Is this a Crazy gas bill? What to do?

MrsMC_4

Please help! We moved into a rented house on 21st Nov and have received a gas bill for 21/11/2005-29/12/2005 for £245 for basically 1 month!

Some details:

Meter readings appear to be accurate - and are continuing at the same level (9 imperial units per day)

6 bed house - edwardian and not very well insulated BUT we are just a family of 2 plus baby and shut doors and turn off radiators in 3 of the bedrooms and the living room during the day

I am at home all day with baby so we have been keeping heating and hot water on constant but turn off all the radiators (except 2 bedrooms) when we go to bed. Since getting the bill we have changed to using the timer but this does not seem to have changed consumption. Radiators have TRV

I called British Gas and they explained that we could have the meter tested (at a fee) but that it was VERY unlikely to be faulty

Fan on the boiler broke in mid Jan and we had no heating/hot water - this was then mended but I dont think this would have affected our consumption (and consumption seems to still be at similar level)

SO I would think that this is just our consumption and so our problem but for 2 factors

1) The bill seem so HUGE!
2) British Gas says the bill for this time last year (we didn't live in the house then) was 1/2-1/3 the amount

What can be going on and what can we do?


PLEASE help

Thanks

caveat_emptor

What are the 'imperial units' on your gas meter?
Did you read the meter when you moved in or are you relying on BGs reading?

mummytofour

How old is the boiler? older ones use more gas..

Cardew

It is 38 or 39 days which is quite a bit more than a month.

For a large 6 bedroomed house with poor insulation, the heating on all day, in mid winter and over Xmas, it is high but not excessively so.

Daveuk

If you are using 9 units each day, that equals approx 283.5kwh per day which, based on what I pay to Scottish Power, would cost £5.41 which includes the standing charge.
Therefore if you've had it on continuously for 38 days that equals £205.58 which isn't far from your bill.

I suggest that you look at improving the insulation as a first step to reducing your bills if you intend to leave your heating on permanently

MrsMC_4

Thanks for all your responses.

I dont know how old the boiler is - it's a keston - doesn't "look" at all old (if that's anything to go by)

I don't know how much an imperial unit is but British Gas told me the cost was approx 80p per unit. We had the meter read by the inventory clerk when we moved in so I dont think the reading is inaccurate

The impression I'm getting from your responses is that we could indeed be using this much - which means we'll be facing approx £700 bill for the next quarter. We're only in the house for a year (as it is rental and the owners are coming back) so is there anything we can do to reduce our bills?

This amount still seems very high to me....

melancholly

i live in a (cold) badly insulated 6 bed victorian house - we only have the heating on for 2 hours in the morning and 5 hours at night and we pay about £250 per quarter in winter. if you have the heating on 2/3 times as long, i guess that that's a reasonable bill........

maybe you could set the heating to one hour on/one hour off, or do it by the half hour, i think cutting consumption is the only way forward. if you're renting for a year it's not worth paying for insulation.

Cardew

MrsMC wrote:

Thanks for all your responses.

I dont know how old the boiler is - it's a keston - doesn't "look" at all old (if that's anything to go by)

I don't know how much an imperial unit is but British Gas told me the cost was approx 80p per unit. We had the meter read by the inventory clerk when we moved in so I dont think the reading is inaccurate

The impression I'm getting from your responses is that we could indeed be using this much - which means we'll be facing approx £700 bill for the next quarter. We're only in the house for a year (as it is rental and the owners are coming back) so is there anything we can do to reduce our bills?

This amount still seems very high to me....

An Imperial unit is approx 31 kWh and depending what BG tariff you are on that is more like 60p-65p than 80p.

The biggest factor in your heating bill will be how warm you have your rooms, especially with poor insulation. A difference of 1 degree in room temperature can make a big difference in your bill. There is a temptation to have rooms very warm with a baby in the house.