Am I being over charged by npower?

debhyp

I have just got my latest 6 mth bill from npower and I am trying to work out if I am being over charged as the bill seems outrageously high compared to previous years.

I live in a 2 bed semi with my partner.
We are both a work all day mon - fri.
The boiler was switched off for most of the summer.

I am on the Fixed price tariff and here is the bill:

Electric
Units used 2158 kwh
First 360 @ 14.45p
1798 @ 12.75p

Total (inc vat) £295.33

Gas
Units used 359 (100s cubic feet) 11371
First 2575 @ 7.108p
8796 @ 2.129p

Total £388.81

Our gas meter is imperial (I think). It has an ft3 on it.

I can't work out how they calculate from Imperial to Metric.

On my bill it says the Calorific value is 39.4 and the correction factor is 1.022640.

Normally we pay £80 per month for both electric and gas.
But npower have now said they want £150 per month - nearly double!!!

Are we being overcharged?
Does this seem a bit excessive for the size of house etc? What do other people pay in general?
Is 11371 kwh units of gas usage in 6 months excessive or normal?

I appreciate any useful advice.

Many thanks

KimYeovil

I'm afraid there are plenty of people who are paying that for just one quarter's gas this winter, not a whole six months. 11,000 kWh is bang on the national average - due to the cold, I say you're doing well. It's a lot colder this year than the last couple. With all the price increases and mild winters I think lots of us have lost track of what our bills should be.

notbritishgas

Your gas bill would appear to be reasonable for 6 months use.
However the electric is a tad higher than the national average, if we double this bill you will be using about 4300kwh a year when the average is about 3300. Do you use anything excessively, especially things that produce heat. You say the boiler was switched off for the summer , does this mean you heated your water by electricity, if so that could account for the high electric. I think normally it is cheaper to still heat it by gas in the summer.

Magentasue

notbritishgas wrote: »

Your gas bill would appear to be reasonable for 6 months use.
However the electric is a tad higher than the national average

Still only about 12kwh a day so not bad if they were heating water by electric, or even have a dishwasher, tumble drier, plasma TV etc.

Have noticed how this board has changed from 'my DD has doubled' before Christmas to 'my bill is so high this quarter' this month. I think, as said, many people are going to do a double take when they check this winter's bill if they haven't been checking their meters themselves.

Alan_Vickers

I would be interested to know what nPower tariff you are on which supplies you with gas at 2.129 p per kWh. I wish I was on that tariff.

notbritishgas

Alan_Vickers wrote: »

I would be interested to know what nPower tariff you are on which supplies you with gas at 2.129 p per kWh. I wish I was on that tariff.

I think this is quite possible. I am on Npower SoL 10 in East mids region and I pay 7.21p and 2.143p (both inc VAT)

Alan_Vickers

Thanks for that notbritishgas - do you happen to know their charges for the north of England by any cjhance?

notbritishgas

Alan_Vickers wrote: »

Thanks for that notbritishgas - do you happen to know their charges for the north of England by any cjhance?

Unfortunately SoL 10 is no longer available, it has been replaced by SoL 14 and this only comes as a tariff with a standing charge so there are no tier 1 and tier 2 units.
However their standard gas for the north east (newcastle) is 8.078p and 2.612p, and for the north west (manchester) it is 8.719p and 2.612p.
This makes SoL 10 a very good price, but we will see what happens when they make the inevitable price change soon.

Alan_Vickers

Many thanks for that information notbritishgas.