Huge Gas & Elec Usage

mleonard79

Hi all,
Basically I'm looking into switching from BG and Scottishpower for gas and elec respectively for the first time. What I am most concerned about, however, is our gas and elec usage. It seems extremely high. We live in a reasonably sized old tenament flat with 3 bedrooms. There are 4 of us and we have 3 tvs, 2 computers, washer/dryer, dishwasher, microwave etc. Usual household appliances. Our boiler is very old but as replacing it would cost thousands that's not an option at the moment. We had a new gas fire installed a year and a half ago and i think this is a likely culprit for some of the high usage but I still find it shocking. We have used around 50,000 kwh of gas and 8,700 kwh of elec in a 12 month period resulting in a bill of just over £1750 for the year. Is this level of usage normal? I have a friend who is in a similarly sized house (admittedly 1 bedroom smaller and 3 less people however) who is paying £15 for gas and £17 for electricity per month. I find it hard to understand why there is such a huge difference between our bills?? Anyway, apparently London energy online could save me 32% but from reading on here I am a little worried about switching to them. Powergen are next on the list at 24% - are they any more reliable? Thanks for any help.

Michelle

royalsteve

mleonard79 wrote:

Hi all,
Basically I'm looking into switching from BG and Scottishpower for gas and elec respectively for the first time. What I am most concerned about, however, is our gas and elec usage. It seems extremely high. We live in a reasonably sized old tenament flat with 3 bedrooms. There are 4 of us and we have 3 tvs, 2 computers, washer/dryer, dishwasher, microwave etc. Usual household appliances. Our boiler is very old but as replacing it would cost thousands that's not an option at the moment. We had a new gas fire installed a year and a half ago and i think this is a likely culprit for some of the high usage but I still find it shocking. We have used around 50,000 kwh of gas and 8,700 kwh of elec in a 12 month period resulting in a bill of just over £1750 for the year. Is this level of usage normal? I have a friend who is in a similarly sized house (admittedly 1 bedroom smaller and 3 less people however) who is paying £15 for gas and £17 for electricity per month. I find it hard to understand why there is such a huge difference between our bills?? Anyway, apparently London energy online could save me 32% but from reading on here I am a little worried about switching to them. Powergen are next on the list at 24% - are they any more reliable? Thanks for any help.

Michelle

Whatever you do dont sign up with Scottish power...i did the same was with BG 2 years ago.....moving to SP was the worst move ever......I signed up and my billing is online.....problem is they expect you read your meter as they NEVER come around and read ours.....no customer service....

anyway i couldnt access my account and with 1million more imoprtant things to do i didnt check my accoutn which is now almost £600 in arrears, so yes partly my fault.......but did they contact me NO, BG do and they adjust your DD accordingly provided you agree

It appears they setup the DD incorrectly....some plank entered £28/mth instead of £28 for Gas and £28 for electric

once ive paid it off im moving and this sorry excuse for a company can get lost

crossleydd42

My son has had terrible problems with Scottish Power and they have an 0870 helpline number - a disgrace. I'd say that your gas fire is a liekly culprit for the high bills, espeically if it's an open flame variety.
If you're worrkied about London energy, you could try Southern who have a good reputation.

Wig

royalsteve wrote:

Whatever you do dont sign up with Scottish power...i did the same was with BG 2 years ago.....moving to SP was the worst move ever......I signed up and my billing is online.....problem is they expect you read your meter as they NEVER come around and read ours.....no customer service....

anyway i couldnt access my account and with 1million more imoprtant things to do i didnt check my accoutn which is now almost £600 in arrears, so yes partly my fault.......but did they contact me NO, BG do and they adjust your DD accordingly provided you agree

It appears they setup the DD incorrectly....some plank entered £28/mth instead of £28 for Gas and £28 for electric

once ive paid it off im moving and this sorry excuse for a company can get lost

You presumably read my post in the other thread you replied to here. Where I quoted the Gas meter regulation code, they have to read/inspect it once every 2 years, the only way out is for you to have agreed to arrange an agent to inspect the meter yourself, I highly doubt you have arranged to do this so complain about them to energywatch, after I suppose you ask them why they have not inspected your meter.

jem16

mleonard79 wrote:

