First House - Interested in gas (npower)

siskyline

Hello Everyone,

I have been a member of this forum for a while and have gotten great guidance from it.

Not long ago I have moved in to my first house were I have to pay all the utility bills. I have signed up with npower with their signonline package were I pay £19.00 per month.

Sounds great, I recently got my first quarter bill and it was saying that I was £1.50 in credit. I am now a bit worried with winter coming if I have lined my self up with a bill that goes over the direct debit and pay a premium for anything over.

Because this is my first house I don’t know what my average gas consumption is and has just been estimated off the previous tenant.

I am uneducated about gas suppliers and what it all means, so if any one has any links or reading material that I can learn from that would be great.
My main concern is the bill its self

Cheers,

TIMMY85

How big is the house? How many people live there? Do you work or at home in the day? Is the property insulated? There are lots of questions to ask to gain an idea about gas consumption and while there is an 'average' figure there really is no such thing as each property, appliance and household will vary in energy usage and efficiency.

£19 per month is low and I would expect you to be in debit over winter. If £19 is correct for average usage over the year I would not expect that to be much over £50/£60 over winter but that will depend on when your DD review is set for - plenty of posts on that gem topic on the forums!

I pay £35 per month and use just over 9000 kWh annually. In the house is me, my wife and a 2 year old but I am stingy with the heating and am lucky being in a mid-terrace. My mother in law uses much more as she is end terrace although there is one less person living there.

If you are worried then call npower and ask them to add a few ££££ to your DD - they won't say no!

TIMMY85

Also, ensure they have correct readings. Your usage could be totally different to the previous occupier and may have been estimated even when they lived there.

siskyline

Hi Timmy,
Thanks for getting back to me.

My house is quite small its a terrace house with 2 bedrooms. the second is quite small and use it for a place to work.
There is me and my girlfriend and someone tends to be in the house all day. I work in the morning and she works at night. With insulation I'm unsure of, I know the back of the house has been double glazed but the front hasn't and i can feel the heat just drain out of the house (I'm working on putting blankets and stuff over the doors).

do you think it would be a good idea to take a meter reading now and look at it again in a week/months time?
Im unsure if that is of any use.

Il search the forum for the DD review and see what I can understand about that.


Cheers for your help

t0rt0ise

You need to look at the bill you have had and see if the present reading is estimated or actual. If it's an estimated reading then you should read the meter and see how it compares. You may be underpaying already.