Am I paying too much for my home energy (UK)?

Theatreman

I am asking this before going through the tedious task of giving my details to comparison sites, just would appreciate your opinion:

Me and my wife live in a three bed semi. There are only the two of us here. The house has Gas central heating - running for about 10 hours per day, the house is double glazed, we have entirely energy saving lamps in the house. The cooker has gas hobs and an electric oven, the oven is used every night, and we have a tumble dryer used about 4 times per week, and we also have a 9Kw electric shower - this is used twice a day.

We currently pay £160 per month by direct debit and this covers both gas and electric combined. I regularly give the company up-to-date meter readings, but I can't help thinking this is a lot to pay each month - I hear of families on the TV complaining about £100 per month.

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about what I pay, I think I use a lot of energy - I refuse to be cold!. I am more curious than anything.....What do you use - am I using a lot of energy compared to you?. Perhaps my meter is faulty?.

If you could perhaps shed some light on what you are paying to see if I pay too much.

Thanks.

Mrs_Thrify

Um.... I hate to say this but YES.
10 HOURS OF CENTRAL HEATING A DAY, it sets alarm bell ringing. Our C.H. is not even switched on yet!
Oh just to add... I am not cold, it is 70F/20C in my house.

gazza975526570

When you say your CH is on 10 hours - is it really working for 10 hours?

If they are up to date readings then yes you are paying far far too much

Mi_bargains

Sounds too high to me, go to https://www.uswitch.com/gas-electricity/ they dont seem to ask for that much personnel info

1carminestocky

You'd be amazed how much leccy that shower uses (or maybe not, lol). That costs over £1 per hour to run! If you are the type to luxuriate under it for 30 mins each that's £365 per year in leccy charges just for the shower!! We have a rule in our house now (10.8kw shower!!): Get showered in 10 mins max or have a bath.

Woby_Tide

with 10 hours of central heating I'm surprised you use the hob at all, you could probably slow cook most things by leaving them on the kitchen sides...;)

Bobjob_2

As I've found recently to my cost, it's impossible to say unless you collect actual annual usage info from your meters and enter that into uswitch or whatever. This is the only way to get a really accurate fix. If you rely on your supplier's calculation of your direct debit you are open to all kinds of error, not least their tendency to overestimate deliberately so you are always paying too much. My house is similar size and appliances and my DD has just been revised to £128 per month.