On Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:12:09 -0700 (PDT) someone who may be snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote this:-
Clothes should still dry on the airer in summer.
On Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:12:09 -0700 (PDT) someone who may be snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote this:-
Clothes should still dry on the airer in summer.
because that room is substantially hotter in winter than in summer (intentionally so, via the radiator).
But most of the time we dry clothes on the line in the garden, which is a far superior way of drying clothes anyway. Even if it rains after putting the clothes out, we just leave the clothes out until it dries out again!
Given that our max electricity usage is about 15kWh per day for a 5 bed detached house, I reckon we're doing alright in comparison with most others here.
Our gas bill is another story though.....
Matt
And the aircon in your server room of course;)....
They issued bills in the first week of October with the new electricity rate starting from the 2nd September, which I promptly paid, then a few days later issued them again with the new rate change date being 2nd October meaning a reduction in the bill. The gas rates went up from 2nd October on the original bill and this has not (as yet) being reissued. I've had no separate notification by letter of the new rates.
As they haven't *officially* informed us they can't apply the new rates to our bils yet can they? Nothing on Aprils letter saying that written notification of future changes is being withdrawn.
In the Ebico T&C's:
Which doesn't help a lot... However:
So assuming a "notice" is required for a price change we should have had one. Bear in mind that I have two Ebico accounts, one notice getting "lost in the post" I could understand but not at least 3. Has any other Ebico customer had *official* notification of this October price change?
My next bill is due any day now. It will be interesting to see what it has on it. Without any official notification of a price change arriving before the bill I will be challenging it.
Don't care about retail gas prices those can go orbital. Not keen on the knockons from high wholesale prices on lecky bills though. My biggest concern is the crude oil price which I'm pleased to see is now below what it was at the beginning of the year.
I've been with them for 2 or 3 years now and I can't recall any notification from ebico of price changes prior to a bill arriving.
FWIW I've just compared EON's price with Ebico's, for Economy 7 electricity. We use 5 day units and 5 night units per 24 hours.
All prices include VAT and were taken from recent bills and websites:
EON have 225 Primary Day Units per quarter at 36.5p; Day units at
17.0p; Night units at 5.58p. Per quarter = £145.51Ebico have Day units at 16.61p, Night units at 6.92p. Per quarter £105.89
Saving per quarter with Ebico ~£40.
Doh! Who's a silly old Hector?
Using the correct VAT rate for EON, the saving is £24 per quarter in Ebico's favour.
On Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:56:41 +0100 someone who may be Terry Fields wrote this:-
Assuming both lots are current prices it is interesting that Ebico are a little cheaper than even the cheapest day units EON offer. Others have reported Ebico as being more expensive for these and thus more expensive for those using large numbers of units.
No surprise that Ebico are dramatically cheaper than the "we abolished the standing charge, yes really, would we lie?" units from EON.
35.6 - 17.0 = 19.5, a premium which is the hidden standing charge element. 19.5 * 225 = £43.88, which is the standing charge per quarter assuming one uses 225 or more units. That's a lot.
I got letters in April this year.
Apologies for posting half a load of rubbish; I had both prices to hand but the Ebico one was with VAT, so I added the (wrong) VAT rate to EON's prices.
Even so, 225 units at 32.55p instead of 15.15p (EON) is a hefty standing charge of nearly £40.
When the young lady from EON rang to ask why I was switching, I mentioned this point as being the major factor.
She astounded me by saying that she'd be telling lies if she said that this (Ebico) wasn't one of the best deals on offer. I hope she's still got a job....
In message , Colin Wilson writes
Their prices aren't all competitive for us.
We certainly aren't low users, esp. gas , even though we don't have the house esp. warm. (pretty big, Victorian detached house, solid walls, lots of single glazing etc.) Though we have cut it by about 50% from the old owners. When we moved in our gas supplier put us on a standard commercial (IIRC) tariff, we couldn't get the cheaper ones, Transco said that the consumption had been over the 88000 kWh (or whatever it was) per annum maximujm for the domestic tariffs - Eeek!
Does official 'notification' mean email/website-type notification, or should it be by a bit of paper snailmailed to you?
It would seem that electronic delivery of notifications is increasingly becoming the norm - although it would appear that emails sent to government-type bodies are totally ignored, as if they're some sort of gimmick. Or they're being lost in trains etc :-)
I'm sort of toying with the idea of looking at different energy suppliers. I'm with Scottish Power on their 'Online Energy - Standard' dual-fuel tariff; my consumption of gas varies from about 48kWh/day in the depths of (well, last!) winter to ca. 3kWh in summer. Electricity consumption is fairly constant at around 6-7 kWh/day.
It always seems odd that one's 'supplier' doesn't actually physically supply the gas/leccy, but just takes money from you...
On Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:35:06 +0100 someone who may be Frank Erskine wrote this:-
They put, or arrange someone else to put, gas or electricity into the system to match your consumption (or rather the consumption of all their customers). This is done, essentially, on an annual basis and no-doubt one of the ways they make things balance (in a book-keeping sense), is to make payments to other suppliers (which is a way of arranging them to put in).
If you don't like that arrangement then an alternative approach would be to average costs and charge everyone the same. Good luck in convincing the politicians that this sort of Socialist approach is a good idea.
I am not so sure tat it is annual at all.
At some levels, people are spot trading gas and electricity on a minute by minute basis.
No need for that.
However right now there is a huge difference between spot and cotract pricings.
Oil has fallen 50% in spot $ terms, in the last 6 months, but the pound has fallen 25% against the dollar..
If you want stable energy prices, build nuclear power stations.
Ebico's T&C's, previously quoted, mention email but not web. In my view an official notification needs to be some form of "push" feed rather than a "pull" one. That is a letter or email sent (pushed) to me, rather than me having to wander off somewhere to look (pull) *just in case* there has been a change.
You might find them hard to beat. I'm with them for the main (lecky only) account that consumes 20kW/hr/day +/- 2kW over the seasons.
It works in regular slots throughout the day (IIRC, 15 or 30 minute chunks). As a supplier, you commit to providing so many kWH during particular slots. If your plant fails, you still have to ensure that power is provided to the grid, so you end up paying someone else to do so, usually at some enormous price premium. Suppliers tend to keep an eye out for someone else unexpectedly falling off the grid and immediately jack their prices sky high so the failing supplier has no choice other than being fleeced by his competitors.
On Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:47:33 +0100 someone who may be The Natural Philosopher wrote this:-
With electricity after gate closure the market doesn't exist, rather the system operators are using balancing services (which they contracted from the market with a variety of payments). There is not an equivalent process for gas as it is not necessary.
Within the market of course businesses are trading things frequently, I never said otherwise. However, what is done on an essentially annual basis is the accounting.
Businesses make transactions all the time, however accounting is generally done once a year.
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