how much to pay for gas and elec in a 4 bed det house?

jellykelly_2

We've just moved from a 3 bed semi where we paid approx £30 each dd for both G&E which was consistant with our usage on a combined rate with British Gas. We moved in October and they took over our supply in the December, we are out of the house 7-3pm and tend to have the heating & water on for and hour in the morning and 3-4hrs of an evening (during winter!) with weekend varying if in or out. We have a heatrae sadia system and a normal potterton boiler (i think). I increased my dd's upto £40 each. However British gas have just confirmed the bill after numerous issues in getting the readings right. The Gas usage was 764 units calculated to 8550kwh = £390 and the Elec was 1143 units = £197, meaning a quarterly bill of £600 :eek:. I cannot view my bill to check the tarrifs are correct as it's been corrected, i got this all from the advisor over the phone and my bill should be available to view in the next 48hrs.

My question is does this usage look right? i was suprised as i would need to increase my dd to around £125ish combined to even out over the year which i thought was alot but i could just be being a little tight with my budget and this is inline with this size house?! I have moved in at the worst time of year also, previous moves have been in the spring where i got chance to build the fund for the winter bill

pinkteapot

That sounds like a lot...

We moved into a four-bed detached house in 2010. 1990-built house so reasonably modern/insulated but not completely modern. We have standard boiler and central heating. A gas fire that we use in winter. And two electric showers which use quite a lot of power.

We're spending £80 a month on average (sum of last four quarterly bills divided by 12).

Our big winter bill this year was about £380 if I remember rightly.

We're also out during the day and use the heating early morning and during the evening (longer at weekends during the winter).

It does sound like your 3-bed semi was very cheap for G&E. I was dead chuffed with our house as we moved out of a 2-bed flat with electric heating where our electricity bill worked out to over £100 a month.

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

If BG took over the account in December, it means that the £390/£197 is for between four and five months(depending what date in December they took over the supply) - assuming BG are using up to date readings.

If the bill is covering 4/5 months the consumption is not unreasonable for a a 4 bed detached.

You wouldn't set your DD to £125 based on a single period covering the winter, when gas usage is at its highest.

That said the average household pays approx £1300 pa for gas and electricity, so in a 4 bed detached it would be reasonable to pay at least £100 a month.

HappyMJ

jellykelly wrote: »

We've just moved from a 3 bed semi where we paid approx £30 each dd for both G&E which was consistant with our usage on a combined rate with British Gas. We moved in October and they took over our supply in the December, we are out of the house 7-3pm and tend to have the heating & water on for and hour in the morning and 3-4hrs of an evening (during winter!) with weekend varying if in or out. We have a heatrae sadia system and a normal potterton boiler (i think). I increased my dd's upto £40 each. However British gas have just confirmed the bill after numerous issues in getting the readings right. The Gas usage was 764 units calculated to 8550kwh = £390 and the Elec was 1143 units = £197, meaning a quarterly bill of £600 :eek:. I cannot view my bill to check the tarrifs are correct as it's been corrected, i got this all from the advisor over the phone and my bill should be available to view in the next 48hrs.

My question is does this usage look right? i was suprised as i would need to increase my dd to around £125ish combined to even out over the year which i thought was alot but i could just be being a little tight with my budget and this is inline with this size house?! I have moved in at the worst time of year also, previous moves have been in the spring where i got chance to build the fund for the winter bill

£40 on each of gas and electric sounds very low.

The average for an average house is 3,300kWh of electric and 16,500kWh of gas. As your house is larger than the average house I would expect the bills to be up to a third higher than average.

So £125 for both gas and electric for a 4 bedroom house sounds fine to me. You could lower it.

shop-to-drop

HappyMJ wrote: »

£40 on each of gas and electric sounds very low.

The average for an average house is 3,300kWh of electric and 16,500kWh of gas. As your house is larger than the average house I would expect the bills to be up to a third higher than average.

So £125 for both gas and electric for a 4 bedroom house sounds fine to me. You could lower it.

I thought this too. We have a 3 bed semi and pay £100 per month for dual fuel. I thought we were pretty low using too for a family of five as we don't have the heating on very much only when it's really cold.

jellykelly_2

Looking online the readings the usage has been calculated from 8/12 to 19/3 just over 3 months. but again i need to check the tariffs are right once the bill can be viewed. Would you know if this Heatrae sadia system is expensive to run? not that i would change it the powered water for showers is amazing! I think i have been a bit tight with the budget by the sounds of it so for now i will increase my dd upto £100 and see what accumulates over the spring & summer.

jellykelly_2

shop-to-drop wrote: »

I thought this too. We have a 3 bed semi and pay £100 per month for dual fuel. I thought we were pretty low using too for a family of five as we don't have the heating on very much only when it's really cold.

Funny my friend who bought ours said she was paying more on a 2 bed mid terraced! we had cavity wall put in & good loft insulation but now she has took the boiler (8yrs old) old and put a combi in so it'd be interesting to see what it's done to her bills.

HappyMJ

jellykelly wrote: »

Funny my friend who bought ours said she was paying more on a 2 bed mid terraced! we had cavity wall put in & good loft insulation but now she has took the boiler (8yrs old) old and put a combi in so it'd be interesting to see what it's done to her bills.

Replacing an 8 year old boiler with a new boiler will cut about 1%* off your annual bill. It is not worth it.

*(figure is estimated it may be 2%)

jellykelly_2

HappyMJ wrote: »

Replacing an 8 year old boiler with a new boiler will cut about 1%* off your annual bill. It is not worth it.

*(figure is estimated it may be 2%)

I thought she was wasting her money when she told me! Personally i would've run the old one out first.

pinkteapot

How many of you are in the house? There's just hubby and me in ours and, as I said, ours works out to £80 a month over the year for a four-bed detached. Whether you use the average of just over £100 will depend in large part on how many people live there...

Our boiler is ancient by the way so that's certainly not saving us money.

Terrylw1

Aside from whether this is normal or not, you have also just switched.

So, are you billed to actual or estimates. Do the bills match the readings on the meter? Does the change of supply reading look reasonable? Has any consumption been unbilled with your old supplier hence the change of supply reading was too low and that's caused it to catch up now?