MSE News: Big freeze could add £60 to energy bills

martynthemoose

I find that yet again companies can do what they like without fear of being told off by the government.

If energy companies cared about their customers they would have a lower rate in winter & then a higher rate in the spring summer. If people cant afford the bills in summer its not such a problem. But in winter you run out of gas or electric then boy do you notice it.

I will be spending tuesday & wednesday without gas so the kids will need a blanket or 6 extra!!!

Anyone else having a cold water wash in the morning ??

Premier_2

powerRIP wrote: »

...I don't know about anyone else but i have used 20% less gas this winter than any previous year ...

Here's a clue what others are doing

...Demand for gas has soared as temperatures have plummeted. Friday saw a record 463m cubic metres of gas used in the UK, costing the country an estimated £150m, according to analysts. As families leave heating on round the clock, levels of gas consumption have soared by around a third on last year. This is costing the country around £15m a day more than normal, although the estimated bill for the extra heating used in homes could exceed £31bn, leaving each household facing an average bill of £1,264 for the past six weeks, more than their average quarterly bill of £1,245 for just half the time.

In total, since the start of December, it is estimated that the average household has used around 6,493 kWh of power – more than double the 2,742kWh that might normally be expected...

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/the-big-freeze-2010-an-audit-1863350.html

Pincher

What I want is a way to keep warm by burning my body fat, instead of burning gas. I could then eat as much as I want and not get fat. I can also keep the thermostat at 10 degrees just to stop the furniture growing moldy.

Some kind of pill that increases the metabolic rate, without inducing a heart attack. Mush, crack, pharmaceutical scientists, work harder. It will sell faster than Viagra.

SMarg

I keep a record of my gas and electric consumption on a daily basis if I can remember and have just done a calculation of both and found that I am paying around £55 a week for my gas to have it on 24/7 on low (approx 15/16) and then a boost to around 20 for a couple of hours in the evening!!
Have done comparisons and am with the best.

Wish I knew why it was so high. I am in a 1930's detached brick built house where you can't insulate the walls, but windows are double glazed and the loft is insulated. I have friends with 3 kids who keep their heating on constantly and their bills aren't as high as mine but they are semi-detached. Even had the gas people out a couple of years ago to check the meter.

Anyone know if there is someone to contact who can advise - have been through to the normal agencies who ask about insulating etc but am doing everything I should. Only thing I can think of might be to flush out the rads in case they are not getting as hot as they should be.

mech_2

Pincher wrote: »

What I want is a way to keep warm by burning my body fat, instead of burning gas. I could then eat as much as I want and not get fat. I can also keep the thermostat at 10 degrees just to stop the furniture growing moldy.

Some kind of pill that increases the metabolic rate, without inducing a heart attack. Mush, crack, pharmaceutical scientists, work harder. It will sell faster than Viagra.

Isn't it called exercise?

spinningsheep

Ive just done my reads for the week, and in 12 days we have used:

£54.48 of gas says average of 145kwh per day (heating on timer,sometimes constant all daytime,depends on temp and who's in)

£31.43 electric says average of 30kwh per day

We've been dead careful, not used the drier more than once a week for towels only, not had lights on unless needed, boiled kettle and put water in a flask for the evening instead of boiling the kettle over and over, put food in the electric oven as soon as its on instead of letting it come up to temp, max of 10 mins in 10kw shower (new lodger is sticking to this so all good!) only using oil filled radiator in a room with no GCH for a max of 2 hours, housemate has bought an electric blanket instead and that uses about 8p all night! The gas I am not worrying about, we will catch up on this easily in summer, whereas electric may not drop as much in the warmer months.

beecher2

I've been using 86kwh of gas a day over the last 12 days and I thought that was bad! 9kw of electricity through that time and that's through a period of minus 11/minus 13 degrees with huge high Victorian ceilings. I get my Wii Fit out - that helps - and wear jumpers. There's no way I'd be paying the kind of bills some people pay.

spinningsheep

Beecher how on earth are you using so little electric?? Even at tick over with all appliances not in use ie TV, PC etc, we use about 8p an hour, so thats £1.92 a day straight away and 12kwh a day with no "living" going on. Gas wise I like to be warm so I don't begrudge paying out for it.

savemoney

116Kwh here for gas on most of day (on low) during day 17-18c and on a night around 20c (29 days)

This is from 25th Nov until 24th December so I imagine I used more a day since but wont take meter reading until 25th Jan

Electric was 16.75 kwh per day for 30 days usage for same period

This is out usage over last few years from meter readings and put into excel

beecher2

spinningsheep wrote: »

Beecher how on earth are you using so little electric?? Even at tick over with all appliances not in use ie TV, PC etc, we use about 8p an hour, so thats £1.92 a day straight away and 12kwh a day with no "living" going on. Gas wise I like to be warm so I don't begrudge paying out for it.

I'm 4kWh a day during the summer and highest average I've ever had was 10kWk- there's only me but I do have a PC, TV and Wii on for most of the evening. Had my electric fire on for about 2/3 hours a night for the past couple of weeks too. Never really use the tumble dryer and maybe 3 washes a week - if you've a big family I suppose you can't compare but yours sounds high to me.