Please help me look at my Gas & Electricity Bill - over £400 per Q

Solid_Bruce

Hi my Gas & Electricity has always been high.. can you guys help me take a look and offer some advice?

Thanks in advance

Provider Britis Gas

Postcode SE11 5NJ

Electricity -

2546.00 kwh = £287.35
Discounts = Dual Fuel + Prompt Pay = £6.59 credit
VAT at 5% = £14.03
TOTAL = £294.79

Gas -

3683.37 kwh = £134.22
Discounts = Prompt Pay £2.55 credit
VAT at 5% = £6.58
TOTAL = £138.25

GRAND TOTAL = £433.04

Our Gas and Electricy bills are usually very high, but have no idea why

We live in a 3 bedroom council flat. Only 3 people live here. Normal use I presume, nothing out of the norm.

These bills seem ridiculously high but I have never known how to change providers.
Can I haggle with British Gas, am I leaking some electricity somewhere? someone suggests neighbours might be stealing, is that possible? Are there extra hidden costs of changing providers?

Please help!! Thanks all in advance

macman

What period do those bills cover, and how do you heat your house and your hot water? Are they estimated readings or actual? What you really need to do is calculate your annual consumption, not just the last quarter-which will have been the most expensive during the winter months, Then use one of the comparison sites inputting your annual consumption.
Which BG tariff are you on?
If you're on the standard dual fuel tariff, then you are throwing money away, as that is the most expensive. If you pay quarterly on receipt of bill you are also cutting yourself off from all the best tariffs, which are on fixed monthly direct debits.
You can't haggle with BG, but you can change to a cheaper provider or tariff.
Having said that, £433 for the coldest winter in years doesn't look particularly high.

Solid_Bruce

macman wrote: »

What period do those bills cover, and how do you heat your house and your hot water? Are they estimated readings or actual? What you really need to do is calculate your annual consumption, not just the last quarter-which will have been the most expensive during the winter months, Then use one of the comparison sites inputting your annual consumption.
Which BG tariff are you on?
If you're on the standard dual fuel tariff, then you are throwing money away, as that is the most expensive. If you pay quarterly on receipt of bill you are also cutting yourself off from all the best tariffs, which are on fixed monthly direct debits.
You can't haggle with BG, but you can change to a cheaper provider or tariff.
Having said that, £433 for the coldest winter in years doesn't look particularly high.

Thank you very much for your reply.

1) These bills are quarterly
2) I just checked, we use a Worcester 24cdi which gives us hot water all the time and central heating on a timer which is off at the moment.
3) The readings are all Actual
4) I think its Dual Fuel tariffs.. which tariff would you recommend if I could change this?
5) The last quarterly bill was -

Electricty - £223.56
Gas - £169.79

6) I can do Direct Debit, what kind of discount should I expect?

Thanks again for all help.

dannymccann

Is your boiler (Worcester cdi) a gas one? And it provides your heating and hot water?

If so, I would be very concerned about your electricity consumption. Are you using an electric heater in one or 2 rooms? Gas is typically 3 times cheaper than electricity so you should be using your GCH instead. Do you have a backup electric immersion heater perhaps for hot water which is stuck on 24/7?

Solid_Bruce

dannymccann wrote: »

Is your boiler (Worcester cdi) a gas one? And it provides your heating and hot water?

If so, I would be very concerned about your electricity consumption. Are you using an electric heater in one or 2 rooms? Gas is typically 3 times cheaper than electricity so you should be using your GCH instead. Do you have a backup electric immersion heater perhaps for hot water which is stuck on 24/7?

Thanks for your help here. I don't really understand so please bear with me.

1) How can I tell if its a Electric one or Gas one?
2) Yes the Worchester unit manages both hot water and heating
3) We have central heater.. just normal radiators in each room under the window.
4) No idea if I have a electric immersion heater. How can I tell?
5) Yes I have hot water 24/7. Whenever the hot water tap is on the red light on the Worcester unit lights up and it starts making a noise.

