Watching What We Use

We don't normally give the energy we use a second thought, apart from when a huge bill lands on our front door mat. Energy suppliers are often in the news for all the wrong reasons, with NPower and Southern Electric exposed recently for mis-selling. Indeed my relationship with my supplier has been a rocky one and we were forced last month to lodge a complaint with NPower which saw them admit they had mis-sold us our energy product last year. I have to admit that they were actually quite good about it and up front about admitting liability. They did pass us back to our old supplier Eon and refunded everything we had paid them during 2012.
Now were are back with Eon, there is a renewed focus on how much electricity we use and how much it is costing us.

We now monitor our usage thanks to a nifty little meter that sits on my desk, and our online account records and tracks each Kwh of electricity we use telling us if our consumption has gone up, or down. It even tells us our carbon footprint in miles driven by car - our last figure was 8,000.
I like this. I like to know what I am paying for and how much of it I am using. I also know how much electricity each appliance uses and I've been amazed at how much this can vary. For instance, I had always assumed that my three computers and two servers used a lot of electricity but my meter tells me that they don't - just 200 watts in fact.  On the other hand, our beast of a plasma TV uses 400 watts. Our storage heaters, designed to save us money, each use 1kw (1000w) of electricity when they are charging. We have eight of them throughout the house. Our electric oven draws 2kw of power each time it is used and boiling the kettle draws a further 1kw. It's been interesting these last couple of days going round and turning things on and off, not to mention a real eye opener. For the first time ever, there is a level of clarity to this thing called 'energy'. Our move to Eon has also revealed the fast that we have two electricity meters and that we have an 'Economy 10' system controlling our heating. Now I'd never heard of this - I'm familiar with Economy 7 and that's all.
Watching what we use certainly provides an incentive to keep everything to a minimum. Without wishing to turn into my father, it's all about maintaining a balance - keeping on the things that need to be and turning off the things that don't need to be. The magic figure I've settled on is 700w - this is the benchmark I use during the day and evening. There are spikes, i.e. when cooking and these are to be expected though anything above 2.5kw would be unusual.
In a way, I'm quite pleased for the hassle we had with NPower as the results have been very positive. I now have an excellent relationship with my supplier and I pay only for what I use. More importantly, I can see what I am using and when making it far easier to keep things under control.
Electricity just like any other product we buy should be quantifiable. We wouldn't go into a shop and pay for 100 eggs and only take 10, but that's what I've been doing for years - paying well in advance for something I may or not use. It's time things changed, and I'm happy I have.

An Onerous Transfer

As I thought, NPower's solution to our problem is to pass us back to Eon, the very people we had run from in the first place due to their crass incompetence. The process will involve NPower refunding the money we have paid them since joining in January of last year. They call it an 'onerous transfer'. Eon will then take over as our electricity provider and we will pay them anything we owe from the money accrued from NPower.
At the centre of this fiasco is our electric meter which, according to NPower, is quite unique and cannot be supported. I find it therefore pretty much a given that Eon will have the same problem and we'll before long be back in the same position as we are now. I expect you're thinking why we haven't asked for the meter to be changed. Well we have and this would cost more than we are worth so this is why NPower would rather get rid of us and pay back what we've paid them. How ridiculous this whole saga has been.
We now await a letter from NPower explaining everything and the prospect of having to go back to the supplier we had originally fallen out with.

NPower - Why, Thou May Have a Solution!

As an update to this little saga, NPower have called to tell us that they were in the wrong to sell us the product in the first place and that our meter isn't supported by them. There are two possible resolutions - either to go back to Eon with a cheque from NPower for the amount we've paid them to date or have our meter changed over to one they can support (which I don't think they want to do as this will cost them money in contractor charges etc.).

I have just had a conversation with the Complaints Department at NPower who's remedy for our problem (and complaint we have lodged with them) is to pass us back to our previous supplier Eon, who incidentally, were just as incompetent hence our reasons for selecting NPower in the first place, if that all makes sense.
Our basic argument is that NPower sold us an electricity supply contract last year promising us a monthly bill of £126. They told us this would not change and we would be consulted when this had to be reviewed. This was more than £50 less than we were paying Eon previously. We were reeled in.
Despite paying this, we have also incurred a debt of more than £800 in usage charges. We were informed of this at Christmas and on January 1st, NPower emptied our bank account to pay off some of this debt. This left us in arrears with our mortgage provider and our council.
Having spoken to them this afternoon, they now do not know when we joined them and have obviously been unable to retrieve the recording of the telephone call we originally had with their sales department. Their suggestion for resolving the problem is to pass us back to our previous supplier Eon. If this includes writing off the £800 in spurious usage charges, I'll be more than happy to do so, but I doubt it very much.
Apparently, according to Eon, we also have an Economy 10 meter. I had no idea there was 'Economy 10'. The only conversations we have had with Eon have been about Economy 7. Because of our 'odd' meter, we do not fit into any of their tariffs so we appear to be paying more than we need to. Why weren't we told about the meter right at the start?
I'm already preparing my letter for the Financial Ombudsman.

