Gas and electricity costs

anonymousx3

Apologies if this is a redundant thread but I'm unsure of the best I could possibly do to reduce overall costs without affecting my usage. I don't understand why sometimes my gas costs more than it does at other times. Someone mentioned that there may be a cap on what I'm paying thereby charging on certain amounts -- I do definitely notice that if I put more money into gas for two or so weeks, it'll cost more shortly thereafter (e.g. sometimes 6 pound will last several days to a week, while at other times 17+ pounds is needed to do so). Also, sometimes I put in x amount and both the gas and electric can run out before that amount has expired, forcing me to load the amounts back in again.

Are these costs merely emergency costs or does pay-as-you-go generally cost a lot more? I do find it incredibly annoying when my energy bills exceed my weekly budgets by more than just marginal amounts.

Thanks, any help is greatly appreciated.

oldskoo1

It's a very hard question to answer

But one thing springs to mind which is outside temperature. When the temperature drops to -1 like it did last night for us, the rate of heat loss speeds up so you need more energy to heat the house to your desired temperature. I could spend nearly double trying to heat my house when it's 4c / -1c compared to 12c / 6c

Your electricity might increase if you do a lot of washes and tumble drier loads or use the cooker a lot for instance. Can't see that adding much more than £5 - £7 extra.

chris1973

I don't understand why sometimes my gas costs more than it does at other times

Some supplier have two tier rates for Gas instead of a dedicated standing charge. Often you will have a tier one charge, which represents the first 728kw worth of Gas purchased per year, and then a tier 2 lower charge for each kw purchased after the initial 728kw worth has been used.

Pay as you go is generally the most expensive tariff you can get, it doesn't cost any more than the suppliers STANDARD (non discounted) tariffs but you wont be able to claim the Direct Debit and other rewards which credit meter customers are able to claim.

Unfortunately, the only way of saving money, once you have established that you are on the most competitive prepayment tariff, is to turn thermostats down, or limit the use of energy hungry appliances.

Also make sure that there is no existing debt programmed into the prepayment meter, often they are programmed to recover installment payments which are deducted from each top up in order to recover a debt run up by a previous occupier (assuming you are renting or have recently moved in).

Also remember that prices of Gas and Electricity are constantly on the increase and some years we have seen two increases levied in any one year. When this happens it will appear that you are using more energy, when in fact you are using about the same, but the cost has rocketed by 20% - 30% since the same time the previous year!.

anonymousx3

chris1973 wrote: »

Some supplier have two tier rates for Gas instead of a dedicated standing charge. Often you will have a tier one charge, which represents the first 728kw worth of Gas purchased per year, and then a tier 2 lower charge for each kw purchased after the initial 728kw worth has been used.

Pay as you go is generally the most expensive tariff you can get, it doesn't cost any more than the suppliers STANDARD (non discounted) tariffs but you wont be able to claim the Direct Debit and other rewards which credit meter customers are able to claim.

Unfortunately, the only way of saving money, once you have established that you are on the most competitive prepayment tariff, is to turn thermostats down, or limit the use of energy hungry appliances.

Also make sure that there is no existing debt programmed into the prepayment meter, often they are programmed to recover installment payments which are deducted from each top up in order to recover a debt run up by a previous occupier (assuming you are renting or have recently moved in).

Also remember that prices of Gas and Electricity are constantly on the increase and some years we have seen two increases levied in any one year. When this happens it will appear that you are using more energy, when in fact you are using about the same, but the cost has rocketed by 20% - 30% since the same time the previous year!.

Apologies for my delayed response. I agree with regards to most of your points, however I'm perplexed of what I can do to save. A friend tells me they merely pay 30 pounds per month on electric and still frequently use heavy-load appliances. However, if I use an energy comparison search I find a meager savings of approximately 70 pounds per year. So, to clarify with regards to my use on an upper bound: I will spend 120 - 140 per month. On a lower bound, it will be 80 - 100 per month.

I have heard suggestions of adopting solar panels for my property but I'm uncertain of whether this is a good idea.

