My gas and electric bills are very high.

lawriejw

I obtain both my elec and gas from British Gas. For the past few years I have been in a constant battle with them as my consumption and direct debits never seemed to tie up. By November of 2009 I was £600 in debit for gas and £500 in credit for elec. They cancelled both direct debits and I got them to transfer the credit from the elec to pay some of the gas debit and the balance I paid by credit card. This then left me a balance of zero on both accounts. The new direct debits will start January.
On the 14th of this month I submitted meter readings and have just received the following bills.

Gas £491.38 in debit
Elec £278.53 in debit.

Surely that cannot be correct for 2 months. Is it even possible to use that much gas in 2 months?
I have a 4 bed semi-detached, double galzed house, a wife and 2 teenage children. Gas central heating which is on for 4 hours in the morning a couple at lunch time and 6 hours in the evening. We also have a gas hob.

my new direct debits starting January are as follows;
£150/ month gas
£100/ month elec

But at this rate they wont cover my usage.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

KimYeovil

You use heating for twice as long as typical. £250 is surely pretty average for a winter month - the country's average payment spread over the year is a touch over £100. You would expect to pay two or three times this in winter. If you heat all four bedrooms then it does not seem expensive.

Your electricity use is pretty high.

I'm sure you have plenty of scope for reducing your consumption. But as you are a high user make sure you are on a good tariff - check the comparison sites.

Mrs_Thrify

lawriejw wrote: »

I obtain both my elec and gas from British Gas. For the past few years I have been in a constant battle with them as my consumption and direct debits never seemed to tie up. By November of 2009 I was £600 in debit for gas and £500 in credit for elec. They cancelled both direct debits and I got them to transfer the credit from the elec to pay some of the gas debit and the balance I paid by credit card. This then left me a balance of zero on both accounts. The new direct debits will start January.
On the 14th of this month I submitted meter readings and have just received the following bills.

Gas £491.38 in debit
Elec £278.53 in debit.

Surely that cannot be correct for 2 months. Is it even possible to use that much gas in 2 months?
I have a 4 bed semi-detached, double galzed house, a wife and 2 teenage children. Gas central heating which is on for 4 hours in the morning a couple at lunch time and 6 hours in the evening. We also have a gas hob.

my new direct debits starting January are as follows;
£150/ month gas
£100/ month elec

But at this rate they wont cover my usage.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

I hope my comments are appreciated...just wanted to say YOU HAVE THE CH ON FOR 12 HOURS A DAY IN A 4 BED HOUSE!!! this is ware your money is going. Compaired with ours - 1 hour in the morning and 3 hours in the evening. You def. need to turn the heat down or pay a large bill?

DVardysShadow

lawriejw wrote: »

I obtain both my elec and gas from British Gas. For the past few years I have been in a constant battle with them as my consumption and direct debits never seemed to tie up. By November of 2009 I was £600 in debit for gas and £500 in credit for elec. They cancelled both direct debits and I got them to transfer the credit from the elec to pay some of the gas debit and the balance I paid by credit card. This then left me a balance of zero on both accounts. The new direct debits will start January.
On the 14th of this month I submitted meter readings and have just received the following bills.

Gas £491.38 in debit
Elec £278.53 in debit.

Surely that cannot be correct for 2 months. Is it even possible to use that much gas in 2 months?
I have a 4 bed semi-detached, double galzed house, a wife and 2 teenage children. Gas central heating which is on for 4 hours in the morning a couple at lunch time and 6 hours in the evening. We also have a gas hob.

my new direct debits starting January are as follows;
£150/ month gas
£100/ month elec

But at this rate they wont cover my usage.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

The meters. What about the blddy meters? It was a smart move to put the amounts outstanding for Gas and Electricity together. But if they were both based on estimated readings, and you did not know how far out the estimates might be then you should not be surprised at how it has turned out.

macman

Since you will presumably have the readings from when you got the balance back to zero, why don't you look at your submitted readings and then calculate what your usage has been and (accordingly) approx what your bill should be?

Fire_Fox

lawriejw wrote: »

I obtain both my elec and gas from British Gas. For the past few years I have been in a constant battle with them as my consumption and direct debits never seemed to tie up. By November of 2009 I was £600 in debit for gas and £500 in credit for elec. They cancelled both direct debits and I got them to transfer the credit from the elec to pay some of the gas debit and the balance I paid by credit card. This then left me a balance of zero on both accounts. The new direct debits will start January.
On the 14th of this month I submitted meter readings and have just received the following bills.

Gas £491.38 in debit
Elec £278.53 in debit.

Surely that cannot be correct for 2 months. Is it even possible to use that much gas in 2 months?
I have a 4 bed semi-detached, double galzed house, a wife and 2 teenage children. Gas central heating which is on for 4 hours in the morning a couple at lunch time and 6 hours in the evening. We also have a gas hob.

my new direct debits starting January are as follows;
£150/ month gas
£100/ month elec

But at this rate they wont cover my usage.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Ten hours of heating per day is a lot, what is the ambient temperature? Do you have cavity wall or extra thick loft insulation? Four adults .... electric power shower by any chance? Tumble dryer? Do you use eco settings on the washing machine and dishwasher?

missile

My CH is "ON" 24/7. On my clock I set the minimum temperature for the time, i.e. 23.00 through 07.30 18 degrees 07.30 through 09.00 19 degrees etc.

My bills are not are a lot lower than OP. I would suggest it depends on the quality of insulation in the property and the temperature which you consider comfortable.

JennyR68

My electric central heating is on 24/7 in a 3 bed semi with family of 5 and is only £140ish a month at the moment. And I thought gas was meant to be cheaper!

macman

£140 a month is cheap?! That's £1,680 pa.

JennyR68

macman wrote: »

£140 a month is cheap?! That's £1,680 pa.

Don't be daft, there is only a couple of months this cold, I said £140 this time of year not every month!

Pincher

Are there actually people who just say the bill is too high, because they FEEL it's too high?

Please show that you have actually tried to work out the bill. If your equations include the number of children again, you should send your Maths GCSE certificate back to your school.