does this sound a lot for monthly fuel bill

melb

Hi there we pay Scottish Power £190.50 per month for gas and electric by direct debit. We have a 4 bed detached with no double glazing but I'm quite careful with heating etc. It breaks down as just over half as much for electricity as gas. We have central heating and gas hob and that's it - 0h and gas for the hot water. We are on fixed tariff but it just seems to go up and up and now they want to increase it to over £200 a month. I would just appreciate anyone's comments as to whether this seems reasonable. we do our own meter readings. thanks

Magentasue

How many kwh of gas and electricity a year?

melb

I don't know off hand but the last quarter it was 348 units of gas and 1911 of electricity. thanks

Magentasue

Is that 1911kwh of electricity actual (not estimated)? If so, that's about 21kwh a day which, I think is quite high. We're a family of six averaging about 15-16kwh a day in the winter and about 13kwh a day in the summer. We pay £43 a month at present which covers our use. Yours looks about 50% more than us depending on how typical last quarter was.

Gas more difficult to say. If you have a metric meter, that's about 42kwh a day. Imperial meter it's about 118kwh a day. Was that a 'heating on most days' quarter?

melb

it's from beginning of March to beginning of June so not that cold - heating on probably 2 hours in morning and then from about 3 for the kids coming home. My son is on xbox almost constantly as it's relatively new - I don't know how much that used. Incidentally the electricity was an estimate and the actual is actually more by 60 units so that's even worse!

Sue-UU

Hi melb, take daily readings and see what's causing it to be so high. Do you have youngsters who leave lights or appliances on or are you inclined to do so? Wherever you can save it, do so as it makes such a difference. You say you haven't got double-glazing, but do you have draft excluder taped around each in the winter, doors too? So much heat can escape that way which makes you 'up' the heating. Cut down wherever you can on hot water, only having on if it's needed and switching it off when it isn't. Far better for washing up etc to use a kettle.

Good luck.

Sue

Cazza

melb wrote: »

it's from beginning of March to beginning of June so not that cold - heating on probably 2 hours in morning and then from about 3 for the kids coming home.

That sounds like quite a long time for the heating to be on??? I am on the South Coast, so I know it does depend on where you live, but I've not had the heating on at all since early April and even then it was for a hour in the morning and 2-3 hours at most at night????

KimYeovil

melb wrote: »

heating on probably 2 hours in morning and then from about 3 for the kids coming home.

And you call that being 'quite careful' with the heating? Is that just one room you heat - or the whole house? Different stokes for different folks.

Magentasue

melb wrote: »

it's from beginning of March to beginning of June so not that cold - heating on probably 2 hours in morning and then from about 3 for the kids coming home. My son is on xbox almost constantly as it's relatively new - I don't know how much that used. Incidentally the electricity was an estimate and the actual is actually more by 60 units so that's even worse!

As said, that's quite a lot of heating Mar-Jun for those of us who are trying to cut back. I have four teens/20somethings at home and the TV/xbox is on a lot - eldest recently bought a new TV and I wouldn't let him buy a plasma model. It's not that they use a lot of energy, compared to, say a tumble dryer, but if on for hours every day, it mounts up. When mine were under eighteen, I'd restrict TV etc. Not possible now.

Sounds to me as if you are a family who use a lot of energy so DD may well be justified. You need the figures to know whether it's as bad as it seems, and then decide whether you're happy to pay that.

Switching may save you some money, but cutting your use would save you more.

KimYeovil

And note that because your electric use is so high you may well find it cheaper receiving your fuels from separate suppliers - when comparing don't forget to check the 'gas only' and 'electricity only' tabs.

melb

thanks for all advice - sorry when I said it went on at 3 I only meant on cold days not everyday and my thermostat (on the wall) is rarely above 17 degrees apart from the very coldest days. It's on from 6 till 8 in the morning for showers and baths and the hot water is only on for that time each day unless it goes cold later on if I've done a lot of washing. I like to think we're good at turning off appliances/lights when not in use but actually our neighbour does refer to our house as 'the lighthouse'. I was noticing on another post on here the cost per therm and ours did sound quite competitive actually - 2.746 per therm for gas and 8.252 for gas so it must just be us using too much. thanks for all comments