First ever Gas/Electricity Bill - Is it ok?

catsy_2

Hello all

I am asking for your advice here. My partner and I moved into a rented house in January and it is the first place we've ever had to pay utilities in (either included in rent before or lived with parents). I have just recieved our first gas and electricity bill and I want to check if it is ok. The house is a very small semi one bedroom house, it is literally a living room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom so should be cheap! Only the two of us live there. Bill dates are from 4th Feb until 8th May.

Electricity = £83.92
Gas = £97.37

Now we are on a meter so I will check tonight if the estimate is accurate or not. But I just want to check if we're doing things right really. We are with southern electric and the letting agency automatically changed it so we now can't, but I do think it's the cheapest for our area (berkshire).

Any advice is greatly appreciated, I know this forum is a fountain of knowledge and I am greatful for any help.

:A

Cardew

That is excellent!

You need to check that the bills are not under-estimated.

ashawyer

Hi,

I am the same, i recently moved into a place with my partner and this was the first place where we were paying the bills.

To be honest, my bills were higher but that was because i was with an expensive supplier.

Now we are with British Gas and all seems ok.

The tips i have had from people on this forum is to give a meter reading to the companies each week, that way they know how much you are using.

When you get a bill, make sure that if they give you an estimate reading that it is close to what you see on the meter. - sometimes they can be way off.

Also you can always change, i would suggest British Gas Websaver 3 as everything is online and you can see how much you are using, provide meter readings, see past bills etc.

But if you do change make sure that the meter reference number is the same as i was paying for someones gas for a while.

Just out of intrest are you there in the week during the day.

Do you have a timer so that you can select the times for heating and hot water?

Also as this bill you received was for Feb - May and part of this was very cold (depending on where you live) these bills will be higher, in the summer you will probably not need the heating.

Sirbendy

impressive..:)

Here's a comparison. I'm with Southern for gas and electric, 2 bed top floor flat, with double glazing.

Last quarter bill was £43 electric, £160 gas. Cooker is all gas, got a D rated combi boiler for heating and water. All lights are energy savers, everything goes off at the plug if it's not used and we don't do standby. Is your cooker part electric, part gas by any chance?

2 of us, working 8.10-5 monday-friday most weeks.

Good advice on readings..I do ours weekly, and bung them into my quarterly estimate spreadsheet..which overestimated my bill by about £50, so I was well chuffed to come in under it. I think we'd save on the gas if the boiler was renewed..it's a 2006 non-condensing combi, but it's still far less expensive than our A rated boiler in the old place..that used to eat £30-40 a week for little return. I always said it was duff! We do cook each night as well using rings and oven, plus a shower each per day on the combi.

catsy_2

Thanks for all your quick responses, I have to say I didn't think it seemed too bad, but having never done it before wanted to double check! We use energy saving lightbulbs everywhere, our only downfall is that we leave alot of things on stanby. Our heating and water is on a timer, and we have a thermostat for the whole house, which is currently on zero and has been for ages now. My only worry is that I haven't changed the timer as I still want hot water, but hope this sin't effecting my bills even though the thermostat is on zero.

I tend to have one day during the week off as I work Saturdays and my partner is mon-fri, but we do spend alot of time in our house as can't really afford to go out much anymore.

Just waiting on the water bill now.... lol!

debrag

I hope I get bills like you That's what I'm budgeting for at least.

ashawyer

i couldn't imagine myself spending all this time on Gas and Electric when i was at school, but now as these bills are a major part of all of our lives we have to keep ontop of it.

Unfortunately i do not share the possibility to have energy saving bulbs in the house as we have spots all over, but we compromise by washing in the local river.........

i heard that you should always have your Thermostat very low but not on zero as this could cause problems when you start it up, but that might just be a myth (or something british gas told me)

btw - i dont wash in the river

Fire_Fox

ashawyer wrote: »

i couldn't imagine myself spending all this time on Gas and Electric when i was at school, but now as these bills are a major part of all of our lives we have to keep ontop of it.

Unfortunately i do not share the possibility to have energy saving bulbs in the house as we have spots all over, but we compromise by washing in the local river.........

i heard that you should always have your Thermostat very low but not on zero as this could cause problems when you start it up, but that might just be a myth (or something british gas told me)

btw - i dont wash in the river

There are several brands of lower energy alternatives to halogen lamps if that is what you mean by 'spots'.

ashawyer

Fire_Fox wrote: »

There are several brands of lower energy alternatives to halogen lamps if that is what you mean by 'spots'.

Can you suggest a website that i can get these from or is there a store which sells them for a half decent price?

Also LED 'spots' should be out soon, they are out now but they are very expensive - I understand LED's use the least amount of power of any lighting device. Also this means some funky colours are on the market.