Gas usage (please help)

lovey69

We have a meter which measures in ft3 which is an imperial meter, I live in a 2 bedroom house with my partner and 2 small children.

I've been keeping a watch on the gas meter the last 2 days and we have been using 2 units per day, which is 64 kwh a day, we use hot water for gas and have central heating on for 4hrs a day.

Is this a lot, can anybody help???

We have been paying up to £240 a month for gas and electric.... which I think is ridiculous!!

robcstar

The average user uses around 16,500kwh per year. A high one would be between 21-23,000. So it would appear you would fall into somewhere between (you can expect to use less in the summer?).

How you tried a price comparison to see if your getting the best deal for you?

If possible use your expected annual usage (usually found on the back of your bill, on your online service or ring your provider) to get the best comparison.

Bagger

Lovey69, £240 per month for a two bed house seems excessive to me. I think you need to look into this. As Rob said, you need to visit price comparison websites. The first thing I would do is look at a year's worth of bills to make sure you have the right usage information for both gas and electricity. Also, make sure that your bills have been correct. Check that you have not been paying for cubic metres when your gas meter is in cube feet, for example. Incidentally, for comparison, I have two teenage children and my house is probably about twice the size of yours (I'm assuming based on number of bedrooms) and I pay £192 per month.

robcstar

£240 would be scary for me as I only pay around £60 a month but I live in a small 2 bed with no children and from what I can gather they can be costly But as a general rule to thumb if your are any of the following:

On a standard tariff
Still with your regional supplier and British Gas
Not paying Direct Debit (looks like you are)

Then yes you will be paying too much!

lovey69

Thank you for your replies,

Just to add we were paying £179 per month towards the end of last year, which now has been bumped up to £244 per month because somehow we are still in £400 in arrears, we are with scottish power.

so if I'm averaging 2units a day which in the winter would probably would go up to 6units (just guessing) surely this is alot of money ???

lovey69

I have just added the total for the year which is 34,564 khw

lovey69

So my gas is 34,564 for the year, my electric is 7,761 for the year
I keep emailing scottish power to come and check my meter but they keep making excuses.

They told me to be more energy efficient LOL

I think they are taking the mick!!!

How can I resolve this??

The charge is for cubic feet !!

jalexa

lovey69 wrote: »

I have just added the total for the year which is 34,564 khw

Where does that number come from?

To get meaningful help here you need to post the readings which are stated on your bills. It is a good start to be monitoring your meters daily. Although meter readings for bills stop at the decimal point, if you are checking daily consumption for accuracy you should include the number after the point.

lovey69

1st is the total of the dates shown the 2nd is the daily average

All based on kwh

09/03/12 - 11/03/12 - total 189 - daily average 63
28/10/12 - 08/03/12 - total 9052 - daily average143
29/07/11 - 27/10/11 - total n/a - daily average n/a
28/04/11 - 28/07/11 - total n/a - daily average n/a
14/04/11 - 27/10/11 - total 4076 - daily average 21
31/03/11 - 13/04/11 - total 11247 - daily average 803

TOTAL FOR THE YEAR 34,564

This is what its says exactly on the data consumption bill, we changed supply with scottish power last march meter reading 3232 it is now 4350.3

jalexa

lovey69 wrote: »

31/03/11 - 13/04/11 - total 11247 - daily average 803

This is what its says exactly on the data consumption bill, we changed supply with scottish power last march meter reading 3232 it is now 4350.3

Well there is something obviously wrong with that daily average. TBH the supplier should have spotted that it's questionable. I would complain that their systems didn't spot it.

Somewhere along the line there a billing problem (well much more likely than a metering problem). Whether a recent reading error or historic underestimating I cannot say from the limited data posted.

It's important to post the readings recorded on the bill, not the calculated consumption, and whether actual or estimated. Keep up your daily readings until the issue is resolved.

lovey69

Thank you for your help,

31st March last year the exact meter reading from when we actually moved from Npower to Scottish Power was 3232, it is now 4350, this means we have used in total 1,118 units, which is 35,951 kwh.

CRAZY !! lol :cool: