Concerned over Monthly DIrect Debits... Any thoughts, comparisons to your bills?

Miss_Y

Hi Guys!

Been meaning to write on here for months as something seems odd about my bills.

I live in a 100yr old, 2 bed, smallish mid terrace house with front sash windows, bare floor boards in one room (that we've tried to seal as best we can) and we have a draughty, original front door that i keep meaning to find somewhere that sells a door curtain for. Also we have open chimney's and the loft hatch is draughty too. So not a great insulated start.

When we moved in nearly 2 years ago, the last people said they spent a lot less than we are paying now, even with price rises. In May 08 we were paying £39 a month direct debit for elec and £40 for gas, which then went up to £76 for gas in July 08. Then in Nov 08 our elec got adjusted to £76 and £102 for Gas!!!!!!! A month!

For gas we use the combination boiler (8 years old and has no temperature checker, just a screw to turn it on or off) a little in summer on cold days and admittedly its on most of the time on evenings or when we are in during Winter, along with a gas open fire with massive flame, which we occasionally have on to heat up the room quick or read a book in front of.

Our cooker is Electric, we have all 'A' and 'A+' rated white good appliances, except for 300w max plasma TV hogger and 2 computers and we use Energy saving lightbulbs nearly everywhere. We even tried installing remote standby plugs to switch off big TV on a night so not on standby. We work full time so are not in during 4 days a week.

Does taking all this into account sound like we are paying an excessive amount for gas and elec a month for duel fuel, direct debit with Npower? I've started a monthly online meter reading submition tonight to track usage but house is so inefficent at keepng heat in and is 100 years old so can't get cavity wall insulation. Advice please from other 2 bed terrace house owners?

According to Uswitch, based on what our monthly payments are we are currently paying £1,224.00 a year for gas and £912.00 a year for electricity.

Cardew

The £102 for gas and £76 for electricity does not represent what you are using - i.e. you cannot multiply those DD amounts by 12 and assume that is your annual usage.

Your earlier payments were not enough to cover your consumption and you built up a debit balance. So they set the DD to cover your consumption and gradually pay back what you owe.

This happens all the time - usually caused by having bills based on estimated meter readings.

The average household in UK spends approx £1300 on gas and electricity.

Miss_Y

Hi, in reply to above...thanks and I am aware that previous debts are taken into account. Forgot to put that we were £186.56 in debit in may 08 for our bi annual bill for gas and ££7.80 in credit for same time on Elec. Obviously we paid too little the first winter we were in the house for gas so that had to even out but I think Npower are now thinking we are going to be in the same debt this winter even though we have paid off that gas debt and are paying 3.5 times more for gas now and twice as much for elec. Don't know if this info affects opinion?

Cardew

The problem with NPower is that they Seasonally weight their gas bills. Without going into the technicalities on this, it means you pay far more higher priced units in the winter, when you are using more fuel anyway.

The only way to work out your costs is to find out from your bills(or NPower) how many kWhs you use in a 12 month period and then you can find out exactly how much your gas/electricity is costing.

Entering amounts of ££££ into USwitch is just a waste of time.

Magentasue

We have a three bed Victorian terraced house. Similar to yours - old sash windows etc. Our electricity costs us just under £600 a year (dishwasher/washing machine every day, tumble drier couple of hours a week winter, laptops, two TVs (not plasma) and xbox for kids, Sky box for us) and gas about £1000 (central heating, hot water for six and cooking).

We like it warm, have four teens/twenty somethings with numerous gadgets and are careful but not frugal. There is usually someone home (one on shifts, two part time, one college, one school) and so there is often a TV and xbox on most of the day. I won't let the kids have a large or plasma TV, even though they've bought their own. Low energy bulbs and everything off at the wall. I've got rid of an extra fridge we had and run washing machine and dishwasher on lowest temp programmes. Have slashed tumble drier use.

Our bills have gone down because I've cut waste. I do nag everyone a lot but they admit we're no worse off - we still have everything on that we want but only when needed and we keep the house warm when we're in, but have a better programmer so it's off more than it used to be. We have also had new carpet in all our bedrooms with mega thick felt underlay and that's made a big difference. All rooms have heavy lined curtains too. Personally, I'd rather have heavy curtains and sash windows than plastic ones.

What helped me at the beginning was meter reading every day - we used to use more than 20kwh of electricity and 150kwh of gas last winter and thats gone down to 16kwh for electricity and 110kwh for gas. In the summer, we got our electricity down to 13kwh a day - I think that's our limit.

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi

It’s extremely difficult to compare your energy usage with others as you will never find a fair comparison. There are far too many variables involved.

I think taking regular readings is a great idea, this will give you an idea of how much you use daily and raises awareness around which appliances use the most energy.

Your energy supplier should have a consumption department, try getting their details and call them to discuss your usage, this is a great way to learn where the energy goes and may put your mind at ease. Definitely worth a phone call.

The cost of energy is a concern for most at the moment but once you know where it’s being used you can start to make a saving and be more efficient with your energy.

Miss_Y

Thanks for your reply's! Some constructive advice there and found Magentasue's usage and bills helpful. I want to add up my annual KW etc but have just gone online and only get the latest bill since joining that service so have to dig out previous bills to get full picture. I've never been allowed a tumble dryer even though I coud afford one as OH says the energy use would be through the roof but its like that anyway. It was always the one luxury I wanted in my first home, to have soft fluffy towels but alas! Looking for a heavy door curtain for front door but all the curtain shops are closing down in Hull and even in Dunelm Mills, they didn't have any! Its been 3 weeks looking and nowhere locally sells them! Anyway will try and take more meter readings, at least once a week, as would love to do daily ones but meters are really hard to access as behind two doors and hoover, ironing board etc. Was tempted to join an energy company that installs a elec usage meter as direct debit doesn't seem to be the advantage for us as everyone makes out.

Magentasue

Miss_Y wrote: »

Anyway will try and take more meter readings, at least once a week, as would love to do daily ones but meters are really hard to access

Daily readings are helpful if you really don't know what's clocking up the units but weekly's enough. We read ours every Monday and put it on a spreadsheet that works out a daily average. With electricity, for example, this winter we've never had a reading below 10kwh for one day and there have been some over 20kwh when we've been decorating, loads of laundry etc but over a normal week the averages are fairly constant.

Miss_Y

Finally rang Npower as bill of £102 gas and £76 elec had gone out for third month in a row on the 19th and having spoken to more friends with similar houses, it just all seemed wrong! Advisor checked usage and we were in credit and he said we were using less gas than last year. He has recalculated payments to £50 gas and £52 Elec so that's a saving of £76 a month to help us live! Hurray! And he said that our payments were set to go down in May as summer use got calculated!