Electricity cost - is this normal?!

[Derri]

Hi,

 

I have an official residential mooring, where I have been for a couple of months. Recently, I thought to enquire about our electricity cost.

 

It is 10p/unit

22p/day 'availability charge'

7.50/quarter 'standing charge'

 

I worked it out and this means that although our electricity usage comes in at under £3/month, the other charges are about a tenner a month!!

 

Is this sort of fleecing legal/normal?!

 

It's more than I used to pay on my share living in a four bedroom house...

[wrigglefingers]

Hi,

 

I have an official residential mooring, where I have been for a couple of months. Recently, I thought to enquire about our electricity cost.

 

It is 10p/unit

22p/day 'availability charge'

7.50/quarter 'standing charge'

 

I worked it out and this means that although our electricity usage comes in at under £3/month, the other charges are about a tenner a month!!

 

Is this sort of fleecing legal/normal?!

 

It's more than I used to pay on my share living in a four bedroom house...

 

Good question - in principle, electricity re-sellers are only allowed to add a small charge to the electricity costs to cover any maintenance fees they incur. In practice this seems to be difficult to enforce as the general attitude is if you don't like it you welcome to moor elsewhere.

 

I pay £1.50 for 4.8 units of electricity and our bill for very light usage can top £60/month in winter. The main culprit is the fridge.

 

Shep

Edited June 17, 2008 by wrigglefingers

[Strads]

We are on a BWML and all we pay for is the electric card - ( 8.60 ) from memory, but that was a rise from 6.80 last oct)

 

the rest i assume they get back in the mooring fee...

 

 

Unfortunately if its in the contract and you accepted then your pretty much in for those charges -

Do they have a break clause / renewal date - You might be able to "negoiate" on some points but they hold the whip hand..

 

more importantly is the electric connections sound and checked annually etc for rcd etc

[bottle]

See post #2

[Greybeard]

It could be worse..............

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/jun/1...ed=networkfront

[Bones]

Good question - in principle, electricity re-sellers are only allowed to add a small charge to the electricity costs to cover any maintenance fees they incur. In practice this seems to be difficult to enforce as the general attitude is if you don't like it you welcome to moor elsewhere.

 

I pay £1.50 for 4.8 units of electricity and our bill for very light usage can top £60/month in winter. The main culprit is the fridge.

 

Shep

 

Is it worth getting a different more efficient fridge? I was on electrical hook up for a while and my fridge was about 6pounds a quarter.

[nbtafelberg]

Bones

 

I suggest a solar panel my dear! Although I have 4 I have an electric fridge and its pretty much served by the solar panels.

[Bones]

Bones

 

I suggest a solar panel my dear! Although I have 4 I have an electric fridge and its pretty much served by the solar panels.

 

I have one. It was before I had one. I don't have hook up now. I only have one - 80W. I think I need a wind generator for the winter though - just to use the fridge for those ice cubes!

Edited June 17, 2008 by Bones

[Derri]

I have one. It was before I had one. I don't have hook up now. I only have one - 80W. I think I need a wind generator for the winter though - just to use the fridge for those ice cubes!

 

 

As we are trying to run as much as possible through the inverter / charger (Studer 1000w pure sine inverter charger) and use 12v and as we really use very, very little elec altogether, how realistic is it to think about getting some solar panels to trickle charge everything and unhooking from mains electric altogether?

 

By my calculation, we only use about 35 units per month!

 

Also, on a 39x12ft boat, the roof is huge - could get a lot of solar panels on that!

[Bones]

As we are trying to run as much as possible through the inverter / charger (Studer 1000w pure sine inverter charger) and use 12v and as we really use very, very little elec altogether, how realistic is it to think about getting some solar panels to trickle charge everything and unhooking from mains electric altogether?

 

By my calculation, we only use about 35 units per month!

 

Also, on a 39x12ft boat, the roof is huge - could get a lot of solar panels on that!

 

No idea. Even though you say you only use 35units a month, I think that is far more than I use so I can't help you. I dont use an inverter. I have a radio which I rarely use unless the batteries are charged up and I don't want to play my own music. The water pump seems happy on my solar panel, as does the fridge. My lights are only ever on one at a time, sometimes two at a time and they use 1amp ish and I am working on getting more efficient lighting.

 

Clevett might be able to help out though!

Edited June 17, 2008 by Bones

[John Orentas]

I am fairly certain that there is a legal upper limit on the mark-up that can be charged on electricity prices, don't know what it is though so I'm not much use.

[Ex- Member]

It is 10p/unit

22p/day 'availability charge'

7.50/quarter 'standing charge'

 

I would suggest the prices you're being charged are extremely reasonable, we have a large warehouse and quite a heavy user and the best deal we can get is 8.9p per unit. The standing charge costs are very reasonable also, we pay more than that at home at the moment. The availability charge is really the only over and above cost, but it's not all that bad considering the marina would have to pay to install meters and maintain the system. We have a boat on dry land with a 240 volt supply, I'll check what were being charged for that, I'm sure from memory it was a lot dearer than yous though.

[StoneHenge]

You could always not use the fridge in winter too. We don't. We have an outside cooler which does the job just as well, as we buy everything pretty much fresh, so nothing needs the freezer. There are some really easy to make outdoor fridges you can slot into gaps in the bow or stern if you have room.

 

That would save a lot of leccy. We only had to top up the batteries once every 3 days during winter, whereas we need it at least once a day now with the fridge and running a laptop etc. We would get loads more too if the little sods hadn't broken our solar panel.

 

I really really miss it in this weather!

[wrigglefingers]

Is it worth getting a different more efficient fridge? I was on electrical hook up for a while and my fridge was about 6pounds a quarter.

