First Time In Own House - Advice Needed Please.

lexiflowers

Hello.

My boyfriend and I are getting our first (rented) house together at the beginning of July. I'm 20, and whilst I have paid "rent" to my parents for a while now I have not been responsible for my own bills before.

The house we will be renting is a two bedroom terraced house. All the windows are double glazed. We have a combination of gas and electricity (gas central heating, gas hob, electric cooker, etc).

First thing is we need to choose an energy provider. I'm aware that going dual fuel and paying by monthly direct debit saves you money, so that's what we intend to do - however I simply don't know which company to go with. I had a look at sites like U Switch, which is no good to me because I can't input an existing provider, existing costs, or anything like that.

I've heard good things about British Gas, so I guess I'm leaning that way at the moment. But I don't want to make an uninformed decision.

The other question is, how much are we likely to be paying each month?

I understand that no-one can give me an exact answer for this, but any rough guideline would be really helpful as I'm trying to work out a budget.

We are used to only having the heating on low, and only in the mornings in the winter. We just wear jumpers if we get cold! We're both in the habit of turning things off at the wall when they're not in use, unplugging chargers, etc. We will be running a fridge and a freezer all the time - the freezer is category A but I can't vouch for the fridge as it comes with the property (it isn't a really old one though, from the look of it). The washing machine also comes with the property, and that does look quite old, though it does have a quick wash option and we will usually use that. We do washing quite a lot (mainly due to my other half's work clothes - he's a fishmonger :-p), say a wash a day. We have our own tumble dryer, which is category B, but we'll be using the line in the garden whenever the weather permits it! The lights are mainly halogen ceiling lights. The highest energy consuming thing I probably use is my laptop (it has an 18.5 inch screen, and does need to be plugged in whenever it's on really, which is often). In terms of heating water, it'll be showers daily, the occasional bath, and probably quite a bit of washing up.

Oh, one other question - there is a gas fire in our living room. Would this typically use less energy than the central heating on a winter's evening?

Thank you so much for your help,

Lexi.

Magentasue

Your laptop won't be a big deal. The halogen spotlights might be if there are a lot of them. But the expensive items are heating, hot water, dishwasher, electric shower, tumble drier etc.

When you've moved in, read and record your meter readings at the end of every month. After a year, you'll know what your annual use. Meanwhile, use a comparison site such as uswitch using sensible figures (I'd say 2500kwh electricity and 15000kwh gas, others may have better ideas) and go for the cheapest. Don't assume duel fuel is cheaper because it may not be.

When you move in, you inherit the previous supply so ring in meter readings on day 1 - get them witnessed if possible. Check that you are on that supplier's cheapest tariff without a tie in (probably online rather than the standard one that's default) and then start the switching process. If your deemed supplier has the cheapest tariff for you according to the comparison site, you won't need to go through switching but will probably be able to sort it over the phone.

Heating rather than gas fire in the winter.