to keep at least the living room at a good temperature for him.

What type of heating system do you have?

And what hot water system?

If you have a look at the meters listed on the first page of this link the last one might be what you have

www.fife.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0021/90075/Tariffs.pdf

Do you have storage heaters? They're more suited for Economy 7 tariffs as the heaters charge overnight. If you don't have them you'd be better moving to a different tariff

Actually, slightly better link here from scottish power - there's a couple of variants which it could be

www.scottishpower.co.uk/energy-efficiency/energy-efficiency-toolkit/electric-heating

All of them are designed for storage heating, with control being your storage heater use - I think. Then you will have a cheaper rate overnight (might be 7, might be more if you're on the comfort plus version rather than the eco 7 version. Where you live will give you a pretty good idea as according to that link each of these tariffs is only available in certain place.

As above, you are on a split tariff so the cap doesn't apply in the same way.

But you are not using it to your advantage. Your heating and hot water should be running on the overnight rate, so this is usually storage heaters.

Washing machine, dishwasher etc should also be set to this.

But if you have other types of electric heaters that are not on overnight then they are very expensive to run.

Assuming you have an immersion heater for the water? This needs to run on the night rate.