New home - bill advice

little-jo-jo

Hiya,

My boyfriend and I have just moved into our first home together and I was after some advice on what we can expect our total outgoings to be? (we haven't received any bills yet)
obviously we've estimated to an extent but neither of us really have any experience of this kind of thing

We are living in a 1-bed flat, living room/kitchen is open plan and quite last, 1 medium size bedroom, 1 bathroom and small hallway.
Our heating is electric and on a timer to only come on for a couple of hours each morning and evening.
Our water is on constant as somebody has told us this will work out cheaper than on/off on/off kinda thing.

Roughly what kind of utility bills can we be expecting to receive each month? Any help or advice of keeping our costs low is very welcome.

Thanks xx

Nada666

People could make unhelpful guesstimates of "between £35 to £160" per month on electricity alone.

Or you could read your meter and work out how much you use on a week to week and a day to day basis and use that to see if you want to adjust your comfort according to your spend (or vice versa).

Remember not to be too shocked at the readings in winter - they will be much lower once the heating is off.

Leaving the hot water on constantly is very unlikely to be cheaper.

little-jo-jo

Thanks for your help Nada. How do I use the meter readings to tell how much we are using? (in £s)? Sorry I'm totally useless and don't really have any idea about this sort of thing.

Thanks

little-jo-jo

Plus we don't have a water meter, only an electric one so how can we work out the water usage? :S

Nada666

You should keep track of your electricity just using the reading in kWhs. Each kWh will cost between 12p and 17p depending on your tariff. In addition there will be a monthly charge of £5 to £12 (either as a tier 1 rate or a daily standing charge).

As you are electricity only you can concentrate on the tier 2 or unit rate as you will be paying the montly charge regardless (well, unless you never do any cooking).

dude89

little-jo-jo wrote: »

Thanks for your help Nada. How do I use the meter readings to tell how much we are using? (in £s)? Sorry I'm totally useless and don't really have any idea about this sort of thing.

Thanks

Take a reading now (reading a)
Take a reading in 7 days (reading b)

(Reading a) - (reading b) = weekly usage in kwhs

Then multiply your usage by the price per kwh that you are paying.

Do the same if you are on economy 7. Very common for all electic properties

HappyMJ

little-jo-jo wrote: »

Plus we don't have a water meter, only an electric one so how can we work out the water usage? :S

You would be billed on rateable value then and usage does not matter. However, if you wish you could request a meter and if they can't install one then you can be billed on the assessed charge if it's less. You would nned to look at your suppliers website to see if it's worth it or not. Your rateable value may be very low anyway and it may not be worth requesting a meter.

The water is cheaper timed but the difference is so small that I leave mine on 24/7 just so I have hot water whenever I want. If you have an economy 7 meter you should have two immersion heater elements. One (bottom one) should be connected to the E7 circuit and only come on at night and therefore should be left on all the time. The top immersion should be set at a lower temperature (50) and will only come on if the water temperature falls so low that it needs to reheat it a little more. It will give you enough water to wash your hands and dishes but not enough for a full bath. The cost difference is pennies per day.

little-jo-jo

Thanks for all your help everybody. I have the meter reading from when we moved in so will check again tonight and have a little estimate how much we've used so far.

macman

Assuming that you don't have E7, then unfortunately you are on the most expensive form of heating: all electric single rate. All you can do is sort out your insulation and make sure you are on the cheapest tariff via a comp site.
No, it is not cheaper to leave your water heating on 24/7, a couple of hours morning an evening should be enough. A properly lagged hot water tank will not lose too much heat during the day.
You can calculate your water bill once you know the RV of the property.

vuvuzela

little-jo-jo wrote: »

Thanks for all your help everybody. I have the meter reading from when we moved in so will check again tonight and have a little estimate how much we've used so far.

When you say water is on all the time, what exactly do you mean ? If it's an immersion heater, it is unlikely to work out cheaper leaving it on.

macman

The OP means that the switch is 'on' 24/7, so it's cycling on and off under the control of the immersion 'stat.
It's not 'unlikely' to work out cheaper. It will not work out cheaper (unless the OP has a magic hot water tank that is 100% heat retaining).
However, that said, the losses should not be great, and any escaping heat warms the house, so is not directly 'lost'.