Expensive electricity for 2 bed flat?

AlexisV

I moved in to a 2 bedroom shared flat about 4 months ago. I've just got my first estimated quarterly electricty bill from Powergen. It's £150, with an estimation of 1000kw/h. I've checked the meter and I've actually used 1300!

Two things - £150 seems very high and 1300 units seems a lot as well.

The flat is gas central heated and I'm out of the house 9-6. My housemate is usually out 10 - 4, although she's home all day sometimes.

We have the usual appliances, 3 TVs, 2 computers, unexcessive lighting and I make sure nothing's on standby when not used.

For a two bed flat, £50 a month seems high. How are Powergen price-wise?

The only thing I can think of is the tumble dryer. If we used it for 120mins, twice a week, that's 16 hours a month. Do you think this could be the cuprit? I'm definitely limiting its usuage from now on!

gringo50

Hi AlexisV
That does seem to be expensive.
I live in a 2 bed flat and southern electric supply my gas and electric, I also pay by direct debit (which i get a discount for) and my electric is £31 a month.
Our heating is gas and our cooker is gas.
There is always someone in the flat and we seem to waste an awful lot of electric, ie: lights left on, 2 tv's on standby when not used, 2 pc's on standby when not used, a games console on standby when not in use and the same for dvd player and 2 cable boxes.
The washing machine is used at least once a day, boiling too much water in the kettle etc.
To be honest its not until i've written this down have i realized just how wasteful our household is with the energy we use.
I shall address this immediately.
The Tumble dryer maybe the culprit as we dont have one of those but jeeze we sure waste energy.
I really thankyou for your post as it has made me realize just how wasteful my household is with the energy we use.
By the way the £31 i pay for electric is spot on with my usage not a guesstimate i have just recieved a statement about two weeks ago and im £1.34 in credit.

Biggles

That does seem to be expensive.
I live in a 2 bed flat and southern electric supply my gas and electric, I also pay by direct debit (which i get a discount for) and my electric is £31 a month.

I'm assuming that means £31 a month over a year, while the OP is querying £50 a month during the winter months (albeit no too severe a winter).

I would suggest that might average out at well under £31 a month over twelve months and doesn't seem too bad to me.

gringo50

gas heating so no reflection on electric prices?
or do we spend more on electric in the winter when we have gas central heating?

Cardew

If you don't heat with electricity the size of flat is not important. It is the amount of appliances/lights, and their use, that counts.

A winter quarter will only use more in that it is darker and lights are on earlier and later.

1,000kWh should not cost £150 on any tariff(15p/kWh average is far too high)

1,300kWh in a quarter is high but not excessively so for the appliances you have.

skintas_2

yep got 2 bed flat , my bill with powerline is £66 a month...........so same changing to npower

Biggles

gas heating so no reflection on electric prices?

Yes, I came back to reread the OP this morning and saw it was gas heating, so £150 for four months does seem a touch high.

But it does depend on what you use, cooker, tumble dryer etc do take it up. Having said that, we don't have a tumble dryer and use >£50 a month, tho it is a 3-bed semi.

I'd be inclined to monitor the kWhs for a while and see how it goes.

AlexisV

Cheers for the replies.

I inherited Powergen from the previous tenants, so I'll be changing straight away.

I was also with British Gas, but changed to Atlantic (Southern Electric) for that as soon as possible. British Gas were about 33% more expensive for the the gas, and their customer service was on a par with BT :mad:

Is there a list of kwh prices anywhere? All the switching sites go on about percentage savings - I'd just like to see a list of kwh prices on a bog standard plan.

AlexisV

Now things have gone from bad to worse!

Received a gas bill today: £167.44 for 2 months :eek:

There's a serious mistake with that. Here's what the bills says:

Reading last time 538
Reading this time 1117 (estimated)
Total units 592.1 cu mtrs
Converted to kilowatt hours 6519.57

Charge £167.44 22 Nov - 29 Jan

When I first joined Atlantic I just got a letter saying they'd take £11 a month out by direct debit.

I assume the meter started at 0 when it was installed and the flat's 2 years old. So that means according to Atlantic I've used 2 years worth of gas in 2 months.

However, the gas reading the landlord took along with the electricity metera few days ago was a 5 digit number instead of the 3 digit 538 I received last time.

So it seems Atlantic have grossly overestimated and I have a bizarre reading from the landlord which makes no sense.

I'll have to sort this mess out on Monday.

masonic

AlexisV wrote:

Is there a list of kwh prices anywhere? All the switching sites go on about percentage savings - I'd just like to see a list of kwh prices on a bog standard plan.

Most switching sites list the unit prices if you click on an individual tariff.

Cardew

AlexisV wrote:

Now things have gone from bad to worse!

Received a gas bill today: £167.44 for 2 months :eek:

There's a serious mistake with that. Here's what the bills says:

Reading last time 538
Reading this time 1117 (estimated)
Total units 592.1 cu mtrs
Converted to kilowatt hours 6519.57

Charge £167.44 22 Nov - 29 Jan

When I first joined Atlantic I just got a letter saying they'd take £11 a month out by direct debit.

I assume the meter started at 0 when it was installed and the flat's 2 years old. So that means according to Atlantic I've used 2 years worth of gas in 2 months.

However, the gas reading the landlord took along with the electricity metera few days ago was a 5 digit number instead of the 3 digit 538 I received last time.

So it seems Atlantic have grossly overestimated and I have a bizarre reading from the landlord which makes no sense.

I'll have to sort this mess out on Monday.

Why does it "seem" that Atlantic have grossly overestimated? when you can look at your meter and ascertain the meter reading!

£167.44 for almost 10 weeks in a winter quarter covering the xmas/newyear period is not particularly high.