Gas bill - £170 December-March - is this normal?

Tiggerwendy_2

Hi
I've just submitted our meter readings to Scottish Power and they've calculated our bill as being £75 for electricity and £170 for mid December - yesterday. I was shocked, but is this normal?

We live in a 3 bed semi house which is of BISF construction (a sort of prefab). We have 8 radiators. We don't have the heating on timer - we just put it on when we're cold which is most evenings and sometimes when we're home in the day. The lounge takes AGES to warm up and is always the coldest room. The hall is always really hot (the radiator has no adjustable control, neither has the bathroom). Upstairs is always warm when the heating is on so I presume we're not losing heat to the loft. The one room we really want warm is the one that's the hardest to get warm! Typical!

I need to learn how to use the central heating controls, but we do have a complicated timer thing that we could use. I have no idea what the current temperature is set to.

Is it generally better to have the heating on longer but lower so the temperature doesn't fluctuate so violently between nothing and full on?

Is there somewhere to look to see what average bills are to compare if we're abnormally high users? I'm too embarassed to ask friends incase ours is super high!!

PNPSUKNET

Ask you energy supplier for an energy efficency visit, they are free and will help.

DancerSupreme

That seems pretty reasonable to me. I work on the principle that if it is less than £80 per month in the winter months you are doing ok. I have a LO though so try to keep the house at a constant heat so he doesn't get poorly.

Others may well disagree with me though.

keith1950

Hi, average annual consumption is around 21,000 kwh for gas and 3600 kwh for electricity. I used around £210 gas for the 12 weeks from 1st December. Considering its been the coldest winter for a very long time your useage seems quite reasonable to me.!! There has been much debate about the leave it on low/leave it on timer situation and it has been proved that it is more economical to switch the heating off rather than leave it on a low setting.

Ilona

I don't know how to use my central heating timer controls either, that's why I switch it on when I'm cold and off when I'm not. I can't get my head round the logic of it being cheaper to leave it on low all the time. There has been endless debate over that one.

I am not really understanding your figures, yes, sorry I am now that I have re read it. £170 for gas seems reasonable for that type of house for two people in the winter. Mine was half that, for a three bedroomed brick built semi, but I am an exception, I will put on more clothes before I put the heating on. Also two people have to agree on how much cold they can stand. I am a pretty robust outdoorsy type, so someone working in a centrally heated office could not possibly stand to live with me. My electricity bill for that period was also half of yours, but then again, two people would be coming and going at different times and using different appliances.

Sorry I don't know where you can look for average figures, everyone's consumption is different. If you think your meters are faulty can you get them checked with the utilities company?
Ilona
PS. There was a price increase half way through the last quarter.

Norman_Castle

I have a LO though so try to keep the house at a constant heat so he doesn't get poorly.

What is a LO ?

penrhyn

Little One, more likely to get sick if too warm.

wrightk

seems a very reasonable price to me. Ours 2 years ago was £600 just for the gas!

Learn about energy efficiency and things you can do at home to help.
Turning the heating on only when your cold will burn use more energy and cost you more than if you had it on a constant but low temperature throughout the house, thats because from when you turn the heating on you have to wait for the whole house to get up to temperature then you turn it off, and back on wasting so much energy to heat up the house, only for the house to get freezing cold again!

If you can get the hang of thermostats and have the heating on constant, set your thermostat to low but comfortable temperature, might take a few days to tweak then your boiler will kick in just to top up the temperature that you have set when it dips below this

Tiggerwendy_2

Thank you!

Thanks for all the replies - I feel much better now! I didn't think we were extravagent users, but know that we have had the heating on a fair bit since we moved in in October.

I will certainly take up the suggestion of an energy efficiency visit as it would be very interesting to see what they suggest.

Thanks again everyone and roll on the summer! Was nice to have a sneaky preview of it today here in Gloucester.

sickofusernames

Wow, I wished our gas was only that much. Our's came in at £430 but we do have a rubbish combi that's only 70% efficient according to BG. We have two little ones so had to keep the heating on almost all day for the whole 3 months, the way this cold weather is carrying on I doubt we'll build up much credit on the gas for next winter.

It's shocking to think the cold nights will soon be upon us again in 6 months or so - we best have a good summer.

lucylucky

Your £170 is just a little higher than out monthly DD!