Slow cooker power usage? Any one know?

[crosser62]

Empower have told my elderly mother that her electricity bill has to go up by £120 a year because of her slow cooker usage which is probably every other day.
She uses it as she thinks it’s too expensive to use the oven which is gas.

I read that slow cookers use the equivalent of a light bulb usage.
This can’t be right can it?

Not sure but I think it’s another year or so.

I would have a look at the contract , if they agreed to a set price in it then they have broke the terms of agreement and your mam may be able to cancel the contract

The tariff will likely be the same but they think she may use more energy so they want to increase the payment

If she was £150 in credit in May, she should be even more in credit now, unless they've set the DD unrealistically low, as it's designed to smooth out summer and winter variations and it's not just heat we use less of in summer but light too as it's not dark as much.

Have they used the meter readings they've been sent? Npower tried to quite aggressively take me to court for non payment but the reason I hadn't paid was they wouldn't send me a correct bill.

They were the supplier when we moved into our current house, but we switched straight away, because they're arseholes and expensive ones too, so they supplied us for about a fortnight, which was why I wasn't paying their £300 bill.

When I finally got a correct bill, after talking to a very nice man in the complaints department who was rightly sympathetic and weary about the levels of incompetence that his employers could stoop to, it was about £40.

Op is your dm's eyesight ok? It's just that, my fil was providing meter readings and sse said they were increasing his electric by £30 a month, to a price much higher than our 6 person household. We recently went to visit and I read his meters, hes now £456 in credit!! He had misread a number

She got the guy fitting the smart meter to read it for her. They couldn’t fit the smart meter because her meter is extremely old and two of them have been 5 months apart and told her they cannot change to smart meter.
He read both gas & lecky for her so she sent them straight away.

When was the last meter reading done? So its a normal meter, not a smart meter?

Why doesn’t she claim pension credit?

Look at the bill
It will have a daily KW rate for electricity
It will have a daily rate for gas
Some companies have a standing charge per day too

I only have electricity
I have a day rate per KW
I have a night rate per KW which is cheaper

You can put this info into comparison sites & find a cheaper deal

If she has a smart meter or can provide the power company with manual meter readings, she should pay less

I'm with Bulb electric, it's the cheapest for me
I provide my own meter readings regularly on line

She should be able to move to another supplier, but they will probably charge an exit fee of £30

You don't need broadband to have a smart meter fitted

Some power companies will let you phone them with a regular meter reading, if there customer has no internet access, otherwise the company will estimate for the customer

Try www.energyhelpline.com

www.simplyswitch.com

www.ukpower.co.uk

To find cheaper tariff

Does your DM receive winter fuel allowance ?

She could also try making where she lives less draughty, so things like loft insulation (you can get grants look on internet), curtain over door, thick curtains at windows etc for the winter

Have a think about all the questions below to make the best of her budget.

Does she claim all the benefits she is entitled to? Pension credit? Attendance allowance? Housing or council tax benefit?

Does she own or rent? Is she entitled to any grants to improve her heating efficiency?

Is her property appropriate to her needs and if not is there any chance of her moving or downsizing?

Many older people remain in properties too large for them and they struggle to heat and maintain them and the council tax takes a big chunk out of a small income.

If she owns her home and wants to stay in it, she should look at using some of the value to supplement her income. Lifetime mortgages are nowhere near as bad as they used to be and it is madness sitting on a large asset and not being able to put the heating on.

The winter fuel allowance plus the extra £140 is quite a chunk towards an average power bill even when the heating is on so it really should be possible for her to afford to use it without worrying or having to go to bed in the early evening to stay warm.

I'm just in the process of swapping from N power to save about £250. I went through a cash back site and 'U switch' so I'm getting £30 from that as well.

It's worth putting the figures in a comparison site to see what she can save. There might be an exit charge to leave N Power but if she can save more than that then it will be worth it.

U Switch allows you to search just the providers that offer the warm homes discount and whether it's only offered to the core group.

He read both gas & lecky for her so she sent them straight away.

Definitely room for error there (him not your mum).