45mins on the phone to OVO

[gaz1]

This is why I won't have direct debit or a smart meter, I pay quarterly cash, they can't take more than I owe them. It might cost about £5 a quarter to pay cash but I think it's worth it for being in control.

same this side but we cant have the direct debit tarrifs as you need to use direct debit so the nergy companies say

its a big con between all the energy companys and to be honest its really unfair for many users out there

it should be one tarrif for all wether you have direct debit or are using a prepayment meter or a standard meter

 

[Kayos]

all washers now are cold fill only single pipe

Last one I fitted with a hot feed had some pointless steam setting

 

[bricol]

all washers now are cold fill only single pipe

Miele and Ebac do hot water connection machines.

 

[bricol]

Trouble is depending where your boiler is fitted in relation to it your washer, it will still fill with cold water before the hot water gets through to it.

From the ebac site - while it takes some cold water, its not full of cold water":

Let’s take the case of a washing machine that uses 20 litres for the initial hot wash (the subsequent rinse cycles will all use cold water). If your washing machine is ten metres away from the hot-water cylinder, then the volume of standing water in the feed-pipe is only 1.3 litres for a 15mm copper pipe, or 2.8 litres for a 22mm pipe (the figures for plastic pipes are even lower, as they have smaller internal diameters). By far the greatest amount of water entering the machine will be pre-heated hot water from your cylinder. Even with a combi boiler (where a boiler-full of cold water might have to run off before the hot water flows through) there will still be a saving.

 

[bricol]

I fitted a combisaver a few years ago - really pleased with it.

CombiSave - Thermostatic Restrictor Valve | Teddington

An Award-Winning British Innovation That Reduces The Amount Of Water And Gas Used In The Initial Heating Process, The Combisave Thermostatic Restrictor Valve Can Be Fitted To Almost Any Combination Boiler To Save You Money And Time.

teddingtonsystems.co.uk

 

[bricol]

I simply emailed my supplier (Octopus - I was forced to them when mine went bust a couple years ago - I've not got any complaints) and my mum's (British Gas) to ask to be swapped from a fixed direct debit to variable. Simply pay the bill in full, whatever it is. Octopus apologised for taking two days to do so

Getting my mum onto direct debit (as she was also an inventor of problems with DD) saved her a decent amount compared to paying by cheque.

 

[Kram]

The funny thing is that, with inflation, strikes and all this other nonsense going on, market gas prices are now back down to pre war levels as Europe has finished panic buying for winter. Fuel prices have been the main driver of inflation and recently have gone down a lot.

Regulator should be lowering prices now

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

all washers now are cold fill only single pipe

I think the idea was that you/I fit a blending valve so the water is blended up to 40 C before it's fed into the "cold" feed on the machine....saves the electricity the machine would use to get the cold coming from the main up to temperature. 40C is probably the highest I'd want taking to account a cold wash temperature I'm guessing.

 

[Keithmac]

I fitted a combisaver a few years ago - really pleased with it.

CombiSave - Thermostatic Restrictor Valve | Teddington

An Award-Winning British Innovation That Reduces The Amount Of Water And Gas Used In The Initial Heating Process, The Combisave Thermostatic Restrictor Valve Can Be Fitted To Almost Any Combination Boiler To Save You Money And Time.

teddingtonsystems.co.uk

Looks a great bit of kit, I always open hot tap 1/8th turn until our Combi gets up to temp, seems to warm up a lot faster.

 

[Greeves246]

Quite happy being £500 in credit with OVO as they pay 3% on credit balances deducted from bill.

 

[bricol]

Looks a great bit of kit, I always open hot tap 1/8th turn until our Combi gets up to temp, seems to warm up a lot faster.

That's exactly what I used to do.

Now the other half spends a lot of time here, I needed something to do it for her too

 

[MetalMonkey]

I think the idea was that you/I fit a blending valve so the water is blended up to 40 C before it's fed into the "cold" feed on the machine....saves the electricity the machine would use to get the cold coming from the main up to temperature. 40C is probably the highest I'd want taking to account a cold wash temperature I'm guessing.

Might be worth buying an in-line electricity usage meter and seeing what a wash actually uses before going to too much effort.

We have a fairly old machine and on a 40 degree cycle even with our current extortionate tariff it was only costing 3p - 4p per wash.
I was expecting it to be a real energy hog, but apparently not so much...

 

[Keithmac]

The Tumble Drier is the real killer, we haven't used ours at all since electricity went up..

 

[Arc Tourist]

OVO are "still sending" both my Wife and I separate bills for the same account number. Even though the bill has been paid, we are getting notice of in the arears for the duplicate bill. Phoned a couple of times, each waiting close to an hour, but to no satisfaction; the duplicate bills are still arriving.

 

[mike os]

OVO are "still sending" both my Wife and I separate bills for the same account number. Even though the bill has been paid, we are getting notice of in the arears for the duplicate bill. Phoned a couple of times, each waiting close to an hour, but to no satisfaction; the duplicate bills are still arriving.

So what you do is cancel both dd with the bank and wait for them to contact you

 

[Kayos]

OVO are "still sending" both my Wife and I separate bills for the same account number. Even though the bill has been paid, we are getting notice of in the arears for the duplicate bill. Phoned a couple of times, each waiting close to an hour, but to no satisfaction; the duplicate bills are still arriving.

Tag them on LinkedIn, you will get a generic response but they hate it and usually sort things quickly

 

[Arc Tourist]

So what you do is cancel both dd with the bank and wait for them to contact you

Thankfully we are Not on direct debit with OVO.

 

[mike os]

Thankfully we are Not on direct debit with OVO.

In that case refuse to pay both until they rectify… inform in writing with a copy to ombudsman. Claim they are fraudulent

 

[Morrisman]

We have been trying to get with octopus for a few years but they won’t take anyone on for the last few years.

Octopus have just taken over control of Bulb, so good to hear they are a decent company.

 

[Morrisman]

So what you do is cancel both dd with the bank and wait for them to contact you

My daughter tried to set up a direct debit monthly for her gas, but they told her she had to wait three months to get the full first bill before they could do that. That was in September.

Last week they asked her for a meter reading, and the web page tells her the last reading..... which is 50 cubes higher than the current reading.

Her meter reads in cubic feet. She has put the actual meter reading in twice, and they don't believe her, and have now asked for a photo of the meter.

She moved in to the place in September and both her and the rental agency took readings, so lord knows where BG got this far higher reading from.

Unless the previous tenant did it as part of some gas price scam.......