Gas and electric bill ridiculous!

Lilith1980

Hi all, well I checked the meters and the electric meter was lower than their estimate but our gas meter was slightly higher than their estimate. So I'm assuming that next month the bill will be higher?

I spoke to our landlady who couldn't understand why it was £200 for one month's gas,although she said there had been a price increase not long ago . Any tips people can give to get the bill down would be great please...

The only radiators we have on are in the rooms we use. I have turned the main thermostat down and also the temperature controls on the radiators themselves. The place feels colder but other than wrapping up in layers I'm not sure what else to do.

spiro

Given your December bill and the fact it got colder it is not suprising that your Jan bill was higher.

You need to look at your CH and check:

1) Timings - hot water only need to come for about an hour before you get up and another hour in the evening, heating again 30-60 before get up until 30 min before you leave the house in the morning and 30min before you get home for a couple of hours.
2) Boiler Thermostat - if your hot water is boiling hot turn the boiler stat down.
3) Heating thermostat - check its location becuase if it is a draughty hallway you heating will be only longer as it tries to heat the hall. Also you shouldn't need it about 18c.
4) Radiators - if they dont have thermostats turn off/down those in rooms you dont use.
5) Clothing - dont sit round the house in shorts and turn the heating up to compensate.

Rememeber you use many times more gas per month over the winter than in the summer, that is why is it better to be on a tariff where you pay by direct debit as you pay the same every month.

Lilith1980

Hi, thanks for that.

We have a combination boiler. It comes on an hour before we get up and it goes off at 9am although I could probably change this to 8am - it's just because DH sometimes doesn't get up til late because he is self-employed but he is in bed so shouldn't notice!

It comes on an hour before we get home so could change this to 30 mins before we get home as well as going off 30 mins before we go to bed.

At the moment I'm paying whatever the estimated amount used is so should I switch to paying a fixed amount per month? What happens to over/underpayments?

Where do I find the heating thermostat? The boiler is upstairs in a cupboard. We are in a two-storey flat where the hallway is on the ground floor and it does tend to bring a draught up onto the first floor - should we put a thick curtain across the front door maybe to try and stop so much cold air coming up?

Andy_WSM

Lilith1980 wrote: »

should we put a thick curtain across the front door maybe to try and stop so much cold air coming up?

Yes, very inexpensive way of saving energy.

If you have a draught, then the heat is going somewhere. Try and find out where it is "leaking out".

nemoo

Lilith1980 wrote: »

Hi, thanks for that.
Where do I find the heating thermostat? The boiler is upstairs in a cupboard. We are in a two-storey flat where the hallway is on the ground floor and it does tend to bring a draught up onto the first floor - should we put a thick curtain across the front door maybe to try and stop so much cold air coming up?

Nifty way of quick fixing the draught problem is by using something like "draught excluder" (do a search for this and you'll find plenty - easy way to buy is to nip into one of the DIY stores) and go around the main openings (Doors/windows) and apply them. We had similar draught issues with our front door so in winter the small area between our front door and porch door tends to be as cool as outside and this little quick fix costing £6 contained the problem to great extent.

As for thermostat, normally you'll have a control unit where you can control the on/off times for the combi boiler and a separate control either in the form of a dial or digital console usually installed in living room etc. to control your room temperature. However, these days you can have a single control console that doubles up as room thermostat and boiler control as well. So it probably is a matter of going around the house identify the thermostat (or perhaps ask the LA as she should know where it is - presumably)

Lilith1980

Hi, yes someone has mentioned to me about the thermostat.

There is no dial anywhere in the place, but there are two dials on the boiler for water and heating. No numbers on them but a thick line that gets thinner so I am supposing that these control the temperatures?

If so, should the heating be set to 18c? What about the water?

Thanks for your help, I must sound so daft not knowing all this

lindens

I think some combi boilers don't have a main thermostat but use individual ones on each radiator

Lilith1980

Yeah most of the radiators have dials going up to number 5 so I've now turned these down. The radiators in the two bathrooms just have open and closed valves but we keep them turned off anyway.

When I spoke to the landlady about the bill she asked if I had turned the temperature down on the boiler so I'm assuming this would be the thermostat?

mulan_2

Maybe you could try to record your meter readings every week using imeasure. Look for it online! It is a free energy monitoring software fro home.

I use it and the only thing I do is put our gas and electricity meter readings weekly and the software gives us feedback on money spent and carbon emissions. I can keep an eye on our consumption weekly and see if any changes we do is worth it.

I also joined the MSE carbon club to compare with other MSE readers.

prettyvacant77

I'm in a similar position having inherited a UW supply from the previous tenants in my flat!

Getting into taking regular meter readings is essential to stay on top of the bills and make sure you are being billed accurately, getting billed too little is just as bad as getting billed too much :eek:

You can submit your meter readings online on the UW site on a monthly basis if you like. If you submit one on the last day of the month, they'll bill you for what you have actually used rather than estimating (give them a call to make sure you're account it setup for this). This means that in winter you'll get some heftier bills but they'll drop way down in the summer. Some people prefer to have a balanced DD right across the year for budgeting purposes so it's not for everyone.

UW have got their faults (you could venture into the gigantic UW thread if you're feeling brave!!) but I quite like being able to submit readings every month and getting an accurate bill. Well, apart from in a cold snap