Do my bills and usage seem high to you?

ganderson1804

This is my first mse post so i'm hoping someone can help!

We (husband, 10m baby and myself) live in a 3bed semi.

Eon provide our gas and electric (Eon Energy Online) and we pay £167 a month and they produce a bill quarterly once we submit meter readings.

I've reviewed our usage from 2011 and compared it to 2012 and it said our usage had increased 120%!! I obviously spent more time at home last year due to being on maternity leave but generally our heating and hot water come on for a couple hours in the morning, 4 hours in the evening. Sometimes we leave it on all night but only when its very cold weather. Also it is on during the day sometimes if we are at home on weekends.

This is our current bill - i'm afraid it doesn't mean much to me...

Before this statement f £285.75 CR
Balance on last statement - 14 Dec 2012 £178.25
Your payments - thanks

£130.00 CR on 27 Dec 12 £167.00 CR on 28 Jan 13 £167.00 CR on 26 Feb 13

£464.00 CR
On this statement f £632.59
Electricity and gas charges - see back for info £669.39
Discount £66.92 CR
VAT at 5% on £602.47 £30.12

Your new balance is £346.84

Electricity readings

Period Meter no. Previous Present Rate kilowatt hours

14 Dec 12 to 18 Jan 13 9524067 95616 C 95975 E Normal 359
18 Jan 13 to 18 Mar 13 9524067 95975 E 96580 C Normal 605

Gas readings How do we work out your gas? Details on the right

Period Meter no. Previous Present Units kilowatt hours

14 Dec 12 to 18 Jan 13 05026554 8097 C 8244 E 147 hcf 4680

•147 units x 2.83 (to get cubic metres) x 1.02264 (conversion factor) x 39.6 (calorific value) ÷ 3.6 (to get kilowatt hours) = 4680 kWh•

18 Jan 13 to 18 Mar 13 05026554 8244 E 8493 C 249 hcf 7927

•249 units x 2.83 (to get cubic metres) x 1.02264 (conversion factor) x 39.6 (calorific value) ÷ 3.6 (to get kilowatt hours) = 7927 kWh•

E.ON EnergyOnline
18 Jan 13 to 18 Mar 13

Normal 605 kilowatt hours (kWh) used at 13.35p each £80.77
Standing Charge 59 days at 26.09p per day £15.39
£96.16

Gas charges

E.ON EnergyOnline (No Standing Charge)
14 Dec 12 to 18 Jan 13

Gas 4,680 kilowatt hours (kWh) used
first 257kWh at 8.165p each
next 4,423kWh at 3.552p each
£20.98
£157.10
£178.08

E.ON EnergyOnline
18 Jan 13 to 18 Mar 13

Gas 7,927 kilowatt hours (kWh) used at 4.128p each £327.23
Standing Charge 59 days at 26.09p per day £15.39
£342.62

Total charges

Total electricity and gas charges (excluding discounts and VAT) £669.39

Can anyone help? I dont know if our usage and bills are high or if these are pretty average?

Thank you in advance
Gillian

HappyMJ

I'm sure they try to make bills as confusing as possible.

You are using quite a bit of gas. 134kWh of gas per day is in my opinion quite high. Time to turn the thermostat down. Shut off any radiators in unoccupied rooms such as bedrooms during the day and the lounge at night.

If you have a hot water cylinder then turn the thermostat down a little. Check for leaks. Turn the boiler off before you go to bed and try using hot water in the morning. There should still be plenty of hot water.

Fire_Fox

It's not just how many hours the heating and hot water come on, but what temperature the air/ water is to begin with. It's been a very cold winter, many people have used more heating. Most people with a new baby do loads more laundry and tumble drying as well as being home more.

There should be no need to leave your heating on overnight for the full house, just get a heated underblanket for your bed with an overnight setting or leave your bedroom on if baby sleeps with you. Otherwise you are paying to heat the street much of the night!

Also many bills are 'catch up' if you don't read the meter regularly, do you?

ganderson1804

I read the meter whenever eon ask me to, every quarter so my bills, I believe, are based on my actual readings and not estimates.

How can I have the heating on in only a few rooms? I know you can obviously go round each room every night and turn them all up or down but is this the only way?