Thanks again for your help. I would so love to find a solution for this. Been asking my friends who have much larger families and homes and even their energy bills are not as high as mine.

keith1950

Hi, I agree with dannymccann, to me your gas useage seems quite reasonable but your electricity is astromonical. Unless you have some kind of electric heating I would of expected between £90 and £130 per quarter. If you cannot pinpoint why your electricity is so high ask them to check the meter.
From memory I seem to remember that average gas comsumption is 20500 kwh/year and average electricity consumption is 3600 kwh/YEAR. So, on average figures, you appear to have used nearly 9 months of electricity in 3 months!!!

Solid_Bruce

keith1950 wrote: »

Hi, I agree with dannymccann, to me your gas useage seems quite reasonable but your electricity is astromonical. Unless you have some kind of electric heating I would of expected between £90 and £130 per quarter. If you cannot pinpoint why your electricity is so high ask them to check the meter.
From memory I seem to remember that average gas comsumption is 20500 kwh/year and average electricity consumption is 3600 kwh/YEAR. So, on average figures, you appear to have used nearly 9 months of electricity in 3 months!!!

Thanks for your help!

Heres info on the meter -


22 Jan 10 - actual 03828 We read your meter
8 Apr 10 - actual 06374 We read your meter

= 2546.00 kWh used over 77 days (actual)

This bill is £297.79. The previous quarterly bill came to £223.56 so I presume it was also pretty high.

When you say ask them to check my meter do you mean ask them to see if there is a fault with it?

Getting a little paronoid now.. you are saying I'm consuming 3 x the average houshold So sad.. we hardly use anything.. we barely even watch TV.

keith1950

Yes ask them to check if the meter is faulty.Have you tried turning off all electric appliances you can think of for an hour or so and seeing if the meter reading still rises.

dannymccann

Solid_Bruce wrote: »

Thanks for your help here. I don't really understand so please bear with me.

1) How can I tell if its a Electric one or Gas one?
2) Yes the Worchester unit manages both hot water and heating
3) We have central heater.. just normal radiators in each room under the window.
4) No idea if I have a electric immersion heater. How can I tell?
5) Yes I have hot water 24/7. Whenever the hot water tap is on the red light on the Worcester unit lights up and it starts making a noise.

Thanks again for your help. I would so love to find a solution for this. Been asking my friends who have much larger families and homes and even their energy bills are not as high as mine.

Im no plumber but by your description that noise you hear is the gas burning to heat the water up. Do you have a pilot light? It also sounds like a combi if it starts up 'on demand'. Do you live in a new build property because AFAIK these dont come with conventional immersions anymore (a tank in the loft or upstairs cupboard that stores hot water, sometimes powered by electricity).

Something I did forget to mention - how and how often do you wash? 2x15 min electric showers a day for each of the 3 people in your house on a 9kwh shower = 75 mins = about 13kw x £0.1 = £1.30 x 70 days = £91 on its own

List everything electrical you use during one day, start now or tomorrow morning and everything you use that uses electricity note it down on a notepad and let us know. Same for your other half / kids / parents whatever. For example you have a 3 person household, maybe you have 3 50" plasma's going all at the same time, this will certainly push your leccy bill up considerably. Same for lights - are you on energy savers and turning them off in rooms you arent in? Wash everything at 90c. Are you absolutely sure there isnt an electric fan heater or electric fire being turned on somewhere?

Your circumstances sound familiar to mine with regards to the boiler and everything, yet my electricity costs £10 a month, even if I put an extra person in here I very much doubt it would immediately rise to £20 a month let alone £60+ at yours

Toomuchdebt

I have a Worcester boiler also and my electricity for this last quarter was £198 but that was with kids having lots of showers which I didn't realise used so much electricity, and also with the tumble drier being on every day.We got one of those electricity monitors and that is definitely helping reduce our usage.On the bill it says our daily use was 18kwh a day-now it comes to between 8 and 13.
Our gas on the other hand is way higher than yours due to lots of hot water being used(younger kids have baths not showers) and heating being on ALL winter(draughty bungalow and young kids who got cold at night), so your gas sounds about right.

macman

Something strange about these consumption figures. Leccy is far too high as already stated (for a house with a gas combi boiler). But to me the gas figure looks far too low (assuming the last bill is for Jan-March) for the coldest winter for years.