MERGED: Huge / crazy Utility Bills - Help & Advice

overworked_underpaid

I have had the shock of my life when I received my gas bill from Scottish Power this week. It is an unbelivable £353.55 for a 3 month period. Both start and end readings are the actual meter readings and not esitmates. The only assumption that they have made is from 1st of March when the prices went up. I paid around £250 for the same period last year with the same supplier and thought that, that was high.

irnbru_2

overworked_underpaid wrote:

Both start and end readings are the actual meter readings and not esitmates.

Yes but in comparison to last year, has your consumption risen?

Cardew

simon23 wrote:

Hi
i'm a student living in a large house with 7 other people, our latest bill for electricity and gas scared us quite a lot! :eek: its for the last five months and came originally to just over £800 which we thought was rather a lot leading us to call powergen to question it, they then took another reading and put the amount up to £1500! i know we probably use quite a bit power being students using computers and things but i was wondering if the amount seemed accurate or whether we're being screwed, and also if we are is there anything we can do to challenge the company.....thanks people :beer:

It is quite possible for 8 people in a large(probably old and badly insulated?) student house to run up huge heating/lighting bills over 5 winter months.

This is especially so if some of you are like my student son. He doesn't seem to know that lights turn off as well as on, and if the room heating gets too hot you open the window to cool it down and get some fresh air; it is easier than turning off a radiator! All his house mates were the same.

The only way you can challenge it is if the meter readings at the start/end of the period are wrong.

I assume you took over the house at the start of term in October? Did anyone read the meter or did you take the landlord's word for it?
Or was it an estimated reading?
Or was some debit balance carried forward and you are paying for it?

I doubt it is caused by a washing machine as I think all students save up their washing for their Mother to do.

simon23

very good points, some of my friends do seem to like artificial lights rather than natural sunlight! i do understand that the bills are never going to be small with so many people in a large old house but the amount just seemed to double due as powergen said to a "inaccurate reading!" thanks for the advice, i'm going to go through the paperwork to find out the amount of units we have used and try working that out against the price per unit from powergen to get an approximate measure of how much we've used! bloody students!!

makings

@IrnBru: We don't call in to correct estimates unless they are way off - obviously we won't be doing that any more

For further info, figures from the bill are as follows:

4497 18/01/2006 (Estimate)
4728 28/02/2006 (Estimate)
231 units used

4728 28/02/2006 (Estimate)
4862 23/03/2006 (Provided)
134 units used

kwh used in total 11588

3967 kWh @ 2.492p
287 kWh @ 4.412p
6821 kWh @ 2.043p
513 kWh @ 3.616p

That's it, really.

I will look back at the previous bill(s) we had for comparison and I am also thinking of getting British Gas out to examine the boiler's efficiency, as this bill is ridiculous. We used to live in a 5 bed detached and our highest bill ever was £150, and usually about £100 per quarter...

Any more thoughts?

Kind regards,

Mike K.

Cardew

makings wrote:

@IrnBru: We don't call in to correct estimates unless they are way off - obviously we won't be doing that any more

For further info, figures from the bill are as follows:

4497 18/01/2006 (Estimate)
4728 28/02/2006 (Estimate)
231 units used

4728 28/02/2006 (Estimate)
4862 23/03/2006 (Provided)
134 units used

kwh used in total 11588

3967 kWh @ 2.492p
287 kWh @ 4.412p
6821 kWh @ 2.043p
513 kWh @ 3.616p

That's it, really.

I will look back at the previous bill(s) we had for comparison and I am also thinking of getting British Gas out to examine the boiler's efficiency, as this bill is ridiculous. We used to live in a 5 bed detached and our highest bill ever was £150, and usually about £100 per quarter...

Any more thoughts?

Kind regards,

Mike K.

11,588 kWh in 9 weeks is high but IMO not outrageously so.

You have an Imperial meter so presumably you have an older house - what is the insulation like?

For comparison I checked my consumption over the same 9 weeks and it was approx 10,500 kWh which is about normal for me, and my house is well insulated.

Curry_Queen

Cardew wrote:

11,588 kWh in 9 weeks is high but IMO not outrageously so.

You have an Imperial meter so presumably you have an older house - what is the insulation like?

For comparison I checked my consumption over the same 9 weeks and it was approx 10,500 kWh which is about normal for me, and my house is well insulated.

My annual usage isn't much higher than those figures quoted! :eek:

I live in a 1950's 3-bed house and my heating/water is provided by a gas back boiler (I never use the gas fire) and also cook with gas (large range oven) and according to my most recent gas bill (BG) I used 3770 kWh at a cost of £101.26 using actual readings between Dec 28th - Mar 15th.

Incidentally, had I been with nPower (who I am now in the process of switching to) this bill would have cost just £82.17!!! :rolleyes:

makings

Thanks both.

As previously mentioned, we're in a 1957 3 bed detached. There's no cavity wall insulation as there is no cavity wall The loft is well insulated though, and we are planning to dry line all the external walls.

We have a combi boiler, a Worcester K28 if memory serves. It's been inspected at the start of BG cover, but we may get them out to see if it's not working as well as it should...

Kind regards,

Mike K.

Cardew

makings wrote:

Thanks both.

As previously mentioned, we're in a 1957 3 bed detached. There's no cavity wall insulation as there is no cavity wall The loft is well insulated though, and we are planning to dry line all the external walls.

We have a combi boiler, a Worcester K28 if memory serves. It's been inspected at the start of BG cover, but we may get them out to see if it's not working as well as it should...

Kind regards,

Mike K.

I didn't see where you mentioned the 1957 3 bed detached; where was that?

I believe it is unusual for a 1957 brick built house not to have cavity insulation; not sure about stone. Anyway dry lining, if done properly, will make a considerable difference to your bills I would think.

Curry_Queen

What is dry lining?