Excessively high bill, or just me??

II_COURTY_II

Hi,
We have just moved into a new build property (sept 2008) and just recieved our 2nd quarterly bill for gas & electricity, both supplied by British Gas.

Electricity bill is fine (or as expected), but gas bills have been for £412.59 and £435.63 respectively. We paid the 1st bill, assuming this could as a result of costs incured firing up the heating system etc. As a result i put the heating and water on timer for couple of hours morning and evening (this is all gas is used for - not cooking, which is all elec) and bill is higher?!?!?

I spoke to BG after the first bill and they suggested daily meter readings - checking to see if useage was consistant. next course of action is a meter test to see if it is faulty, which they did say can happen (even though it is brand new)

I have just been on energyhelpline.com which gives an estimate on utility bills (which i know will be a very rough estimate) but it still calculates our annual gas bill to be just £900 odd!! this includes setting all the usuage options to HIGH.

Im just very aware our outgoings, for just gas, could be £1800 annually at this rate?!? im just after anyone to give any other useful advice please as what to do or if they had a similar prob and what they did?

many thanks

posted_2

Sep to April are the cold months, summer bills should be far smaller.

chivers1977

This is a fair enough comment but in my old 3 bed victorian terrace with some wooden doors and draughty windows my Nov-Feb bill was only £113.77 for gas 3700 Gas kWh (kilowatt-hours) used. I guess it would depend on the tariff though as I have a capped one so it would be cheaper. Does sound alot for couple of hours of the boiler being on to me,

II_COURTY_II

in addition, we have underfloor heating and obviously meet regs regarding insulation.... 1st bill - heating was left running continueous 2nd bill - heating timed to only come on between 0600-0800 and 1600-2000. my feeling was bill would be cheaper regardless of time of year considering time restrictions??

stewie_griffin

Have both your bills been based on actual meter readings or are they estimated?

Geoffo_M

chivers1977 wrote: »

This is a fair enough comment but in my old 3 bed victorian terrace with some wooden doors and draughty windows my Nov-Feb bill was only £113.77 for gas 3700 Gas kWh (kilowatt-hours) used. I guess it would depend on the tariff though as I have a capped one so it would be cheaper. Does sound alot for couple of hours of the boiler being on to me,

£113-77 seems very low for winter months and a 3 bedroom victorian terrace. Was that using actual opening and closing meter readings?

chivers1977

Meter number 167
Gas previous9614 read by us on 28 November 2008Gas current9732 read by you on 14 February 2009
Difference118 unitswith multiplier value 2.83
conversion value 1.02264, calorific value 39
3700 Gas kWh (kilowatt-hours) used

currently 9761. I have learnt to be frugal this year!

Magentasue

II_COURTY_II wrote: »

in addition, we have underfloor heating and obviously meet regs regarding insulation.... 1st bill - heating was left running continueous 2nd bill - heating timed to only come on between 0600-0800 and 1600-2000. my feeling was bill would be cheaper regardless of time of year considering time restrictions??

You need to look at how many kwh you used in each quarter, and as suggested, you can only do this if you have accurate start and finish meter readings for each quarter.

I would suggest that your second bill would have been much higher if you hadn't been using the timer - the second winter quarter this year has been exceptionally cold.

II_COURTY_II

stewie_griffin wrote: »

Have both your bills been based on actual meter readings or are they estimated?

Both bills have been actual meter readings, as it is new... with ref to question of amount of KWH used - they are very similar, which is what i can not understand since putting the heating on timer?!?

thanks all

neas

doesnt it depend how much you heat a house?

We spent 110 quid on a 1 bed flat heating it over one quarter... And we hardly turned the heating on (was on 2 hours max a day).

If you have a 3 bed house, heating all time (even with underfloor heating etc) i'd guess your usage was normal for winter.

Magentasue

II_COURTY_II wrote: »

Both bills have been actual meter readings, as it is new... with ref to question of amount of KWH used - they are very similar, which is what i can not understand since putting the heating on timer?!?

thanks all

By using a timer, you used less than you would have done. The last quarter was much colder than the one before Christmas.