High gas bill, hope you can help

littlelegs2008

I changed supplier from Bg to npower in november.
Have just received end bill from Bg and new bill from npower.

N power have worked out not to be cheaper, although the figures provided to me at the time were. I dont have these figures in writing so cannot prove it.

My question is i dont think the new bill is correct.
We have a modern 3 storey 4 bedroom house, highly insulated, modern boiler and we have an electric cooker. Hot water only heats through when you turn the tap on.

Any way here are the figures.

13/11/08 (A) 8143 20/01/09 (A) 8590
20/01/09 (A) 8590 12/02/09 (A) 8750

first 2643 at 8.917p
next 4129 at 2.507p
Total bill is £356.14 this works out at just over £29 per week.

My husband is off work due to sickness and I am currently 38 weeks pregnant, cant see how we can afford this.

Does this usage sound about right? Heating is hardly ever on as house is so warm due to the well insulation. Cooker is electric i just cant see where we are using so much gas. Also forgot to say we are in an IGT network

jd87

It is a little bit on the high side, but not enormously. Can you tell us the unit prices you were paying to BG? Then we can figure out for definite if it is actually cheaper or not. Remember your usage will have been at its highest over the past few months.

As for making it cheaper, give npower a call and find out what tariff you are on and ask if they have a cheaper tariff. All the suppliers are cutting their prices so it's a possibility. You probably also need to change the way you use your heating. Just do the obvious things - turn the thermostat down and put it on the timer so it's not on when you are out. Just small changes like that can make big savings.

Oh and I hope it doesn't sound too patronising, but please don't worry too much about silly things like gas bills in your condition!

basmic

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2009/01/are_you_paying_too_much_for_ga.html - hope the bit near the bottom helps, at least.

SwanJon

Couple of things
Double check that BG have used the same read to close your account that npower have used to open their account.
When you compared prices, they will have been for a whole year, not just a winter bill and so

• npower sculpt their tier 1 prices, so you will have been paying more at higher tier 1 prices than you did with BG. This will balance out over the summer (see npower sculpting thread) (unless your npower tariff doesn't)
• npower's discounts are applied at the end of the year so they would be included in the comparison but you won't see them until November this year

Also, this winter has been much colder than the last few years (decades?), so you will have used more gas to heat to the same temperature.

(PS - I work for British Gas, so my npower comments are from what I learned on here)

Magentasue

Whatever the reasons, the only way to keep your bills in line with what you can afford is to take control and read your meters. Daily at first, I think. If you can't afford to pay for what you are using, you have to use less. Once you have made the necessary cutbacks, read weekly to make sure you're not slipping.

If you had a prepay meter, it's what you'd have to do.

littlelegs2008

hi everyone thanks for all your comments.

We never have the thermostat above 18 as the house is so warm.

I can confirm that BG closed account with the same reading as npower opened with.

BG unit prices are 7.259p and 3.688p.

So im a bit baffled. It does say that their unit price is more because of IGT.

Premier_2

littlelegs2008 wrote: »

...So im a bit baffled. It does say that their unit price is more because of IGT.

Comparison sites do not include any IGT effect.

BG do not charge any extra for an IGT

nPower do charge an additional ca. £31.50 per year for IGT customers; this in embedded by increasing unit prices, at least for the initial 4572 units per year.
http://www.npower.com/web/At_home/customer_service/important_information/WCMS_003404

SwanJon

littlelegs2008 wrote: »

BG unit prices are 7.259p and 3.688p.

littlelegs2008 wrote: »

first 2643 at 8.917p, next 4129 at 2.507p

So BG are cheaper for the first bit, and npower cheaper for the next bit, so which is cheaper depends on how much you use.
The IGT bit muddies the water...

DirectDebacle

This has already been mentioned but a little more detail may help to explain some of your bill.

npower will charge at the Primary Block (the first 4572kWh) rate these amounts at the higher rate

Nov., Dec., Jan., and Feb. 882kWh for each month, provided of course you use the necessary amount of gas. This totals 3528 of the 4572 they are allowed to charge for the year. It follows that their winter bills are going to be generally higher than other suppliers ,who charge the 4572 evenly over the year, for the same amount of gas usage.

npower also have one of the highest, if not the highest, price for the Primary Block units (the 4572). Taken together I can understand why you find your winter bill high. In one quarter you have paid for nearly 60% of the annual units charged at the higher rate. It should even out as the summer months are charged at 46kWh per month. If you go to their website you can find the amount of units they charge at the high rate for each month of the year. Also there is a section on how to calculate a gas bill.

I suggest you take regular meter readings. Weekly is a good idea. There have been many problems with npower and it is wise to have your own records.

moonrakerz

littlelegs2008 wrote: »

We never have the thermostat above 18 as the house is so warm.

The figure that you have the thermostat set to is completely irrelevant.

If the house is "so" warm, perhaps even 18 is too high ?

littlelegs2008

moonrakerz wrote: »

The figure that you have the thermostat set to is completely irrelevant.

If the house is "so" warm, perhaps even 18 is too high ?

sorry if i didnt explain myself properly there. What I mean is because the house is warm the thermostast never goes above 18.
Therefore the heating is hardly ever on.
We have an ongoing dispute with our housing department as they have failed to supply us with instructions for the heating system so we are unable to set it on the timer. So im guessing this is our problem. I just asssumed with the thermostat being set quite low and heating not coming on very often then that it wouldnt be using any gas.