Panicking over massive Gas Bill

Keira_B

I live in a shared house and warned my two flatmates that we needed to be really careful how often we had the heating on over the winter because of fuel prices.

Today we got our bill and it's £646.12. They insist that other than the hour in the morning and the 3 hours in the evening that we have the heating switched on, they've not had the heating on. Could 4 hours a day over 3 months really equate to £646?! The usage is 508 imperial units and 16045.47kWh.

Are there any clued up people out there that can help me with what a four hour daily usage should amount to per day in imperial units? I'm totally clueless!

Thanks
Keira

KimYeovil

Three bedrooms? £215 per month? Yes. (Sorry) Remember the average year round cost is a bit more than £100 per month and that includes 1 and 2 bedroom flats (where the bedrooms are not also sitting rooms). So paying £215 for three living rooms is 'cheap'!

At least there are three of you to share the cost - that's 'only' £70 each.

espresso

Keira_B wrote: »

Today we got our bill and it's £646.12. They insist that other than the hour in the morning and the 3 hours in the evening that we have the heating switched on, they've not had the heating on. Could 4 hours a day over 3 months really equate to £646?! The usage is 508 imperial units and 16045.47kWh.

That sounds a lot of gas to me for a three month period! Are both the start and end readings on the bill actual or estimated?

Vestra

£646.12 for 16045.47 kwh sounds expensive who is your supplier and what tariff?

Keira_B

Our last bill was estimated, this one is a reading.

We're supplied by British Gas and our tariff was 7.259p for the first 661.00kwh and 3.688p for the rest (15384.47kwh)

Thanks for your comments, by the way - this is completely bamboozling to me!

Cardew

Keira_B wrote: »

Our last bill was estimated, this one is a reading.

We're supplied by British Gas and our tariff was 7.259p for the first 661.00kwh and 3.688p for the rest (15384.47kwh)

Thanks for your comments, by the way - this is completely bamboozling to me!

Well it is probable that on your last estimated bill, the final reading was under-estimated and this is a 'catch up' bill. I assume you didn't check your last bill? It could of course have been under-estimated for a couple of bills.

16,000 kWh is very high consumption for a 3 month period IMO.

However you really can't say what the consumption should be, as it largely depends on the insulation in the house.

Do you also really only have it on for 3 hours in the evening?

What about Hot water - lots of baths?

Keira_B

We very rarely have baths - just one shower each a day.

As far as I knew, we'd only been having it on for 3 hours in the evening- 7 to 10. However, I'm starting to think it may have been getting switched on a lot more than it was supposed to...

albyota

I have a new ASHP boiler, from 7 Nov 08 to 25 Jan 09 my total electric bill is £343. thats for heating 4 bed house, heatin hot water, cooking everyday, 3 tellys, computer, fridge, freezer etc, and washing and drying clothes, 2 adults 3 teens, its great to Know i can just check my electric meter and count how many units i have used and multiply by 0.09p, I had used 3788, very cold winter but warm and toasty all over house. just estimated the annual cost about £890 thats for everything, can advise on running costs.

spiro

You need to find the last bill that started or ended with an actual reading and then calculate the total cost and useage from then to now to get a better overall useage figure.
The other thing you should learn from this is to check the end reading on every bill and phone your supplier with a new reading if the bill is based on a estimate and its more than a few units out.