Energy costs

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kexon
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Energy costs

Postby kexon » Tue Jun 06, 2017 5:52 pm

Is anyone using or come across Europa Energy, they are offering the following.
20% saving on bills, just seems to good to be true, but I would love to be proved wrong.

By switching to Europa Energy you will benefit from..

· Low cost Energy
· Saving up to 20% on your bills
· 100% Green Energy
· Reducing Your Carbon Footprint
· Fixed Monthly Bills
· All Bills In English
· No Long Term Contract

El Cid
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Re: Energy costs

Postby El Cid » Tue Jun 06, 2017 7:40 pm

If you have less than 10kw then the prices are tightly controlled as the government subsidises an artificially low price. This means that the electricity companies have limited room to manoeuvre. Often the suggested discounts are based on an artificially high base price or only apply to the monthly fixed charge.

Check the figures very very carefully to avoid being conned into changing supplier.

It is entirely different if you are a heavy user. The base costs are not subsidised so they tend to be higher but there is real competition. My bills have gone down for the past three years.

Sid

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Re: Energy costs

Postby Gasman » Wed Jun 07, 2017 9:26 am

How do they guarantee 100% Green Eneergy??

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gerryh
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Re: Energy costs

Postby gerryh » Wed Jun 07, 2017 12:25 pm

Don't they send it down the green coloured wires?



No, I'm not being serious.
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Gerry
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kexon
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Re: Energy costs

Postby kexon » Wed Jun 07, 2017 1:54 pm

Now I'm on a crusade there is also a company called Iberswitch which claims to manage your account with energy companies switching companies for you when favourable . They do charge after initial switch.
Anyone used this company.
You may wonder why so many questions, well we were recently "put on" a smart meter and since the change my bills have increased markedly, even though I received an email saying that the recent increases would not effect me due to my plan with the company.

El Cid
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Re: Energy costs

Postby El Cid » Wed Jun 07, 2017 5:58 pm

It's basically a scam just charging you for what you can do yourself and taking a slice off every bill. Avoid like the plague.

You won't save much by changing as all the tariffs are state controlled and heavily subsidised by the government. That gives the companies little room for offering any significant discounts. Usually you will only get a discount on the monthly charge. Any discounts on the usage rate are probably based on giving you a higher basic rate on which they give the discount. Check the figures very carefully. I now use Iberdrola but as I am on a high usage tariff the whole charging structure is different. You could see what they are offering as their customer service is brilliant.

Sid

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Re: Energy costs

Postby kexon » Wed Jun 07, 2017 7:21 pm

Well that is interesting I am also with Iberdrola and they a currently driving me mad .
They have locked me out of my account currently being sorted but it is so slow, they don't seem to grasp the point.
They recently changed me over to the smart meter and my bills are significantly higher, they changed the billing from bi monthly to monthly so the difference is noticeable.
Maybe I should just be patient.

El Cid
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Re: Energy costs

Postby El Cid » Wed Jun 07, 2017 7:52 pm

I can't really comment on your experiences. I am in the Open Market, which is fiercely competitive. They have even given me a personal local account manager who keeps me informed of all offers and manages my yearly contract (which seems to get cheaper every year).

However, my monthly fixed charge is about €60 and the annual bill about €2500. For that I expect good service and I get it.

Sid

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Re: Energy costs

Postby TorreDelAguila » Wed Jun 07, 2017 8:30 pm

There have been a large number of reports of increased bills following a change of meter to 'smart'. It's always possible that this is not happening in practice, but that looks doubtful, given the numbers.

There should be no change in charges, assuming
- the customer remains on the same tarifff/plan
- the unit (kWh) costs have not changed
- the potencia charge (per day) is the same
- equipment rental charges (eg meter) are unchanged
- the energy consumption (total kWh and pattern of use (in the case of a dH tariff)) is the same.

All that is obvious.

I did ask Endesa's office (in Nerja) about these reports of increased bills. The member of staff acknowledged that there had been many of them, but offered this explanation:
Many of the old meters were ancient, and often under-read;
Many customers' use of power had increased over the years, and could sometimes exceed the power that the old meters could cope with, which again led to under-reading;
Installation of a new (smart) meter now resulted in the true energy consumption being logged and billed.

I am sceptical of all this.
Old meters (like new ones) are always accompanied by appropriately sized 'company' fuses, and meter max current handling is (so far as I've ever seen) always comfortably in excess of that.
ICPs (which were almost always installed) would trip out if maximum loading was exceeded.

It's possible, of course that the new smart meters are clocking up additional units. Possible. They're also remotely programmable, and are, to the best of my understanding, capable of being 'tweaked' to alter the energy logging, or the on/off times for cheap/valle periods or the time clock setting . . . any of which could operate in favour of the billing company. All I can say, from personal experience, is that isn't happening in our case - with our Enel smart meter, installed in February 2017 - because we have a calibrated check meter running as well, and the two sets of readings are within less than 0.5%.

So, larger bills - following a meter change - still aren't explained.
The figures on the previous and current bills need examining carefully, to see where the increased charge arises.

