Doubt it's the heating that has bumped it up, probably been running that 3D printer and big new lathe too much

Neil, I have sympathy, earlier this year I was in a similarly frustrating situation with a supplier from whom I was receiving both gas and electric, they were a nightmare to deal with insisted on email communication. I complained so much that they released me from the 12 month contract without charging their stated £30 penalty for each service, I returned to First Utility who I had been with previously ( in retrospect I should never have left them ) they are brilliant and you can speak with them over the phone, and they are very helpful in resolving any perceived issues. First Utility are I believe owned by Siemens, a well respected multinational, not some backstreet call centre who I had obviously made the mistake of using.

Dave W

Ah Neil

I’m pleased I’m not the only one pulling out my hair ( not that I’ve got much left to pull out!).

Now it SHOULD be easy. My meter is in a box just outside my front door and my spreadsheet to track bills etc has a line for the electricity meter reading – it takes a moment each day to read the meter and enter the figure into the sheet so I can give a very accurate usage of power at any time.

I recently changed my supplier to British Gas, who offered a “ Smart meter” which would give accurate bills – farewell to the daily meter reading I thought …….. no such luck! – it appears that they don’t work out in the wilds. It seems then that “estimated” bills will be the norm but I will supply a monthly reading and HOPE that works!

N

It's all done by the computer program. It works out the monthly payments and sends you a letter with no human intervention!

How is the info from the smart meter relayed to the supplier? Is it by the home owner's broadband connection, or is it via a mobile phone connection?

I think our smart meters use a mobile connection, they certainly aren't on either of my wireless networks, although they must have their own low-power network to provide regular updates to the display. The Hive control box is however on our (wired) network, but communicates with the thermostat and boiler controller using a low-power wireless connection, probably ZigBee.

Brian

They will always try to calculate so that you are paying more than they need to. I will guess that they don't pay interest on any over payment, they don't in this country, so they are earning interest on the surplus at your expense. Plus of course it is an unsecured loan from you, so if they go bust while they owe you money you are out of luck.

As far as direct debit payments are concerned, you should not allow anyone to have that sort of access to your accounts. You should only do the sort of payments where you have control over how much has been taken out and where it has gone. This means that when things go wrong, you can still buy groceries even if you have to sit in the dark and cook over a wood fire in the back yard.

John

Since joining this forum I've become a dreadful cynic. I reckon they make tariff calculations impossible to understand to create the illusion we're all getting marvellous deals from a competitive energy market! Sadly, buying gas these days reminds me of doing enforced remedial Algebra at school. Except doing remedial Algebra was more fun…

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 21/12/2017 21:03:01

Running white goods whilst your asleep doesn’t sound like a good idea to me.

**LINK**

Would not work in our village then as there is no phone reception on any network. To use my mobile I have to pay O2 extra each month to have a boost box connected to the ( very unreliable) internet, but it does not allow me to use the phone in my shed or in the garden due to range from the router.

Scottish Power even admit this when you question their phone operators, and then instantly drop the DD amount when you question the amount of interest that Scottish Power are making on your in credit account.