just got combined bill - wow

crooky

Im in shock. Just received my gas and electricity bill from eon today and its for a massive £707.06

This breaks down as £287.97 for electric and £390.89 for gas. These are from read meters so not estimated but they seem very high. The central heating settings havnt been increased and the heating comes on around 6:30 am till 10:00 am then off till around lunchtime when it comes back on if the temp drops and then on from around 3pm till about 10pm. Ive got a room thermostat so its not just left blazing away and that is set at 22 so the heating only comes on if it needs to. Even if im in the house during the day and cold I dont turn it up so I can hand on heart say I havnt changed the settings. Is this really just the price increase?

Cardew

Whilst you say the bill is based on 'read meters', was the start meter reading for gas and electricity estimated? i.e. is this a 'catch up' bill.

If £707(a quarter?) is high or not depends on the size of your property to a certain extent, and other factors like boiler efficiency and insulation. High for a 3 bed semi - low for Buckingham Palace!!

Most people would consider 22C, at least during the day, too high.

More worrying is a £250+ electric bill as this is not dependant on heating - it is difficult to see how a quarter's bill could be that high.

victor2

First verify that ALL the meter readings for the billed period are actual ones and not estimates. If previously estimates were used, maybe this one is catching up now that they have actual readings.
22C seems pretty high for the room thermostat to be set at. They tend to be in a cooler part of the house, like a hallway, so maybe the heating is always on whenever the timer demands it. 22 would make my house toastie warm, I have mine at 19!
When did you switch your heating on and how long a period is the bill for?

tanith

It does seem high for a quarter bill but they have raised the price quite a bit... I'd say 22 when it hasn't even been cold is too high ours is on 17 at the moment (its was only on 20 in that freeze last winter, and is only on for an hour morning and from 5 to 7 in the evening I've only turned it on earlier once or twice this year as its been so mild. Might be colder where you are but its still high..

scheming_gypsy

you say the heating comes on at and off at... but for how long have you had it back on? have you had it on for the past 3 months or did you only turn it back on last week? if you've only recently turned it back on then it sounds like you've had estimated bills and now you've had a reading.

crooky

Ive checked the last readings and they were estimates but the bill previous to the last one was read so the estimate couldnt have been that far out surely. The bills are quarterly. The temperature is up so high as the thermostat is upstairs on the landing on the first floor, there is a floor above this too. The downstairs is quite cold so have to have it up higher in order to make the temperature in the living room comfortable. Its an old house too. Not sure why the electric is so high as the heating is all gas. Think it normally is high though to be honest. Perhaps its time to look at our useage more closely. It must cost a lot more than I think to leave things switched on.

crooky

forgot to say I dont turn the heating off through the year, never have done. Its always on timed and run by the room thermostat during the times its set to be on.

victor2

So part of the bill is possibly catching up from an estimated reading.
What tariff are you on? The individual figures you gave for gas and electric don't add up to anything like £707, even if VAT is added.
If you have two bills a year apart with actual readings on them, you can get an idea of what your annual usage has been in kWh.
Your electricity cost does sound high, but annual kWh usage is a better figure to have.

timpavitt

"This breaks down as £252.35 for electric and £344.89 for gas"

This does not add up to £707.06 !

tyllwyd

You say that downstairs is cold but do you find that upstairs is warm? If you have to heat all of the upstairs rooms to 22 degrees just to get the living room to 18 degrees, say, that seems quite wasteful. I wonder if you could turn the thermostat down on the landing, and invest in an additional heater for the living room. If you are out at work during the day, you could make sure you turn the thermostat down a bit at least when you leave in the morning, to keep it ticking over but you don't need to heat it as warm as if you were at home.

CH27

IMO 22 degrees is way too high.
The recommendation is 21 degrees for elderly, disabled etc.