Gas Prepayment - Help

fizzysparkle

I pay my gas & electicity via pre-payment meters and am paying off arrears at a rate of £6.00 per week to British Gas (for electricity), £6.00 per week to Scottish Power (for gas).

I put £20.00 per week in meter for Electricity and £40-£45 per week for Gas. Sometimes I have to use emergency gas to tide me over.

I live in:

Mid-terrace house
3 bedrooms
1 kitchen
1 living room
1 bathroom
Gas central heating, gas fire and dual fuel oven
Electric washer
Microwave oven
Fridge & freezer
Big chest freezer
Two TVs
Two computers
Kids playstation

Please can somebody advise me if I,m paying over the top for my gas & electricity use or are my payments about average?

Thank you.
from
Demented Karen

Premier_2

So deducting the debt repayment, you are currently paying about £14 per week for electric and about £34-£39 per week for gas.

The electric is easy as it probably doesn't vary much over the year, so would equate to about £700 per year. That is quite a high usage, and you should look to reduce the consumption. If you could halve it you would be doing really well, but a reduction of say 25% should be achievable.

Gas is more difficult as this time of year you will be using more to heat the home. However at present you are consuming about £140 per month on gas. Again, a high consumption and with a little effort you should be able to halve this.

You can search the internet for advice on how to reduce consumption and/or speak to your supplier(s) for advice.

spiro

Make sure the last 3 items are switched off and not left on standby.
If you have any mobile phone chargers make sure they are unplugged when not is used.

How many hours per day do you have the GSH/hot water on for? How many people (adults and kids) in the house.

KeithBoy

Fizzy,

As Premier says it does seem like your usage is very high. I had a look at averages on the web and it looks like in the region of:

Gas £50 to £60 PM
Elec £25 to £35 PM

This is for a 3 bed house with Gas central heating. Normal usage in winter for heating is 5 - 6 hours a day are you worse than this?

I know it may not be possible but you should look at changing the way you pay for Gas & Elec. Try looking at the comparrison websites to see if normal metered direct debit payments can help, it should do as I think pre-payment is more expensive.

For the electricity get one of these monitors to see how much you use hour by hour. Turning things on and off can give you quite a shock at your hourly usage.

I have a two bed house, 2 bathroom etc. etc monthly Gas £37 and Elec £23 this is with Atlantic online monthly direct debit.

Regards John