High British Gas Electric Bill

sarah_barker

Hi,

We've been in our electric only apartment for coming up to 16 months and have always had our bill estimated at around £35-40. We gave a meter reading on the first day we moved in and again about 4 months later but nothing since. We are due to move out soon and have just given a meter reading (we don't have direct access, the maintenance guy has to get it for us) and it's about 2000KWh more than what's estimated! (still waiting for the bill to be produced as apparently it's 'not what they expected' :eek:
Our apartment is 2-bedroom, one level, we have never had the heating on since we moved in (heat rises from below apartments so haven't needed to) and the hot water is on a timer each day from 5pm-11pm. We both work during the day so to be honest it's probably only used in the mornings when getting ready for work and in the evening for tv/computer/cooking etc.

We were originally on the Standard tariff as this was recommended by an adviser due to us being electric only but have recently changed onto Clear and Simple (god knows if that's the best tariff).

Are we in for a shock or does it all seem a au fait really?

rogerblack

What was the amount of kWh used for the first four months, and how much for the next twelve?

sniggings

just wondering, do you really need the hot water on for 6 hours a night? I would think 2 hour at most would be plenty, 6 hours x 7 days a week soon adds up.

rogerblack

sniggings wrote: »

just wondering, do you really need the hot water on for 6 hours a night? I would think 2 hour at most would be plenty, 6 hours x 7 days a week soon adds up.

Not a real factor.
The difference between 6 hours, and 2 hours will (typically) be an extra 10 minutes heating, as the thermostat kicks in to reheat it a little after 3-4 hours of cooling.
Savings by having it on 6, not 2 hours means you may save about 3kWh/week, or 40p, or 20 quid a year.

notbritishgas

On the face of it £35-40 amonth for an all electric flat is not enough. But you then go on to say you never use the heating, is that never ever or do you sometimes put on an electric fire?

As you are all electric are you on an economy 7 tariff as presumably you have storage heaters? If so then you must hardly be using any night time units, even your water heating will be on the day tariff which will be more expensive than a normal tariff.
If you are not on E7 then disregard this.

macman

If you failed to submit actual meter readings in 12 months, then this is the inevitable consequence-you've got a big catch up bill.
If you are on E7, your hot water set is entirely wrong-you're paying for 6 hours at peak rate, then it's cooling down again overnight. It should be set to come on for a couple of hours during the night cheap rate hours. A well lagged tank will keep hot all ay.

sarah_barker

Notbritishgas - We have never used the heating, the apartment itself is relatively small-ish and doesn't really need it. We did try to once using the digital water/heating thermostat control, it turned on but the storage heaters themselves didn't heat up so gave up and turned it fully off on the timer and have been fine since without it. We are not on an economy 7 tariff, just a standard tariff which is what we were recommended by the British Gas adviser.

It read 42029 in October 2011 (we read), 42574 in December 2011 (read by meter reader) and has been estimated ever since until the maintenance man read it yesterday for us and it came out as 46720...

molerat

4691 kWh in 1.25 years = 3752 kWh a year which is pretty average for an all electric property. The key is reading your meter regularly to protect your interests.

notbritishgas

Well the first two actual readings give a result that ties in with your stated usage. Obviously I do not know when in Oct and Dec they were taken but I have assumed it was about a 2 and a half month period.

But it is the next 12 months , did you actually see the reading taken by the maintenance man? Could he have misread it.

fenners

Me and my partner have just moved into a 3 bed house December 16th. We didnt have an electric cooker until the second week in January we have our heating on at night for around 2 hours at the most we have an iPad and laptop one tv..no washing machine as of yet and a fridge freezer. Our bill came to 169 70 for elec and 90 for gas and that was for a month! I really don't get it we both work all day and no one is in..any help.?

Perelandra

In terms of tariff, Clear and Simple isn't the cheapest tariff that BG have- Online Variable will probably be cheapest for you, or Discount Variable if you want to pay by Cash/Cheque. However, please be aware that these two tariffs do have cancellation fees on them (which probably wouldn't matter if you're moving home).

If you go here:

http://www.britishgas.co.uk/content/britishgas/products-and-services/gas-and-electricity/our-energy-tariffs/online-variable-february-2014/online-variable-rates.html

and compare the unit rates for your postcode with here:

http://www.britishgas.co.uk/content/britishgas/products-and-services/gas-and-electricity/our-energy-tariffs/clear-and-simple/clear-and-simple-rates.html

You'll probably find Online Variable is cheaper for you.


NB: I work for British Gas. Any views I express in my posts are my own, and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.