MERGED: Huge / crazy Utility Bills - Help & Advice

wishing4amoneytree

wow! maybe being extra specially good is working then! Maybe if I keep it up I may be able to even it out a bit before the next reading! the most it went up over night was 14 units i think but the tumble dryer was on for ages! x

skintchick

Tumble drier??!! :eek: DO NOT USE IT! That will cos you loads - I stick my washing on airers and it is dry in two days - if you stick it over a rad it will dry quicker.

wishing4amoneytree

I know!!!:o I hate using it! but sometimes I am TOO impatient!!!! I am really going to try and be good though! It is now a mission to see how LITTLE electric I can use! if 54 units in 6 days is good I will see if I can beat it!

I thought about changing to energy saving lightbulbs but my mum has them and I just hate how dull they are when you first switch them on? do they REALLY save you that much in electric?

I have become somewhat obsessed with watching my dial spin on the electric meter! I have noticed it spins twice as fast with the kettle on as it does with the halogen hob on so I might swap to hob kettle?? as I DO drink ALOT of tea:D

satu08

cmacneil wrote: »

Hi all -

Slightly off topic, and this is one of those how-long-is-a-piece-of-string questions.

I am trying to compare my electricity usage against others. I live in a purpose built building with neighbours above, below and to one side of my flat. I am here with my girlfriend. We're in Central London with EDF Energy. We have a social lifestyle - sometimes we're at home with friends (hence using more electricity for cooking), sometimes we're out (therefore less electricity for lights, cooking etc those nights). We have guests stay with us up to 5 days a month. We just have electricity (no gas or other energy sources). We have the usual mod cons and run the dishwasher and washing machine 2 - 3 times each per week. We're on Economy 7. We have electric heating, and no A/C.

Over the winter (Dec '05 to Mar '06) we used about 2,600 units at night and 3,400 units during the day. During the summer we used (Jul to Sep) we used 1,000 at night and 675 during the day.

I'd be interested to hear from other people in 1-bedroom flats who lead a similar lifestyle and can tell me if our usage is consistent with their own.

Cheers,
Chris

I wanted to come on and find out if the bill we've recentley been sent is correct ... we've recentley moved into a property with economy 7 and no gas supply. I've never had this before in any property that I've lived in. We've only been living here 2 months and have had our first bill the meter readings show that in this 2 month period we've used:

day energy: 322 units
night energy: 3618 units

considering that we're in the same situation as cmacneil above, we live in a 2 bed new build flat (10 yrs old at most). 2 of us live here, we have the washing machine on 2/3 times a week ( but always at night) and small dishwasher maybe once a week if that, also at night. Our boiler is programmed to come on at night and heat hot water, we've had the night storage heaters turned off since we moved in, so no heating costs included in this and we monitor our electricity usage to the extreme - appliances are never left on stand-by we're careful to always turn lights off etc! Does anyone else think our night time usage seem very high for our circumstances - we've just had a bill come in at 240 pounds for 2 months only.

Your advice would be very much appreciated.

Cardew

satu08 wrote: »

I wanted to come on and find out if the bill we've recentley been sent is correct ... we've recentley moved into a property with economy 7 and no gas supply. I've never had this before in any property that I've lived in. We've only been living here 2 months and have had our first bill the meter readings show that in this 2 month period we've used:

day energy: 322 units
night energy: 3618 units

considering that we're in the same situation as cmacneil above, we live in a 2 bed new build flat (10 yrs old at most). 2 of us live here, we have the washing machine on 2/3 times a week ( but always at night) and small dishwasher maybe once a week if that, also at night. Our boiler is programmed to come on at night and heat hot water, we've had the night storage heaters turned off since we moved in, so no heating costs included in this and we monitor our electricity usage to the extreme - appliances are never left on stand-by we're careful to always turn lights off etc! Does anyone else think our night time usage seem very high for our circumstances - we've just had a bill come in at 240 pounds for 2 months only.

Your advice would be very much appreciated.