Hi all,
Basically I'm looking into switching from BG and Scottishpower for gas and elec respectively for the first time. What I am most concerned about, however, is our gas and elec usage. It seems extremely high. We live in a reasonably sized old tenament flat with 3 bedrooms. There are 4 of us and we have 3 tvs, 2 computers, washer/dryer, dishwasher, microwave etc. Usual household appliances. Our boiler is very old but as replacing it would cost thousands that's not an option at the moment. We had a new gas fire installed a year and a half ago and i think this is a likely culprit for some of the high usage but I still find it shocking. We have used around 50,000 kwh of gas and 8,700 kwh of elec in a 12 month period resulting in a bill of just over £1750 for the year. Is this level of usage normal? I have a friend who is in a similarly sized house (admittedly 1 bedroom smaller and 3 less people however) who is paying £15 for gas and £17 for electricity per month. I find it hard to understand why there is such a huge difference between our bills?? Anyway, apparently London energy online could save me 32% but from reading on here I am a little worried about switching to them. Powergen are next on the list at 24% - are they any more reliable? Thanks for any help.

Michelle

I moved from Britsh Gas(dual fuel) to London Energy last November. I have had no problems at all with them. I find their customer services much better than BG with the bonus of it being an 0800 number.

I am also saving around 33%. Just make sure you do your comparison with your usage figures rather than monthly spend - it's far more accurate.

Mikeyorks

jem16 wrote:

I moved from Britsh Gas(dual fuel) to London Energy last November. I have had no problems at all with them. I find their customer services much better than BG with the bonus of it being an 0800 number.

I am also saving around 33%. Just make sure you do your comparison with your usage figures rather than monthly spend - it's far more accurate.

Ditto. I moved to London Energy around the same time - and no problems. But make sure you get the Online tariff - not the Standard.

Cardew

Whoever you switch to you will still pay a lot as your energy consumption is very high at 50,000 kWh for gas and 8,700 kWh for electricity.

I appreciate that Glasgow isn't the warmest place in Britain and I suspect that the tenament flats are not well insulated. As you say an old boiler and a gas fire will also contribute to the gas consumption. However your electricity consumption is also very high - nearly 3 times the average.

If you carefully monitor your meter readings you might get some idea what is causing your high consumption. It is not unknown in blocks of flats for one flat to be paying for another flat as well!! or the lights on stairways etc to be wired through a flat's meter.

mleonard79

Hi,
Thanks for the replies. Yeah Cardew I agree the comsumption levels are extremely high and I've been wondering myself if we're paying for the whole building at times!! I know we have 2 computers and a few tvs and other appliances running regularly but you're right the electricity seems high too. I also definitely think you're right about the lack of insulation. Also as I said before I know the boiler being so old must be inefficient. It is cold up here but I feel the new gas fire has a lot to do with the gas comsumption increasing so much as from looking at our summer bills from last year the comsumption is nearly 3 times less and the fire was off completely for those months while the central heating was still used albeit sparingly. Anyway from looking at the comparison sites again and putting in my exact usage figures it seems that if I went with London Energy I would pay £1473 for this year. It says that's a saving of over £600 as it estimates my bill to be £2150 with my current providers (it was £1750 for this usage over the last year but I guess the site is estimating for this year with the current prices.) So basically I would (well depending on more price rises) save nearly £300 on last year's prices and most importantly not have to pay the £400 more. Also if there's any way by monitoring the meters we can get the consumption down even more that would help. I will be definitely watching them closely form now on. Powergen are the next nearest but it's still £200 more than London Energy so I'm feeling more inclined to go with them despite they're not being a big name company. Plus the positive endorsements on this thread make me a bit more confident. Any other suggestions always welcome though! So we'll see how it goes. Thanks for the help.

Michelle

jem16

London Energy is part of the EDF Energy company which is huge.

Stompa

mleonard79 wrote:

We have used around 50,000 kwh of gas and 8,700 kwh of elec in a 12 month period

As you suggest, that does seem exceptionally high. It's probably not a very useful comparison but we have a 3 bed semi (which is occupied all day since I work from home) and use approx 10,000 kwh of gas (central heating, water heating and hob) and 2,500 kwh of elec.

Ken68

Stompa wrote:

As you suggest, that does seem exceptionally high. It's probably not a very useful comparison but we have a 3 bed semi (which is occupied all day since I work from home) and use approx 10,000 kwh of gas (central heating, water heating and hob) and 2,500 kwh of elec.

Good figures there Stompa...same situation as me .. I use 13000 Gas and 1500 electricity...almost certainly down to insulation,Michelle, and use of an energy monitor from Lidl £5 .