Sorry please excuse my ignorance!

northernsoul

My house is a 3 bed terrace 3 adults. Weekdays heating on 1.5hrs morning, 5 hrs evening. Weekends about 10hrs each day
Gas 14 Dec to 18 Jan was 2306kWh (but was on hol for 1 week and would expect about 3100kWh). Gas 18 Jan to 18 Mar 4961kWh
Electric 14 Dec to 18 Jan 525kWh. 18 Jan to 18 Mar 933kWh.
From the way i read it you have a 'C' next to both your gas and electricity readings at the start (14 Dec) and end (18 March) so those should be actual customer readings. The readings on the 18 Jan have a 'E' next to them indicating an estimate. So therefore 14 Dec to 18 Mar are actual readings (as far as i understand)

HappyMJ

Ganderson1804 wrote: »

I read the meter whenever eon ask me to, every quarter so my bills, I believe, are based on my actual readings and not estimates.

How can I have the heating on in only a few rooms? I know you can obviously go round each room every night and turn them all up or down but is this the only way?

Sorry please excuse my ignorance!

They are actual readings with an estimate in the middle for a tariff change but it doesn't make much difference as the initial reading was customer provided and the last reading was customer provided.

It isn't the only way but it is the cheapest way. The lower the radiators are set the less the heating will come on. You don't really need the heating on at all at night and you don't need the heating on in the bedrooms during the day so the TRV's (if you have them) can be set to the lowest settings such as the frost setting or maybe 1 if that is too cold. Any heat from downstairs will help heat upstairs as the heat rises overnight so it shouldn't get too cold. If it does then consider getting an electric blanket as suggested. You could also get an oil filled radiator for the babies room if you think that room is too cold....and an electric heater is always useful as a backup or for heating just one small room. Running one low powered electric 800W radiator is cheaper than running the central heating boiler heating the entire house. Get a thermometer with min/max recording so you can see if the room stays between 16 and 20 degrees which is what NHS recommend a babies room should be set at. A cheap one costs around £10.

You have 3 bedrooms so the unused third bedroom should be turned off completely and the door closed.

Pont

I can only say that I have a 3 bed (quite spacious) semi which is as draughty as hell! Only me and 1 teenage girl at home. She spends ages in the shower every day, whacks the tumble dryer on at the drop of a hat, whacks the heating up and walks around in shorts - need I say more! Got to admit, in this cold snap I have been known (!) to crank up the heating/fire because I hate feeling cold. However, I do not have the rads in my room on during the night (frost setting only).

We're with EDF and spend £83pm for gas and electricity. I give readings every 3 months and the DDs are generally pretty close to the mark.

Heating/water on for 1 hour every morning and approx 5 hours every night (more at weekends when we're both home during the day).

Take a look at comparison sites - entering your useage, not your cost - and see if you can get better deals. Also turn your thermostat down by a degree or two, you won't really 'feel' the difference - except via your bill.

As Fire Fox suggested, those with a new baby are likely to be using the tumble dryer more and, oh dear, those monsters suck up electricity like no tomorrow.

Pont

Btw, It appears that both your gas and electricity is markedly up for the period January - March - anything out of the norm?

HappyMJ

Pont wrote: »

Btw, It appears that both your gas and electricity is markedly up for the period January - March - anything out of the norm?

I don't see that. The electric usage is 964kWh for 3 months which is quite reasonable. The reading in the middle of the dates is estimated so the usage has been apportioned evenly over the different charging periods.

Pont

HappyMJ wrote: »

I don't see that. The electric usage is 964kWh for 3 months which is quite reasonable. The reading in the middle of the dates is estimated so the usage has been apportioned evenly over the different charging periods.

I was reading the useage as Dec to Jan 359 and Jan to March 605 (electricity)
Dec to Jan 4680 kwh and Jan to March 7397 kwh (gas).

Didn't note that these readings were estimated ie.useage apportioned.

Guess the OP will have to be a saddo like me and take readings every week (and keep a spreadsheet!) to figure out useage.

Btw, my gas useage is approx 16,000 kwh pa. So as you say 964 kwh for the 3 coldest months of the year is doable.

nicesurf

The company will always be true, they have record...they have arguments..just write them conplaint and following month would be evaluated.