Without heating, it is almost impossible to use 3,618 kWh in 2 months at night.

Estimated meter readings??

Wrong meter readings??

You are paying for previos occupants electricty??

satu08

Cardew wrote: »

Without heating, it is almost impossible to use 3,618 kWh in 2 months at night.

Estimated meter readings??

Wrong meter readings??

You are paying for previos occupants electricty??

Thanks Cardew,

I've since contacted our caretaker and got him to open up the meter cupboard for us... It's pretty obvious our Lettings agents have been reading the wrong meter for some time - how they managed it I've no idea when the other meter in the cupboard is on superdeal so has 3 readings not 2 like us.

Southern have agreed to calculate an average daily rate for us and work back our start reading using this - So, we now have a £50 bill as opposed to a £250.

Letting agents are a nightmare!!

Trialia

Cursing, here. My housemate and I just received a gas&electricity bill this morning for what amounts to roughly six weeks - for £454.

There are only two of us in a three-bedroom house, we have no tumble drier, and we don't use THAT much electricity. I have a disability that means in very cold temperatures I have to have the heating on or be in a great deal of pain. I'm on benefits and he works part-time - is there anything we can do to reduce this? We're with Scottish Power (and believe me, with past experience I would change supplier if I could, but the landlord says no, and I'm moving out soon anyway).

Thanks...

Premier_2

Trialia wrote: »

Cursing, here. My housemate and I just received a gas&electricity bill this morning for what amounts to roughly six weeks - for £454.

There are only two of us in a three-bedroom house, we have no tumble drier, and we don't use THAT much electricity. I have a disability that means in very cold temperatures I have to have the heating on or be in a great deal of pain. I'm on benefits and he works part-time - is there anything we can do to reduce this? We're with Scottish Power (and believe me, with past experience I would change supplier if I could, but the landlord says no, and I'm moving out soon anyway).

Thanks...

There's nothing you can do to reduce what you've already consumed.

You can however reduce what you consume in the future. Two possibilities:
1. Look to see that you are on the lowest priced tariff and supplier for your consumption.
2. Use less energy.

Lets address these in turn:
1. Use the comparison sites in the resource bar above to check your best option for a supplier & tariff.
You say the LL won't allow you to change supplier, but will he allow you to change traiff within the existing supplier? Furthermore, if you are the person named on the utility supplier's account, there's not much a LL can do to prevent you from switching supplier. You're only responsibility is to return the property at the end of the tenancy in the same condition as it was originally let, less any reasonable wear & tear, and that could be said to include having the same utility suppliers - so just arrange to have them switched back before you end the tenancy.

2. It's a fact of life that energy costs have increased significantly over the past year and whilst they have recently dropped by a very small amount in comparison, many expect them to rise again next year. The age of cheap energy is over, deal with it. "Wear a second jumper" as the boss of Centrica advised.
As you are moving to another property soon, perhaps you could look to ensure the new place is energy efficient too. Our government has now decreed that all properties whether for sale or for let in England & Wales must include an Energy Performance Certificate for the property.

ellawood

hi can anyone help with ideas how to cut our high bills we live in a 2 bedroom end of terrece house and our dd for elec is 140 a month and 60 for gas they did want 170 for the elec but we really could not afford that and they accepted 140 but we are finding that high we have a combi bolier which is just over 3 years old use a shower when we can normal things like kettle toaster fridge freezer hoover washing machine dishwasher tv lights laptop
we are thinking of going back to a pay meter but i did think it might cost more not less so not sure what to do for the best

thanks ella

Magentasue

ella: I would say your gas is reasonable depending on how much heating you use.

Your electricity is sky high. Are your meter readings estimated or actual?

First thing you need to do is work out how many kwh (electricity meter units) you use a day on average. If you have actual meter readings, you can just divide by the number of days charged. You could also read your meter at the same time every day for a week and look for patterns and an average. We are a family of six and average about 15kwh a day this time of year and pay £43 a month.

You shouldn't be paying much more than that unless you have electric heaters.