Working out energy consumption

lar316

Hi all, i am trying to work out my annual energy consumption with a view to switching in December. My current supplier is Scottish Power on the fixed price online Dec 09 tariff. I received a large bill in July this year of £668 which was totally unexpected as i thought my Direct debits were enough being £129 a month. I contacted Scottish Power to ask why the bill was so high, they explained that it was because of estimated readings. I have now learnt the hard way to give regular meter readings which i carry out once a month to keep track of things. I have also borrowed from my local library a smart owl thingy to keep tabs on my electricity consumption and to also save power by switching things off. Doing these things as well as reading the various threads on this site on saving power my quarterly usage. That as well as the warmer weather.
The problem i am finding is that Scottish Power have sent me an annual gas and electric statement for next year which costs £2654!!! I guess this is based on this years figures before i became more energy efficient. I looked through my online account and it stated I used 11336 kwh of gas between 29/10/08 - 19/01/09. Now i know that it was cold then and i had to have the central heating a lot because of my newborn son. But is this normal to use that much? Or is it because of estimated billing? Do many other people have this kind of usage? If not what kind of consumption would you say i would have? I have worked out that over the last 12 months (7 of those not being energy efficient and 3 of those being energy efficient) that i have used 22364 kwh of gas. Again, is this normal?
I live in a 3 bed semi with wooden framed double glazing, recently installed (2006) combi boiler, full central heating, thermostatic rad valves, cavity wall insulation, a converted attic bedroom with the correct type and amount of insulation, gas hob, electric oven. There is 2 adults and 3 children aged 7, 5 and nearly 1 year old.
Many thanks in advance.

Cardew

22,364kWh of gas is just slightly above the uk average of 20,500kWh.

You don't say what your annual electricity consumption is, but the UK average is 3,300kWh

Is the £2,654 including any debit balance for this current year e.g. the £668.

lar316

Cardew wrote: »

22,364kWh of gas is just slightly above the uk average of 20,500kWh.

You don't say what your annual electricity consumption is, but the UK average is 3,300kWh

Is the £2,654 including any debit balance for this current year e.g. the £668.

No, the arrears of £668 is about to be paid up (as of tommorow). I've worked out from when i first took this tariff out that ive used 5989 kwh of electricity, but since getting that huge bill it's gone right down. Thanks for your help by the way.