£240 per month for Gas and Electric :(

niknaknat

I live in a 3 bed semi ( have prepayment meters, no debt) and pay an average of £250 pm for gas and electric, both with british gas.
We turn everything off at night and when we leave the house, and turn the heating on and off at differant points of the day/night. the trouble with our house is that the minute you turn the heating off, within 10 mins the house is cold again, it just doesn't seem to maintain any heat. We have double glazing and loft insulation but no cavity wall as our house is not suitable for it.
It is a MASSIVE drain on our finances, I seem to be feeding the meter more than myself ( especially in winter). As a large family we have a lot of out-goings and debt that we are paying off gradually.
Some days I have to make the decision as to whether we can afford to put more gas on the meter or make a meal for the kids. We dont recieve benefits so we can't get help from anywhere in reducing the cost of our fuel...its a lose lose situation at the minute, I say this as I have just had to switch on the emergency gas having only topped it up yesterday afternoon!!! That's £5 used in less than 24 hours!
I can only hope that something is done very soon to make these companies bring down the cost of fuel:mad:

jackieb

niknaknat, do you know how much insulation you have? Our house used to be the same - it got cold quickly after the heating went off. We had insulation but not much. We recently got it topped up by another foot and I can hardly believe the difference.

globalds

This x box ..Are you plugging it into a 60 inch screen?

The usage does sound insanely high... I would be turning everything off just to see if the meter actually stops ..Then work from there turning things back on ..That would include turning off the boiler for a while.

FredFlinstone

blimey im not expert but that does sound high to me. we live in a 3 bed semi and we have gas and rent arrears rpolled into our monthly payment and we pay 160 p/m for them both. were a family of four and my children dont seem to know the meaning of turning anything off if they are not using it or are not in the room seriously my house is like blackpool illuminations some tines. so if you guys are really energy efficient i.e turning things off then theres no way your bill should be that high i would get them out to check the metre also?

beachie

I don't understand why some of you have such high bills! :eek:

I live in a 2 bedroom flat and m usuage over the summer is around £15 a month with it increasing in the winter to around £25 a month.

I dont have gas so the above is entirely electric. I have not had the heating on yet and make sure I turn off every light.

Also make sure you turn your microwave off at the wall - do you really use the time on it? I live nothing on apart from the fridge overnight.

jackieb

beachie wrote: »

I don't understand why some of you have such high bills! :eek:

I live in a 2 bedroom flat and m usuage over the summer is around £15 a month with it increasing in the winter to around £25 a month.

I dont have gas so the above is entirely electric. I have not had the heating on yet and make sure I turn off every light.

Also make sure you turn your microwave off at the wall - do you really use the time on it? I live nothing on apart from the fridge overnight.

Several factors could account for some people using more than you though.

Do you live alone? A lot of people here have several people in the house.

You're in a flat. You have other flats above/below/next to you so you can get some heat from them. I noticed a big difference even moving from a terraced house to a detached one.

Some of us live up north. There can be a big difference in temperatures depending which part of the country you're in.

lemonpopsicle

Op have you turned off your electricity at the fuse box yet to see if the dial stops going round? We live in a big end terrace 6 bedroom Victorian house, there is no double glazing or wall insulation and we pay a total of£90 per month for gas/elec. There are 4 of us including 2 teenagers with their x boxes, wii's etc, everyone showers every day, and they're not great at turning stuff off. The only thing in our favour compared to you is that we are in a warmer part of the country, but I can't believe it can make that much difference. :eek:

MrsTinks

I have skipped a few pages but there are really 2 things to look at here... 1 is the actual energy usage on the meter - not the £. and 2nd the cost per kwh - heating a little tricker - and not my forte as we have heating oil and it's measurement granularity is down to 100 litre increments... SO helpful

mdolan

Getting the meter reading correct is very important. Don't look at the £££ section. What to do is switch everything off that you can. Then take the actual unit reading from the meter (kWh). 1 kWh=1 unit of electric.

Also take a note of the credit.

Run the xbox for 30 mins.

Take a note of the credit and also the kWh reading.

Check your kWh and £££ reading on a daily basis, and post back here with 4-5 days worth of results.

It could be your meter is reading kWh fine - but if the multiplier/tarriff is set wrong that would account for everything you have written. But the key is getting both readings (kWh and £££).

£££ only is a bit meaningless.

Cheers,
Mike