Extortionately High Gas and Electricity Bills

Haruspex

Hi,

We've been living in a large-ish conversion flat since the beginning of the year. Our Gas and Electricity is done on a dual contract with E-On. It's still in our landlord's name, and so we give him the meter readings each month. The past two months our bills have been huge - £192 one month, then £197 the next. We only have the heating on from 5am - 7am and then from 6pm-10pm, and don't have it turned right up. We don't use loads of electrical goods - turn off lights, only use the washing machine once a week, it's a gas/ electric oven, we don't leave things on standby...

I know prices have gone up in the last couple of years (I was out of the country 2006 - 2008), but this is ridiculous! We're paying more than we were paying for a shared 7 bedroom house in 2005! The insulation of the place is good, and the boiler is pretty new (one of those ones that heats the water at all times, whether the heating is on or off). It's a 2 bed, 1 bath split -level flat, so not huge, and it's not drafty. These bills are what I might have expected for a quarterly bill, but this is ridiculous.

Any suggestions as to what the hell we're doing wrong? :eek:

1carminestocky

Do you see the actual bills or are these the figures the LL is giving you?

Haruspex

The last one I saw was from before we moved in - it was over £300, and he dealt with it. It's difficult, cos our LL is a good friend of ours, so pretty sure he's not making a fool of us...

jimexbox

Haruspex wrote: »

The last one I saw was from before we moved in - it was over £300, and he dealt with it. It's difficult, cos our LL is a good friend of ours, so pretty sure he's not making a fool of us...

Personally I would ask your LL/friend for the bill to be given directly to you, friend or no friend, you are paying it. Then I would take daily readings of both gas and electric, and work out exactly how much in pounds/pence you are using.

That way you can accurately track you energy usage.