Confused and Overwhelmed

lovelife_3

My gas and electricity bills are horrendous, we currently pay £270 a month by direct debit !!! and it is crippling us. We are with Npower for both utilities and on their standard tariff. We get a statement every 6 months and if it is an estimate i always do a reading and ring them up. they often underestimate i find. We spend £2000 a year on gas and £1000 on leccy! In my sick bed yesterday ( i have injured my knee) i decided i really needed to see if i could reduce our costs. I read all Martins blurb and that left me confused as to which comparison site to use, do i have to try them all? Went on the one he recommends as the most reliable, energyhelpline, £15 casback, but then all the results came up, showing good potential savings, but i just felt overwhelmed by choice! so decided to look on this forum, and now feel more worried than ever as to who we should go with/ avoid like the plague! Please help me ........

Ken68

Hi Love..you need to get off a standard tariff, online pric es are so much cheaper. And nPower have some real odd billing patterns (see the sculpting threads, better not tho, might confuse you).
Little point in comparing the comparison sites, stick to, say, Energyhelpline.
When moving use Cashback sites such as Quidco and Topcashback etc. Can make over £100 per move.
Before using Energyhelpline you need to find out exactly your annual usage in kwh's.
There are some energy companies that do simple billing tho Ebico are for low users , not sure about OVO.
Find out your exact usage post it here along with your area, someone will help.Also type of house.
You have come to the right place, lots of experts here.

Fran

That is a lot! Are you sure you're not in credit with them? The cheapest you can get depends on what area you live. I would suggest to limit your choice try 3 comparison sites and you should see similarities. You could then pick the top two or three and do a search on here to see if any of them have had complaints or are recommended.

Are there possible reasons the bills are so high, for instance faulty boiler, bad insulation? Could you save by heating less rooms or setting your timer for less hours? It sounds a huge amount for summer bills.

Edit, just seen Ken's post, yes maybe try 2 comparison sites to avoid confusion!

jinky67

I do ALL the comparison sites and write down GAS, ELECTRIC and DUAL fuel prices to do a proper comparison, all on one bit of paper so its obvious which is cheapest

I always find the same company tends to come out top then I pick that, going via Quidco or Topcashback, whichever offers most cashback

I have NEVER had a problem with any company I have dealt with

lovelife_3

Ken68 wrote: »

Hi Love..you need to get off a standard tariff, online pric es are so much cheaper. And nPower have some real odd billing patterns (see the sculpting threads, better not tho, might confuse you).
Little point in comparing the comparison sites, stick to, say, Energyhelpline.
When moving use Cashback sites such as Quidco and Topcashback etc. Can make over £100 per move.
Before using Energyhelpline you need to find out exactly your annual usage in kwh's.
There are some energy companies that do simple billing tho Ebico are for low users , not sure about OVO.
Find out your exact usage post it here along with your area, someone will help.Also type of house.
You have come to the right place, lots of experts here.

Thank you for your kind reply:)

I am in North Tyneside, NE12

My last bill ran from13.7.2009- 20.1.2010, so SIX months

usage was:-

Electricity 4218 kWh

Gas 35565 kWh

penrhyn

It would be worth trying to work out why you appear to be using so much energy.
Work out your consumption for gas and electric in Kilowatt Hours, use these figures (NOT how much you spend) in the comparison sites.

Have you taken any steps to minimise your energy use, draft proofing, loft insulation etc, turning down the central heating thermostat etc,

lovelife_3

Fran wrote: »

That is a lot! Are you sure you're not in credit with them? The cheapest you can get depends on what area you live. I would suggest to limit your choice try 3 comparison sites and you should see similarities. You could then pick the top two or three and do a search on here to see if any of them have had complaints or are recommended.

Are there possible reasons the bills are so high, for instance faulty boiler, bad insulation? Could you save by heating less rooms or setting your timer for less hours? It sounds a huge amount for summer bills.

Edit, just seen Ken's post, yes maybe try 2 comparison sites to avoid confusion!

I know it is horrendous!! We live in a large ramshackle Edwardian house, 3 floors, high ceilings, large rooms and single glazing, that combined with teenagers ,that are never out of the shower, leave doors open and lights, tv, laptops on all the time etc despite my constant rants Aargh. I need to review insulation, definately! i think there are some grants for this in our area, that will be my next job:)

duggo1

Wow - like others have said you really need to look at your useage. To give you a comparison there are 2 of us in a 4 bed house and our ANNUAL usage is:
Electric: 3700 Kwh
Gas: 12,000 Kwh

Your figures for six months made my eyes water!

spiro

lovelife wrote: »

combined with teenagers ,that are never out of the shower, leave doors open and lights, tv, laptops on all the time etc despite my constant rants

You need to clamp down on the kids and remember things like phone (etc) charges left plugged in use power. If they leave things on in there room, try removing it for a few days, at this time of year then shouldn't even need lighbulbs in their room. If you give them pocket money cut it every week they fail to turn things off. If you can get an energy montior and use it to show them how much it costs per hour to run things like tvs, laptops etc.

lovelife_3

duggo1 wrote: »

Wow - like others have said you really need to look at your useage. To give you a comparison there are 2 of us in a 4 bed house and our ANNUAL usage is:
Electric: 3700 Kwh
Gas: 12,000 Kwh

Your figures for six months made my eyes water!

I know it is terrible, is it possible to have a dodgy meter? We only turn the heating on when it is really cold, my cooker is electric, boiler is a combi about 10 years old serviced in October

spiro

Read you meter every day for the next few days and post your useage so people can see the average. This very cold winter may have made a different but atworst would probably only doubled a normal winter gas bill.

Your bill for 6 months shows: 22.6kwh/day elec and 194.8 for gas.
My bill for the last 6 months (4 bedroom, 2 adult house) was 10.6kwh/day elec and 31.8kwh/day gas. As you can see from my post and that of duggo1, you gas bill is well in excess of others.