how much gas am I likely to use?

shelleywa

Hi,

I currently share a flat with a friend of mine, we are renting a 3 bed flat. The property has no gas supply, only storage heaters and electric heaters. As a result, our bills are pretty low, and I like it that way!

I want to move out in the near future and rent my own place, a 2 bed place (I will be working from home in the evenings, so will need my own space, really). However, a lot of the properties I have been looking at have a gas supply and, looking on the British Gas website, I notice that this is pretty much DOUBLE electricity prices. I won't be able to afford this.

If I moved into a house with a gas supply, what would be the minimum usage I would have to pay for? I assume the gas would be used to heat the water for a bath etc. but is there anything else that gas is compulsorary for? If I had an electric shower, turned off the central heating, used storage/electric heaters as and when I needed them (as I already do now) and had an electric cooker etc. would I be billed much for gas? Is there any sort of compulsorary monthly charge or is it literally pay for what you use?

Sorry if these seem like silly questions but I'm a bit of a young 'un and don't really have any experience with this - it's all rather confusing!

Many thanks for any suggestions/ideas.

Shelley :-)

amcluesent

I think you need to check the costs again. Like-for-like (per kWh) gas is cheaper than electricity, so most people would prefer gas C/H and gas for cooking to minimise bills.

Storage heaters are only affordable when you use off-peak electricity (Economy 7) and I expect you have a special meter for this in the current flat.

>Is there any sort of compulsorary monthly charge or is it literally pay for what you use?<

That really depends on the provider/tariff you sign up with, but tariffs with a standing charge are quite rare now

shelleywa

Thanks for this info. I got the figures from the British Gas website, where the average household spends double on gas than what it does on electricity. But I suppose it all depends on whether or not a property is run entirely on one or the other, or a mixture of both.

If gas is cheaper than electric and I don't struggle to pay my bill on a flat that is run entirely on electric, it is probably safe to assume that I won't have a problem keeping up with gas bills either.

Many thanks!

HappyMJ

shelleywa wrote: »

Thanks for this info. I got the figures from the British Gas website, where the average household spends double on gas than what it does on electricity. But I suppose it all depends on whether or not a property is run entirely on one or the other, or a mixture of both.

If gas is cheaper than electric and I don't struggle to pay my bill on a flat that is run entirely on electric, it is probably safe to assume that I won't have a problem keeping up with gas bills either.

Many thanks!

Ah yes they are assuming that the average household uses both gas and electric and spends double on gas than what they do on electric which is true but someone soley on electric would spend just as much, if not more, than the combined gas and electric bills of the household with GCH. You still need to heat the house and the water and you can't do that with the average 3,300kwh of electric.

If you are paying a one third share of a household bill and now will be paying the full bill on the 2 bed place then I would expect your bills to double. If you put a tenner in the pot every week for gas, electric and water then I'd up that to £20 in the new place.

amcluesent

I use lecky for cooking, everything else is gas in a 2-bed, single occupier and an budgeting about £900 for fuel in 2011.