Gas and electricity bill query

ideal_knowledge001

Hello guys,

Recently I have taken all the budget in the house, we are a family of 5 and live in a 3 bedroom terrace house in East London. Our gas bill and Electricity bill total to about 500 pounds a quarter!

Was wandering is this way too high? what are others paying out there?
Anyone suggest any good deals/companies out there to switch too?

Currently I am with British Gas and EDF Energy. Any help or feedback be much appreciated and be interesting to know.

I am sure we can cut these costs?!

dogshome

£2,000 a year for a family of 5 in a 3 bed house? - Something is awry somewhere

It could be going wrong for a whole lot of reasons, but you must post your annual Gas & Elec consumptions in Kwh, (Kilowatt hours),to get answers
If you can't get these figures from old bills, phone your supplier(s) and they will tell you, then post the info here

HappyMJ

Is this a bill that has just come recently. i.e Nov, Dec and Jan? Winter bills are much higher than summer bills. We need to know your annual usage in kWh's to see if it's close the national average.

macman

Is the bill actual or estimated? Is it a big catch up bill due to previously (under) estimated bills?
As above, kWH figures are need to get any further. £'s do not tell us anything.
Once you have your annual kWh figs, use them on a comp site to find the best deal.

ideal_knowledge001

dogshome wrote: »

£2,000 a year for a family of 5 in a 3 bed house? - Something is awry somewhere

It could be going wrong for a whole lot of reasons, but you must post your annual Gas & Elec consumptions in Kwh, (Kilowatt hours),to get answers
If you can't get these figures from old bills, phone your supplier(s) and they will tell you, then post the info here

I have found out my KWH usage for gas it's 7133.67 for the dates 22/09/11-26/01/11 my total bill for just the gas for that period is 334.83 GBP. This averages to about 80quid a month i think recently British gas have had price cuts. Does this seem ok?

HappyMJ

ideal_knowledge001 wrote: »

I have found out my KWH usage for gas it's 7133.67 for the dates 22/09/11-26/01/11 my total bill for just the gas for that period is 334.83 GBP. This averages to about 80quid a month i think recently British gas have had price cuts. Does this seem ok?

Do you have more bills covering a whole 12 months? It's difficult to calculate from just one bill as it's half of winter. It could be double or triple that figure. Double would be under average and triple would be more than average. I would say as it's been a mild winter so far that it's over average but it may not be. How often and for how long do you have the heating on? i.e out all day at work with the heating turned off or home all day with the heating on? How well insulated is the property? How high do you set the thermostat? How efficient is the boiler? Do you use gas fires? Gas cookers? How much hot water do you use?

Every house is different. Your house might use in excess of 20,000kWh or more per year and be quite normal for you and your house, or you might use around 10,000kWh or less and also be quite normal. If you would like to cut down your usage then you need to take action. Turn down the heating. Turn it off more often. Take shorter showers and take less baths. Get an energy monitor to monitor your electricity usage. Turn stuff off.

What we have figured out is that it isn't £500 a quarter it's closer to £250 a quarter.

macman

ideal_knowledge001 wrote: »

I have found out my KWH usage for gas it's 7133.67 for the dates 22/09/11-26/01/11 my total bill for just the gas for that period is 334.83 GBP. This averages to about 80quid a month i think recently British gas have had price cuts. Does this seem ok?

Are these actual or estimated readings though?

macman

ideal_knowledge001 wrote: »

I have found out my KWH usage for gas it's 7133.67 for the dates 22/09/11-26/01/11 my total bill for just the gas for that period is 334.83 GBP. This averages to about 80quid a month i think recently British gas have had price cuts. Does this seem ok?

Are these actual or estimated readings though? That's about 4.5p per kWh.

HappyMJ

macman wrote: »

Are these actual or estimated readings though? That's about 4.5p per kWh.

That's BG standard pricing...It's actually about 3.8p plus a standing charge of about 35p per day.

ideal_knowledge001

HappyMJ wrote: »

Do you have more bills covering a whole 12 months? It's difficult to calculate from just one bill as it's half of winter. It could be double or triple that figure. Double would be under average and triple would be more than average. I would say as it's been a mild winter so far that it's over average but it may not be. How often and for how long do you have the heating on? i.e out all day at work with the heating turned off or home all day with the heating on? How well insulated is the property? How high do you set the thermostat? How efficient is the boiler? Do you use gas fires? Gas cookers? How much hot water do you use?

Every house is different. Your house might use in excess of 20,000kWh or more per year and be quite normal for you and your house, or you might use around 10,000kWh or less and also be quite normal. If you would like to cut down your usage then you need to take action. Turn down the heating. Turn it off more often. Take shorter showers and take less baths. Get an energy monitor to monitor your electricity usage. Turn stuff off.

What we have figured out is that it isn't £500 a quarter it's closer to £250 a quarter.

i will get back to you about this.

ideal_knowledge001

HappyMJ wrote: »

That's BG standard pricing...It's actually about 3.8p plus a standing charge of about 35p per day.

These are actuals i got it off British Gas after speaking to them on the phone.