Why is it so much?

Katinkka

Just been reading the dfw board and seen people who pay £30 a month each to gas and elec being told thats too much. We pay £76 a month for electricity and £60 for gas!!! I don't get it? Its summer, the heatings not even on..

We are on Npower btw

bengal-stripe

You must give us some more information.
For all we know, you might live in a 64-bed roomed palace.

Are your bills based on actual consumption or on estimates? Do you have any debts to the power company, pushing up your monthly debits? How many units have you actually used last month/last year?

bonnie_2

it's not too much, mine is £71.50 for gas and £35 electric.
I think people are living in the past and don't realise how much it has gone up by, or failing that they don't use it and sit in the dark with a blanket.

jolou68

I'm paying monthly direct debits of £30 electricity and £48.50 for Gas. I've just had my latest electric bill thru and they want to adjust the monthly payment to £85. I couldn't believe it. There is no way I can afford that. I spoke to the company and the lady I spoke to (actually very nice!) said I would have to put it up at least to £48 to cover my usage at the moment and another £16 on top of that if I wanted to make sure it covered anything over that for the next year - probably meaning their charges!) I agreed to pay £48. The problem is I'm with EDf (formerly SWEB) and I think these are one of the highest. I know Matrtin says to hold on before switching because they are all going up - but i'm not sure as and when I 'll be able to switch cos this last bill was for about £224 and I'd have to pay that off in full before swiching to a cheaper company.
I agree with Bonnie in that we don't realise how much the utilities have gone up.... but like everyone else - my problem is that my income is not going up in line with these massive increases! Now I've got to work out how my electric bill is quite so high. I thought I was pretty careful with lights etc - obviously not that careful!

Jet

I have a friend who lives down the road in exactly the same style of house. We live similar lifestyles (both single parents who work part time). She has 2 children, I have one.

We are both with N Power and have both just had our electricity bill in. Mine was £71, hers was £56.

It got me thinking about why mine is higher than hers and we had a conversation about it. And these are the differences.

She cooks by electric, I cook by gas.
She uses her washing machine every day, I use mine every other day.
She washes up by hand, I wash up with a dishwasher every other day.
She has a teenage daughter who uses hairdryer and straighteners every day, I have a 8 year old boy who obviously doesn't!
I have an electric shower which I use every day, her shower uses the hot water from her tank.
She has a tumble dryer, I don't.
We both are careful about turning off lights and don't leave things on standby.

My conclusion is that my electric shower is making the difference. What do you think?

oldandhappy

Although I have not taken too much notice of our overall usage in the past but since having an electric shower the bills are bigger..whether that is because of price increases I am unsure. I do know a power shower eats up the electric...but so does a tumble drier on full heat. Not having past bills I cannot compare much now.

Cardew

Jet wrote:

I have a friend who lives down the road in exactly the same style of house. We live similar lifestyles (both single parents who work part time). She has 2 children, I have one.

We are both with N Power and have both just had our electricity bill in. Mine was £71, hers was £56.

It got me thinking about why mine is higher than hers and we had a conversation about it. And these are the differences.

She cooks by electric, I cook by gas.
She uses her washing machine every day, I use mine every other day.
She washes up by hand, I wash up with a dishwasher every other day.
She has a teenage daughter who uses hairdryer and straighteners every day, I have a 8 year old boy who obviously doesn't!
I have an electric shower which I use every day, her shower uses the hot water from her tank.
She has a tumble dryer, I don't.
We both are careful about turning off lights and don't leave things on standby.

My conclusion is that my electric shower is making the difference. What do you think?

From the detail given your consumption should not be higher. So you firstly need to establish if your £71 is simply to cover your consumption or does it include an element for paying back a debit balance from an estimated bill. If £71 was for 3 months? that is not high.

Depending on the power of your electric shower it should cost about 80 pence an hour to run.

Jet

No £71 is the actual cost, not from estimated readings either. My friends bill is the same.

I'm not saying that £71 is high although it seems high to me! But was simply comparing the two bills.

Thanks for telling me about the shower based on my daily 5 min shower, based on the £.80 per hour, it should have cost less than £6 in 3 months.

Actually, how can I work out what things cost to run? The shower is 9.5kw, so I assume I can check my bill and see how much I am charged per kw hr. Is that right?

Cardew

Jet wrote:

Thanks for telling me about the shower based on my daily 5 min shower, based on the £.80 per hour, it should have cost less than £6 in 3 months.

Actually, how can I work out what things cost to run? The shower is 9.5kw, so I assume I can check my bill and see how much I am charged per kw hr. Is that right?

Yes a 9.5 kW will use a maximum of 9.5 kWh which at, say, 8p a kWh, is simple arithmetic. e.g. 76p an hour. Depending on the type of shower thermostat and the temperature of both the inlet water, and how hot you have the shower it could be a lot less than that sum.

It is fairly easy to check if your meter is handy. Try to switch off everything and note the reading - including the fractional readings on right - run your device/appliance and then read the meter again.

Most handbooks of washing machines, dishwashers etc will give the consumption of an average cycle, which on modern machines is a lot less than most people think. For plug in appliances you can buy a meter for £10 or so that will check your consumption


The problem with many web sites that give the average consumptions of appliances they give a worse case scenario - particularly for standby consumption.

chrislee765

You think your electric is high, our bill has come in at £135 a month!
We are with our local electricity distributer, which doesnt help. Using comparison sites we could save about £10 a month by changing.

We Live in a large 4 bed detatched,
We have 4 computers,
We have 6 TVs (most are left on standby)
We use the washing machine every day,
We use the diswasher every day,
We use the tumble dryer every day,
We barely use any lights,
We have a garden pool with a heater (a 12ft intex pool),
We have 3 power showers (in total about 4showers a day)
We have dual electric ovens (we only use 1 at a time)

I guess £125pm is right, comparing to your consumption.

Eek, time to start being economical, if not only for the money reasons, but for the environment

shopsalot

I used my new tumble dryer in my new kitchen for 3 months - I have just stopped paying £80 per month for the last 12 months to pay it off! (I now pay £45)

It can sometimes be just one appliance!

Why do I seem to spend more time spell checking my posts that typing them!!