Lastly, I don't quite understand what an energy company means when they state that they will offer around 3,300KWh (is this per month, year, or... ? I don't understand how the cost of electricity is measured (e.g. if I turn on a 500 watt appliance, has that then immediately used 500 watt for the day or only if I leave it on for 24 hours?)).

macman

3,300kWh is a typical annual usage for a property with gas CH and DHW.
Electricity and gas is billed in kWh units. 1 unit is 1kW for one hour. So a 500W appliance (half a kilowatt) uses half a kilowatt per hour. If you left it on for 24 hours, it would use 12kWh.
A watt is not a billing unit, it is simply a measure of the power being drawn all the time.

anonymousx3

macman wrote: »

3,300kWh is a typical annual usage for a property with gas CH and DHW.
Electricity and gas is billed in kWh units. 1 unit is 1kW for one hour. So a 500W appliance (half a kilowatt) uses half a kilowatt per hour. If you left it on for 24 hours, it would use 12kWh.
A watt is not a billing unit, it is simply a measure of the power being drawn all the time.

Apologies, so energy use is measured per hour? Such that if I use 250W for 30 mins and then 500W for the next 30 mins, would that equate to 750W for that hour?

Thanks.

closed

if you use 250w for 30 minutes, that's half an hour, ie 125w/hour.

500w for 30 minutes uses 250watts/hour

1kw appliance on for an hour uses 1kwh
2kw 2kwh
1kw 2hours 2kwh
2kw 2hours 4kwh

2kw 30 min 1kwh

macman

anonymousx3 wrote: »

Apologies, so energy use is measured per hour? Such that if I use 250W for 30 mins and then 500W for the next 30 mins, would that equate to 750W for that hour?

Thanks.

Forget W! Energy is measured and billed in kWh, A thousand watts for one hour is 1kWh.
So your usage for that hour is 0.375kWh.

anonymousx3

Apologies, I understand this difficulty a bit more now. At present, my electricity usage averages amidst 4700kWh - 4900kWh per year. My Gas usage averages 3800kWh - 4000kWh per year. The totals together per year are approximately 1440 pounds, albeit there are some fluctuations of cost in the midst of each quarter. My concern however, is of whether there are better deals available that could enable me to save money from what I'm already paying. I've been told by a few that they merely pay approximately 30 pounds per month for their gas via direct debit. My plans are on prepayment key/card and there's the added cost of meter readings too, in addition to whatever standard charge they append to that.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

oldskoo1

What people pay is meaningless really. An old work colleague told me he left his computers on all day and had no thermostat and ran his boiler for hours at a time and paid less than me. I think he was lying or wasn't aware of his usage or wasnt submitting readings.

People might have electric heating or electric water heating/showers, electric hobs etc.

These people might be being billed on estimates and might need their bills to more than double to cover debt and price rises.

I think £1200 is around average but of course we have had some price rises recently. Use a comparison site to see if you can make any savings there, its good that you have your actual usage, this is the best indicator.

My November usage for both was £137 and my December usage £181. If jan stays this mild it will only be £115 but its set to get much colder so I expect this to rise sharply. Luckily for me my boiler was fixed late dec, early jan.

But again, this are as a guide, my boiler, temperature settings, draft proofing, insulation, house size etc would be completely different to your set up

Horseunderwater

We have a fairly large old house built in 1912 that has a few built in drafts that as yet we cannot do anything about. Some have been dealt with. Boiler and heating fully fixed now as of End of November, loft lagged to current reg's and gunk removed from pipes and rad's last year. This year we used £1129.90 gas on a PPM card meter and £849.65 on a PPM electric meter key and we are with BGas. 3 bed semi BTW. No idea what that works out at for KWh's - but it is way down on what BG predicted. We achieved it by using low energy bulbs, switching lights off when not needed, using remote sockets for standy on TV/Wii Freeview box etc, switching off PC's and I do some of my washing after 12.30am as that is cheap rate ec 7 electric. Time delays on washing mach/dishwasher. Tumble drier I have to stay up and do manually as that does not have that option yet. I have now programed the CH to work for 17 hours per day at approx 20 deg C, which is averaging at present approx £5.52/perday. But it is winter and I am ill so need it on more. Water is on for 2 hours per day when Heating is on at same time. This is making a difference to bills. My hob is gas and my oven is electric fan. And the best bit, I filled up my PPM card/key with credit at pre price rises so am still paying out at pre november 16th BGas prices. A huge saving in itself. Yes I know it will not last the whole of the winter, but it will make an impact. I did it by saving the extra we would have used over the summer, had I paid via a credit meter account - It did not earn much interest - but we got a few pennies. I also top up using an online gizmo that BG sent me - simply plugs into my PC by USB connection, so I do not have to drive to a local shop to buy top ups, so another cost saving. It means that I can top up almost anytime I want to. Hopefully we will save a bit more this year.