New house - ridiculous bills!

spidereyes

I moved properties a month ago and Ive just taken the meter readings and to say Im shocked is an understatement.
The new property is bigger and the heating system ancient compared to my last place so I can relatively understand a increase in my gas to an extent but the increase in my electric too is shocking!

Before I was paying £35 a month which comfortably covered my elec and gas usage during the summer months - with the winter months going up to around £45 per month (inc standing charge)

The first month at my new property the elec works out to £75 :eek: and gas £129 - Im hoping Im calculating it severely wrong as it can't be as high Ive worked it out to be?


In terms of actual usage elec I was using 108kwh and gas 346kwh a month.

Now my elec works out to 327kwh and gas 1507kwh (Im praying this is incorrect).
I just don't understand it. Both houses had energy bulbs - like before I turn everything off after using it, Im not on economy 7, Ive not got an imersion heater.
The only differences which Im assuming can't be making THAT much difference is my oven is now gas as oppossed to elec and my new shower is an electric shower....

Help!

closed

3.5kwh/day electricity is pretty low usage.

What's your charge per kwh

aelitaman

Is this new house an old house . ie built a long time ago.

spidereyes

closed wrote: »

3.5kwh/day electricity is pretty low usage.

What's your charge per kwh

I just don't understand though how my usuage has trippled when Ive not changed anything

With my old supplier 12p, but my current supplier at my new property is 28p I am in the process of switiching back to my old suppliers but it apparently won't be done until Feb.
Gas is also stupidly high used to pay 3.4p now Im paying 8.7p per kwh.

aelitaman wrote: »

Is this new house an old house . ie built a long time ago.

Its an old house (about 1890's) but so was the previous property I lived in, its litterally just down the road from where I lived before, only difference is that its got an extra bedroom (which we don't use, and have the rad turned down low in there) and a conservatory which doesn't have any heating or lighting in it anyway

HappyMJ

spidereyes wrote: »

I just don't understand though how my usuage has trippled when Ive not changed anything

With my old supplier 12p, but my current supplier at my new property is 28p I am in the process of switiching back to my old suppliers but it apparently won't be done until Feb.
Gas is also stupidly high used to pay 3.4p now Im paying 8.7p per kwh.




Its an old house (about 1890's) but so was the previous property I lived in.

28p and 8.7p will be the primary unit charges. 12p and 3.4p are the secondary unit charges or the charges for all units when a standing charge is applied to the account.

spidereyes

HappyMJ wrote: »

28p and 8.7p will be the primary unit charges. 12p and 3.4p are the secondary unit charges or the charges for all units when a standing charge is applied to the account.

Indeed.

Basically my old supplier was a 12month fixed deal - paid the 12p and the 3.4p per kwh and then paid something like 25p s.c a day.

But this new one is 28p for the first 900kwh and then 15p after and for gas 8.7p for the first 2700kwh and then 4.5p thereafter. But as Im moving the account Im at a bit of a disadvantage.


Still doesn't explain the huge increase in usage (for elec at least)

HappyMJ

spidereyes wrote: »

Indeed.

Basically my old supplier was a 12month fixed deal - paid the 12p and the 3.4p per kwh and then paid something like 25p s.c a day.

But this new one is 28p for the first 900kwh and then 15p after and for gas 8.7p for the first 2700kwh and then 4.5p thereafter. But as Im moving the account Im at a bit of a disadvantage.


Still doesn't explain the huge increase in usage (for elec at least)

Do you have long showers? My shower is electric 8.5kW. A 6 minute shower uses 850W of electricity. An extra 26kWh of electricity per month over having a bath every day where the water is heated by gas if you have a family or have longer showers that is quite a big user of electricity.

The average usage in a family home is 3,300kWh per year about 275kWh per month. You are not that much over. Try reading the meter more regularly and find the culprit.

spidereyes

HappyMJ wrote: »

Do you have long showers? My shower is electric 8.5kW. A 6 minute shower uses 850W of electricity. An extra 26kWh of electricity per month over having a bath every day where the water is heated by gas if you have a family or have longer showers that is quite a big user of electricity.

The average usage in a family home is 3,300kWh per year about 275kWh per month. You are not that much over. Try reading the meter more regularly and find the culprit.

Im not sure what the shower wattage is, but we both shower no more than 10mins or so, even still an extra 50kwh doesn't seem to point to tripple usage.

I appreciate that Im not much over the family average - but there is only 2 of us here, and we're out 9-6 so this is what is making me suspicious of the stupidly high usage, especially when our habits haven't changed.

I expected a high gas bill (although admittedly not as high as it is) but I know there's nothing that can be done about that one, heating is only on for 2 hours a day or less with the thermastat down fairly low, but the system is awful and ancient (it has the same boiler that I remember my parents had in their house when I was about 5) so I think Ill have to accept that Im not going to be able to do much about the gas....

jimjames

Our electricity over the winter is around 600kWh per month, yearly total 6000kWh, gas is approx 21000kWh for the year.

This is for a 1930s house with loft conversion so lots of air space to heat.

It sounds like the bills at your old house were wrong rather than the new house being way out - 3kWh per day seems very low.

HappyMJ

spidereyes wrote: »

Im not sure what the shower wattage is, but we both shower no more than 10mins or so, even still an extra 50kwh doesn't seem to point to tripple usage.

I appreciate that Im not much over the family average - but there is only 2 of us here, and we're out 9-6 so this is what is making me suspicious of the stupidly high usage, especially when our habits haven't changed.

I expected a high gas bill (although admittedly not as high as it is) but I know there's nothing that can be done about that one, heating is only on for 2 hours a day or less with the thermastat down fairly low, but the system is awful and ancient (it has the same boiler that I remember my parents had in their house when I was about 5) so I think Ill have to accept that Im not going to be able to do much about the gas....

10 minutes...That's 86kWh per month. £155 per year. 30% of the national average electricity bill. Never mind about changing 60W light bulbs to 15W CFL's you need to cut down your shower time. Every minute that you cut will save you £15.50 per year.

What about the pump on your central heating? Does that run all the time?

Yolina

jimjames wrote: »

It sounds like the bills at your old house were wrong rather than the new house being way out - 3kWh per day seems very low.

Why would the bills at the old house be wrong just because they were low? I'm in pretty much all day and my average electricity use is 4.3kWh/day - the OP was using 3.5kWh/day at the old house, being out 9 to 6, which seems perfectly reasonable to me.

The electric shower will increase use but triple seems :eek: there must be something else amiss.