Reducing gas use

nicolula87

Hi

My partner and I recently moved house. In the winter in our 2 bedroom flat (using heating on timer) with only hot water and heating on gas we had a direct debit of £27 a month (it had been reduced from 37 due to being in credit). We moved into a three bedroom house, and our initial gas bill for the period 26/5/12 to 30/7/12 was £70. Usage was 1172kWh. I realise we are in a bigger house, but we haven't had the heating on. We have a combi boiler so hot water is heated up as it is used, not on timer or anything (as far as I can tell). Gas otherwise is used for the hob which we use for most of our cooking.

Is this a normal amount to be using? Our electricity usage was lower than when we were cooking on electric, but I am concerned that when we get to using the heating our bills will skyrocket!

Also for some reason British Gas have set our direct debit up as £12 a month for gas when we are clearly using much more than that!

I appreciate any help anyone can offer.

Thanks

Nic

YoYoY

nicolula87 wrote: »

Hi

My partner and I recently moved house. In the winter in our 2 bedroom flat (using heating on timer) with only hot water and heating on gas we had a direct debit of £27 a month (it had been reduced from 37 due to being in credit). We moved into a three bedroom house, and our initial gas bill for the period 26/5/12 to 30/7/12 was £70. Usage was 1172kWh. I realise we are in a bigger house, but we haven't had the heating on. We have a combi boiler so hot water is heated up as it is used, not on timer or anything (as far as I can tell). Gas otherwise is used for the hob which we use for most of our cooking.

Is this a normal amount to be using? Our electricity usage was lower than when we were cooking on electric, but I am concerned that when we get to using the heating our bills will skyrocket!

Also for some reason British Gas have set our direct debit up as £12 a month for gas when we are clearly using much more than that!

I appreciate any help anyone can offer.

Thanks

Nic

Contact your supplier.

They should modify your DD to reflect your usage and can advise you on how to reduce consumption.

They may also be able to offer you a more competitive tariff as the one you are currently being charged on seems very expensive to me.

sk240

Hi,So going by your numbers above, you were using aprox £32 per month (somewhere in the middle due to your credit) to £35 per month now (your dates for your current usage is £70 for 2 months) so only £3 per month more?


As for the current low direct debit, that is based poorly on your usage so far (did you do a meter reading? if you go online and register with BG than you can set the direct debit at whatever you like, i would probably recommend about £50 per month to build up an excess in the summer

nicolula87

Yes only £3 more but we had heating on throughout most of the previous bills (they ran from August through to April) whereas so far this time we have not had to use the heating at all! The only other difference is the cooking and I just didn't know if that would make up that amount!

Thanks YoYoY I will definitely see if they can get me on a cheaper tariff!

daveyjp

Does your boiler have a "comfort" or "pre heat" setting for the hot water? This keeps the boiler at a set temperature to keep the water warm so you don't have to wait as long for the ht water to flow and in doing so it uses gas.

Cooking doesn't use much gas.

molerat

That is an expensive tariff you are on, should be less than £60 on a competitive one ! Check your meter and bill and correspond in relation to metric and imperial units.

nicolula87

Thanks! No boiler doesn't have a preheat thingy,takes a minute to get hot water through. Will def be ringing to try and change tariff. Think I'm on standard atm.

Yorkie1

If you're on B Gas standard tariff, don't assume that a B Gas tariff will be cheapest for you. I'd go on a comparison site and see whether other suppliers / tariffs are better. Most sites have an option to input house type if you don't have annual consumption figures.