 

According to the nice people at Shoreline, it is! I've put the pesky little blighter on a timer now - 6 hours a day seems to suffice at the moment and don't bother in winter. I'll look into solar panels but I'll need some help with that. What's really frustrating though is that our marina mooring is directly under a pylon. Now let me see ..... just a cable up here and one over there .............. zzzzzstz ________________________________________________________________________________

__

[Guest]

I am fairly certain that there is a legal upper limit on the mark-up that can be charged on electricity prices, don't know what it is though so I'm not much use.

There certainly was when I used to work for the one time "Leccy Board." Don't waste your time trying to bring any scammers to justice though; nobody gives one in reality.

[Lingy]

Blimey my current bill is around £112 a month in my house ...

[blackrose]

I am fairly certain that there is a legal upper limit on the mark-up that can be charged on electricity prices, don't know what it is though so I'm not much use.

 

When this came up last time we found out that anyone distributing electricity isn't legally allowed to mark it up at all and can only charge what they pay their supplier. However, a nominal charge to cover the distribution infrastructure is permitted. Consumers are also legally entitled to view the distributors electricity costs to see what they are paying.

 

There are some pdf documents around which explain the rights of people who are prepaying for their electricity but I'm afraid I don't have them to hand.

 

As a guide, BW charge us 8p/kwh

 

Edit: Try these

 

http://www.energywatch.org.uk/uploads/Maxi...esale_Price.pdf

 

http://www.energywatch.org.uk/uploads/Usin..._up_to_date.pdf

 

And the main page: http://www.energywatch.org.uk/publications...flets/index.asp

Edited June 17, 2008 by blackrose

[bottle]

Edit: Blackrose beat me with his edit.

Edited June 17, 2008 by bottle

[Lady Muck]

We were lucky - our boat already had two solar panels and a wind genny when we got it - I've estimated we spend £10-£12 a month this time of year, we even use a tumble dryer!

[Roger Gunkel]

We pay 23p per Kwh for ours from a slot meter and as we are halfway down an overloaded spur, our electricity particularly in the evenings and weekends is normally less than 200volts and in the winter much lower.

 

Roger

[Derri]

We pay 23p per Kwh for ours from a slot meter and as we are halfway down an overloaded spur, our electricity particularly in the evenings and weekends is normally less than 200volts and in the winter much lower.

 

Roger

 

 

Looking at the legal stuff, it looks like there's not much we can do. I guess 10p/unit isn't a mark up and that's not what's costing us anyway - it comes to about £3-4/month. It's the 'standing charge' and especially the 'availability charge which add another £10 to our bill each month!!! And if the mooring operator is saying these are admin-type fees, they're not legislated. Besides, if we complain, what's to stop him deciding to charge an extra £20/month for moorings instead? Or telling us to hop it?!

 

We would be better off paying 23p from a card meter, as it is still less than what we pay in all these 'extras'!!!

 

I guess the thing that really galls me is that lowering our usage doesn't help as it is already so low and we STILL pay the same £10/month in fees. The only thing I can do to reduce my sense of outrage is to think about getting solar panels etc to run the fridge (the only thing using any decent amount of electric) and coming off the shore power completely in the future.

 

Bah.

[Bones]

Looking at the legal stuff, it looks like there's not much we can do. I guess 10p/unit isn't a mark up and that's not what's costing us anyway - it comes to about £3-4/month. It's the 'standing charge' and especially the 'availability charge which add another £10 to our bill each month!!! And if the mooring operator is saying these are admin-type fees, they're not legislated. Besides, if we complain, what's to stop him deciding to charge an extra £20/month for moorings instead? Or telling us to hop it?!

 

We would be better off paying 23p from a card meter, as it is still less than what we pay in all these 'extras'!!!

 

I guess the thing that really galls me is that lowering our usage doesn't help as it is already so low and we STILL pay the same £10/month in fees. The only thing I can do to reduce my sense of outrage is to think about getting solar panels etc to run the fridge (the only thing using any decent amount of electric) and coming off the shore power completely in the future.

 

Bah.

 

The computer probably uses a reasonable amount too, and do you have a TV? Yuu could get a more economical fridge? If your usage really is so low, then you should be able to run everything on a solar panel, but be wary!

[smileypete]

22p/day 'availability charge'

 

This sounds like some sort of VAT wheeze.

 

If it's part of the eleccy charges it gets 5% VAT.

 

If it was added onto the mooring charges instead it gets 17.5% VAT.

 

So to charge 22p/day more for mooring instead would cost either you or your landlord more.

 

cheers,

Pete.

Edited June 18, 2008 by smileypete

[Collectors]

We pay 23p per Kwh for ours from a slot meter and as we are halfway down an overloaded spur, our electricity particularly in the evenings and weekends is normally less than 200volts and in the winter much lower.

 

Roger

 

Hi, if you voltage is dropping to around the 200volt mark, I would be careful about damaging certain appliance. (Motors are not a lover of this). The other problem with this sort of volt drop is that it will increase the amperage being drawn & presumably increase the cost of your bill being that is is worked out on the amperage being used. IE: the lower the voltage the higher the cost through a bad supply. ????

 

Just a thought.

 

 

Chris.

[Nickhlx]

Hi, if you voltage is dropping to around the 200volt mark, I would be careful about damaging certain appliance. (Motors are not a lover of this). The other problem with this sort of volt drop is that it will increase the amperage being drawn & presumably increase the cost of your bill being that is is worked out on the amperage being used. IE: the lower the voltage the higher the cost through a bad supply. ????

 

Just a thought.

 

 

Chris.

 

 

I thought the meters logged power used, not voltage or current .... although it should be within a certain voltage range I imagine.

 

Nick