Struggling Connel mum sees energy bills triple
Even before energy prices rocket up in April, a struggling family in Argyll faced a ‘horrific’ £1,000 bill - three times more than normal - after a ‘cheaper’ heating system was installed in their ACHA home in November.
The mum, who is working two jobs, lives with her son and husband, an HGV driver, in a three-bedroom house in North Connel, where Argyll Community Housing Association (ACHA) wanted to replace the old storage heaters with new air source heating, a system shown to be more efficient and cheaper.
The air source heating, which transfers heat absorbed from the outside air to an indoor space, was installed three months ago, on Wednesday
November 24, by energy supplier Bulb, who she said were ‘very good’.
‘The first few nights it was costing us £18 a day,’ she explained. ‘We thought it was a tweak in the system. We phoned Bulb two days after it was installed. They said they needed to change from two tariffs to one tariff. They had no engineers to change the meter.’
In the three months since the heating was installed, the energy bill has been £1,000 so far, she said. ‘It’s a pre-paid meter, so I have already paid that. We were £30 per week before this was installed. It has tripled.
‘It is not the system – it’s the energy supplier that’s the problem. They keep saying it’s the pandemic. That does not sort my problem. Who is going to reimburse me?’
She says it is a ‘struggle’ for her family. Her husband is ‘cracking up’ at the amount of money going out.
‘But what are you going to do? I am behind on the rent. Financially, it is horrific.’
A spokesperson for Bulb said: ‘We haven’t handled her case well and we’re sorry. We’ll urgently replace her meter and investigate why her electricity use has increased so much recently. In November 2021, the housing association that manages her home replaced her energy storage heaters with air source heating. After that, she contacted Bulb because her energy bills were increasing.
‘We recommended installing a new meter that was better suited to the new heating system, as well as changing tariffs. Unfortunately, we’ve been unable to book an appointment to replace the meter because of a shortage of engineers.
‘Based on her energy use, she would have saved £135 if we’d installed a new meter in November and switched her tariff. We’ll send this to her, as well as £30 in compensation to say sorry.
‘We’re also going to investigate why her energy use has increased so much recently. The best way to do this is to install a new meter and monitor her usage. If her energy use drops when the new meter is installed, it may be that the old meter was faulty. If so, we’ll reimburse the difference. We understand this is a difficult time for her and her family and we’ll work as fast as we can to get to the bottom of it.’
ACHA’s chief executive Alastair MacGregor said: ‘The heating system was installed on November 24 by our contractor as part of the Warm Homes project.
‘There is an issue with the meter and therefore the tariff, which is unfortunately out of our control.
‘The customers will be on an energy seven tariff, which needs to be changed by their energy supplier. We have been monitoring energy usage and the unit is operating as we would expect.’
‘We haven’t handled her case well and we’re sorry...Based on her energy use she would have saved £135 if we’d installed a new meter in November and switched her tariff.’