Thinking-Up Titles

I did think we would have to call off today's Group meeting as so few were able to attend. A combination of things were responsible for this morning's low turn-out and it was left to myself and two other group members to make the most of the time we had in the relative warmth and convenience of our venue.
Despite there being just the three of us, we did manage to while away the time talking about various issues that either troubled us, interested us or gave us cause for concern. In fact when we get going, we can often talk for hours.

I do seem to be in a better frame of mind today. The last couple of days have been quite stressful and I do feel as if things are settling down a little. There is still the complaint to deal with, currently residing with NPower but I'm hopeful we will be able to come to some kind of arrangement. Frankly, we'll have to.
I have been a little troubled by dreams. Mine are vivid and it's unusual if I don't dream each night. This is a side-effect of the Mirtazapine medication I am on and its sedative properties. The dreams are rarely joyful and positive experiences. Mostly they involve me being in some kind of office environment, often closed-in and suffocating. I am almost always in a position of varying responsibility but in almost all cases, I am responsible for something that goes wrong. This produces a strong feeling of guilt and failure that will often seep from my dream state into my conscious state and can stay with me for as much as a whole day afterwards.
I dare say those who as well as me believe in some symbolic connection between dreams and real life will agree that there is a link between the events in my sleep and failings in my past. This is pretty obvious. The clarity of the dreams and the real feelings they produce is something I find both interesting and troubling.

We are told we are heading out of the freezing weather period we have been experiencing here in the UK for the last couple of weeks. Here is the East, we are forecast to see a final parting gift tomorrow night of several inches of prolonged heavy snow which is anticipated to make Saturday morning 'challenging'. As with all forecasts, I tend now to take them with a large pinch of salt especially as we haven't seen anywhere near the amount of snow that has been forecast up to now. If it's as bad as the forecast predicts, I will post a photograph here on Saturday.

As I type this, shouts of excitement and schoolboy fun filter over my Herb Alpert and Friends LP. My son has his friend over to play and it sounds as though they are battling it out on the Wii ably refereed by my wife. I wrote of my 'wasted' trip to NHS Bracebridge Heath on Monday. It transpires that the meeting had been previously cancelled due to lack of interest but my original acknowledgement hadn't been passed-on to the organiser. The upshot is that I have received an apology and kind offer of reimbursement for my travel expense, which is nice. Despite the obvious clerical error, I do actually have tremendous respect for the people organising the meeting. The work they do and their motives for arranging the meeting in the first place are entirely Honourable. I have asked them to contact me when another meeting is arranged as they, like me, are keen that it should still go ahead. Any discussion regarding mental health services in Lincolnshire has to be a priority.

I'm quite looking forward to a few hours to myself tomorrow. I already plan to record an entry for my audio journal. I do though have a diabetic clinic appointment at 1.30 which I'm not looking forward to. My blood glucose levels are often a lot higher than they should be despite trying to maintain a low sugar diet. I think I may already know what the outcome will be.

It's strange. I find I can write about things very easily but the hardest part of maintaining a blog is thinking-up a title for each post. In fact, it often takes me longer to think up the title than it does to type the whole post entry!

My Moodscope score today is 51%

At the Mercy of NPower

I recorded my first audio journal of the year a little earlier. I was prompted to do so by something Richard Vobes spoke about on his Naked Englishman podcast. He remarked at how there is more detail carried in an audio journal than in a written diary or blog. He was referring I think to the tone of the voice and the emphasis given to words and phrases. In a way, I think he is probably right. I should record more audio journals, but I do find it a hell of a lot easier to type and I am constantly frustrated at not having enough quiet time for me to record them. I do find I have to be alone when I record them, but even then I seem to recall only the things that are in the forefront of my mind at the time. There are a great many spaces where I'm literally thinking of things that have happened recently or those things that are causing me stress or anxiety, as is often the case nowadays. I will certainly try to maintain regular recordings though I suspect that I will only be able to commit to them weekly.

I am often compelled to write when I become angered or frustrated by something. Normally it is a company or organisation, and more often than not, they have done me a dis-service or are demanding money. In this case, it is NPower and they have done both. We had an arrangement with them by which we would pay £167 a month for our electricity. We have only electricity here, no gas. Although a little higher than average, we were happily paying this. How shocked was I then to receive a bill from them asking for DOUBLE the £167 we had been paying and rather than asking if this is OK, they proceeded to take said sum of money from our bank account. This in effect emptied it and removed any possibility of me paying back the £255 I owe Lincolnshire NHS in respect of overpaid expenses. It is looking as if this will be the amount they will be asking for monthly, and there is simply no way we are able to afford it.
Rather than calling them today, my wife has taken the wise decision to put it off until tomorrow afternoon. I will be sending a strong letter of complaint and we have decided to cancel the direct debit arrangement we have seeing as they cannot be trusted to take only the agreed amount.
I suspect we are not the only ones struggling to pay their electric or gas bills. The media remind us of how more and more families up and down the country are slipping into 'fuel poverty'. I suspect we can now be counted among them.

