Average costs?

supersupreme

Hi guys,

My girlfriend and I are moving into our first flat next month, having lived in student housing for 3/4 years. I was basically wondering what sort of costs we can expect to face in terms of bills, mainly utilities. The flat is a two bedroom, which are both fair sized, and a decent sized living room/kitchen. The boiler is only used to heat water, as the heating in the flat is electric (which we've heard costs slightly more).

We intend to be reasonably strict on ourselves, but does anyone have any rough ideas on the amounts we will be paying?

Cheers!

Swipe

That's a tough one to answer not knowing what type of electrical heating but if you budget £100 per month you shouldn't be far off the mark. I base this on my retired parents 3 bed bunaglow with storage heaters and immersion heater for hot water. They do have a wood burner for one room but your flat is prbably better insulated. They pay £90/month and this covers their annual usage

rsykes2000

Electric heating can cost 3* that of gas, not just slightly more. I would agree with the above and budget £100 for the moment, keep an eye on your readings - what I do is have a spreadsheet and keep weekly meter readings and then you can work out what your actual number of units used and therefore actual spend is.

persian_star

I would also agree £100 a month. That's what we pay for an electricity only 1 bed flat with 3 storage heaters and an immersion heater. We have economy 7 like most with storage heaters, with EDF, who are apparently the best rate for E7. Apart from the storage/immersion heaters (which gobble electricity but since they're only on at night obviously make the most of the E7) you'll find the biggest culprits are the electric shower if you have one, and white goods: fridge, cooker and washing machine.

So long as you're careful with those, you should be fine - if you can afford it maybe set up your DD at a slightly higher rate, say £120 a month, then you'll probably even get a rebate at the end of the year