It's all not helped by, apparently, 60% of the Spanish population not being able to understand their electricity bills. With all due respect, that's no excuse for us here.
Last edited by TorreDelAguila on Thu Jun 08, 2017 1:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Energy costs

Postby Free at Last » Wed Jun 07, 2017 8:40 pm

When I had a smart meter installed, I monitored the consumption over a 3-month period, and was surprised to find that the recorded consumption increased by exactly 16kwh month on month, meaning that by month 3 it was 48kwh higher than it had been originally. Previously our energy consumption pattern had been very stable over a period of several years, as could be seen from the graphs on our electricity bills. We did have an ICP fitted before the smart meter was installed, and had not acquired any additional appliances nor varied our pattern of use. We weren't on the day/night tariff.

I complained to Endesa and the lady in the office did say she could understand my concern when she looked at our previous consumption history. They sent a technician to check the meter - he said there was nothing wrong with it, but oddly I wasn't charged for his visit which Endesa had told me I would be if the meter didn't prove to be faulty - and from the date of his visit the mysterious increases stopped. If I'd left it, I dread to think what the consumption would have amounted to after a year or two.

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Re: Energy costs

Postby Alcala Barry » Wed Jun 21, 2017 3:40 pm

On the subject of Energy Costs. Have just had an email from Endesa saying we are using 20% more power than a year ago - which makes sense as we are here more than last year. They also say that we are likely to be paying about €124 for our next two monthly bill. They also note that we have used 27KWh in the previous 30 day period.

This is for a 2/3 smallish house? Our biggest useage is an electric oven and in summer two a/c units?

Does this seem normal to any of you, or high/low?

Regards

Barry

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Re: Energy costs

Postby gerryh » Wed Jun 21, 2017 4:36 pm

My consumption in a small 2/3 bed house for an electric oven, washing machine, dish washer and water heating, light, TV, PC etc for last 2 month period was 921 kWh for €194.87 so your bill looks very reasonable to me.
Cheers
Gerry
Last edited by gerryh on Wed Jun 21, 2017 6:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Wicksey
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Re: Energy costs

Postby Wicksey » Wed Jun 21, 2017 5:16 pm

That makes my bills look small but I think an electric oven really uses the power (we have a gas cooker).

Our bill for the month ending 23 May was 39.40€ for 151kWh usage. I think this month will be much more as we've had the fans on 24/7 and the pool pump has been going on for 4 hours a day since we filled it in mid May. We do have electric water heating but it is so hot that we turn it down, and it's only on for about an hour and a half each morning now. Our PC is on much of the day when we are at home and we also have a dishwasher. Usage is higher in the winter when we have electric heating and can be twice what is was in May.

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Re: Energy costs

Postby Alcala Barry » Wed Jun 21, 2017 5:34 pm

Gerry and Wicksey

Thanks for the feedback. It does make me feel better. I was getting concerned that we were paying over the top.
Have to say though, that up to now, the service we have had from Endesa has been very good. Using their new App and it provides all of the info you need.

Gerry: Are you saying your bill of €194 was for 1/one month?
Wicksey: Your bill for €39/151KWh sounds good value.

Cheers

Barry

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gerryh
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Re: Energy costs

Postby gerryh » Wed Jun 21, 2017 6:29 pm

Barry
Bill was for a two month period.
Cheers
Gerry
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Re: Energy costs

Postby Alcala Barry » Wed Jun 21, 2017 8:05 pm

Sorry Gerry, misread that.
Makes a lot more sense of course.

Cheers

Barry

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Re: Energy costs

Postby Paulinmalaga » Wed Jun 21, 2017 8:27 pm

Is that your total bill Wicksey including potencia? If so it seems reasonable.....as my Potencia with Endesa alone is €20.75+iva per month (5.75kw)
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Re: Energy costs

Postby Flexo » Wed Jun 21, 2017 8:43 pm

Alcala Barry wrote:They also say that we are likely to be paying about €124 for our next two monthly bill. They also note that we have used 27KWh in the previous 30 day period.

This is for a 2/3 smallish house? Our biggest useage is an electric oven and in summer two a/c units?

Does this seem normal to any of you, or high/low?
For Spain it seems very low for a small house. Two AC units? Wow and still only 124 EUR for two months?

Typical spanish 80-100 m2 apartment is about 100 EUR per month if I remember it correctly. Of course spanish buildings aren't energy efficient in general.

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Re: Energy costs

Postby Alcala Barry » Thu Jun 22, 2017 8:56 am

Flexo

Have to admit that we don't have both AC units on all day, but certainly late afternoon/early evening.
Big problem here is in the winter. We have gas CH but it sure gets eaten up quickly. As you say, these Spanish houses have really poor insulation.

Regards

Barry

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Re: Energy costs

Postby Wicksey » Thu Jun 22, 2017 10:12 am

Paulinmalaga wrote:Is that your total bill Wicksey including potencia? If so it seems reasonable.....as my Potencia with Endesa alone is €20.75+iva per month (5.75kw)
We've only got 4.4kw potencia so that's charged at 14.39 € pm + IVA for the potencia, and the kWhs consumption was 16.67€ + IVA. We did get a 94 cents rebate last month so the bill should have been just over 40€ (there was a letter in with the bill explaining it ... I think they had previously overcharged and have been told to repay it to their customers). Since we've had a smart meter the bills have gone back to being monthly.

I think an electric cooker makes a huge difference as the oven and hob are very big users of power. Our cooker gas tank lasts us about 3 months so that's about 5€ a month, but I know most people prefer at least an electric oven, but I think that's the reason our usage and bills are generally very reasonable.


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