As I write this, I see on my Twitter feed that Jessops has become the latest high street name to fall into administration. It is a shame of course but given the effect of digital technology over the last 10-15 years, it is no surprise that much of what they offered has become obsolete. In addition, the huge advances in technology have made photography something that anyone can do with ease. High quality cheap home printing has removed the need for large scale photo developing and forced die hard traditionalists into an expensive minority niche market. I am certainly one that laments the loss of traditional photography but I accept that technology is progressive and digital photography has brought with it huge benefits and advancements. The Internet has developed hand in hand with digital cameras providing a seamless connection between the medium and its audience. Indeed there are digital cameras which are now capable of wireless printing and of posting directly to Twitter and Facebook.
I suppose I am surprised Jessops have lasted this long, but I will always remember them for their friendly and knowledgeable staff, coupled with their ability to provide me with Ilford 400 ASA film, which I used during my brief venture into monochrome photography.

I mentioned previously that I would apply to be a writer for the Mass Observation project. Well this I did a couple of hours ago. I believe one of the topics currently is memories of photography, which is pretty apt given current events.
I did also apply to Silver Training to become a computer skills tutor. They emailed back an hour or two later stating that although I have the skills and knowledge to become a tutor, they do not currently operate in this area. They are keeping my details should this change. Worth a try I suppose.

A Misleading Provider, Olympic Predictions & A Fond Farewell

A pretty stressful week so far which has been dominated by a red reminder from our new electricity provider for the princely sum of £900. This was actually the first notification of any kind that we owed the money and following a call to them querying the amount where I was asked to provide a meter reading, we then received a revised bill for the ludicrous figure of £1,047!
I probably covered this some time ago, but we decided to switch to NPower due to EOn's inability to distinguish me at my address from my father at a completely different address. This persisted for some time and they managed to confuse the two accounts causing enormous stress. They weren't at all interested in retaining us as a customer so we jumped ship to NPower having been promised by them that they would provide a better service with lower monthly bills. How wrong we were, and instead of realistic charges, we were charged double. What's more, they didn't choose to inform us of these charges until now.
So following another stressful phone call yesterday by me (as the account is in my name), it has been agreed that we get moved to a lower tariff and the debt be added to the monthly payment in manageable amounts. Why they didn't put us onto a lower tariff right at the start I do not know. One thing's for sure though, they will be getting a letter of complaint next week, and if we aren't compensated I'll event be writing to the Ombudsman as this has to be tantamount to mis-selling. NPower... not a good advertisement for you, is it?

As we edge closer to the biggest event this country will ever hold, there are mounting concerns over security provision, traffic and transport concerns and the placing of missile systems in residential areas of London. I find it very had to accept any notion or guarantee that the event will pass without incident. I doubt very much whether anyone will attempt to disrupt the games purposely - I suspect our defences will be one of the few things we would have got right. Instead, I suspect that the event will fall foul to at least one of the following (assuming the weather doesn't ruin the whole thing)...

• Traffic congestion  & gridlocked roads.
• Overloaded public transport system and overcrowded stations.
• Failure of mobile phone networks due to overloading.
• Overloading of Internet services.
• Overcrowding and delays at airports.
• Flooding of road and rail routes affecting transit.

I don't wish to be pessimistic, but I really believe that the impact on our already stretched infrastructure have been hugely underestimated. I wonder how many of these I will be ticking?

Yesterday we held our first A&D Support Group meeting at our new venue, the IVO Centre in Spalding. I hadn't been there before and did have trouble locating it at first (due mainly to an upside-down map), but I was very impressed when I finally arrived. The facilities are excellent and we were able to spent the duration of our time there in the garden, a bonus considering the diabolical weather we have been suffering.
I have a feeling over time that our regular venue at the hospital will fall out of favour and that the preference will be to meet at our new venue. There was certainly a general view that we could all 'be ourselves' and not feel slightly intimidated and restrained by our use of NHS premises. In summary, it went well, very well and the atmosphere was a complete contrast to what we have been used to. The group was relaxed, at ease and unencumbered by their surroundings. I look forward to our future meetings there.

It's difficult to believe that the school Summer holiday period is to begin in a week's time. All over the country arrangements are being made for the six week period and many will be taking time off from work for breaks by the sea or at activity or caravan parks. A very lucky few will be off to foreign shores escaping our wet British Summer and the Olympics.

Many parents of school-age children received letters from Lincolnshire NHS this week explaining where their children sit on the Body Mass Index Scale designed to separate the fit from the Obese. We received one of these letters for our son. He scored 99 which places him at the 'Clinically Obese' level. There is nothing of him. OK, he has a little puppy fat, but that's all. He eats a balanced diet and he is healthy. I really don't think letters like this serve any real use other than to turn people against the government led 'nanny state' that is pervading more and more of our lives. Obesity needs to be tacked at source, namely the food industry. Allowing McDonald's and Coke to be major sponsors of the Olympic Games says everything about our government's commitment to tackling obesity.

Finally, it was so sad to hear that Eric Sykes had passed away this week. I'll always remember with fondness his gentle humour and unique talents, much of which is recorded for future generations to appreciate and enjoy as much as I have. Rest In Peace.