Staggering Bills

ap35

Hi, my latest quarterly electric and gas bill was 1780 pounds. These figures are really bad, it was 1050 in gas and 730 electric, I'm paying around 4500 a year and thats going higher still. We have a 5 bedroom house, is it possible I have meter problems and am being way overcharged? does anyone else have similar bills? I really need some suggestions on getting this down. Thanks. I'm about to switch to npower as e.on raised their rates recently by 15%. I'm going to switch to led bulbs as the whole house has spotlights and that's expensive. My gut feeling is there's something wrong with the readings, unless this is normal for big homes, and the long winter made it worse.

mysk_girl

That is staggering. I have a 5 bed house as well, it's an old cottage with solid walls (good roof insulation and double glazing though), and I pay £103 per month for gas and electric combined. We have just had our quarterly bill and are £11 in debit at the start of the summer, so we should make that up over the summer now the heating is off. I do have woodburner as well, and I reckon we spent about £120 on wood this winter to boost the heating on bitterly cold days.

Start by looking at your heating? How long/what temp are you heating the house to? We heat ours 1 hr in the morning and 4 in the evening (it's off now for the summer though) and thermostat is at 17deg. We have warm jumpers and slippers if we are cold.

Also are you on a very expensive tariff?

Barneysmom

It could be normal but we don't really know the size of your house.
But get rid of those bulbs right now, they eat electric.
Check all round the house for gaps this year before the next winter comes in, get them nicely sealed.
There are loads of ways to keep that heat in the house so you don't need to have your thermostat so high.

I pay £100 a month for gas, though that's never enough so I have to bung in an extra £100 here and there when I can. The elec is about £45 a month.
Don't forget the more you have your central heating on, the higher your elec too as it needs to run the pump etc.

Go through the links that Pink has kindly posted in the first post on this page,
see if you can save as much as possible next winter.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4202003

mysk_girl

Also check if your gas meter is metric or imperial and that you have been charged correctly. Can make a 3x difference if incorrect...

AndysDad

What was your bill this time last year ?...this should give you some idea if it about right (Hope this is not the case) or if there is something wrong with your meter.

Ecodave

As above, check that you are being charged for the correct type of meter, metric or imperial. After that, to give good advice, we would need to know more information about your house and heating systems, along with your typical heating patterns, what energy tariff you are on and importantly, how much insulation is used in your loft and walls.

ap35

I'm on E.On saveonline 12, this is the cheapest tariff i could find. We have poor insulation as there isn't a loft above the bedrooms, they are eaves bedrooms. I think our heating is on all the time, and regulated through radiator thermostats? I'm interested what is better was to regulate the heating so it doesn't heat rooms unnecessarily. We only have one master thermostat for the whole house which is always on.

ap35

mysk_girl wrote: »

Also check if your gas meter is metric or imperial and that you have been charged correctly. Can make a 3x difference if incorrect...

The gas meter says ft3 on it, so I think its imperial. The bills shows usage of 877 units based on my readings. They say that translates to 27.5 kwH. Do you think this is right? They charge approx 1100 pounds for 27.5 kWh of gas. If this is right I guess I seriously need some gas efficiency check.

Ecodave

You may have a programmer on your boiler which would allow you to set times that the heating will come on/go off. You should ideally have thermostatic radiator valves that would allow you to turn down or turn off radiators in rooms.These valves are attached directly to the radiators, and have a knob to control the settings. They aren't that expensive, and would have paid for themselves within a few years.

In your "eaves rooms" the amount of insulation that has been applied to the elements of the rooms will depend on the prevailing building control regulations (subject to building control being aware of the development if they weren't done on construction). You say that there isn't a loft above the eaves rooms, can i take it that they have vaulted ceilings then? Or did you mean there is no access to whatever loft space there is?

You haven't mentioned your walls, are they solid? Cavity? with or without insulation?

Your energy tariff appears to be set at 2% below the standard tariff, so not the greatest, or the worst. As a rule of thumb, I would expect to be able to get 6% off the standard tariff, just by having online billing and paying by direct debit.

Ecodave

I think the conversion shows that you have consumed 27500 kW/h of gas not 27.5 kW/h, is that right? This is would be about right for an imperial meter with 877 units.

I am not sure your electric charges are correct though, could you confirm what type of heating system you have? Could you also confirm whether or not the readings on your latest and previous bills were from actual meter readings or estimates. A very rough calculation (based on the quarterly bill being for 90 days) shows that you are consuming 60+ kW/h of electricity per day. Cannabis farm?

Fire_Fox

Double and triple check all the meter readings, start and finish, that they are actual not estimated and accurate. Double and triple check your bill and meter are both in cubic feet. It's really not likely both your gas and electricity meters are faulty, more likely your house/ habits. Run your actual usage figures in KWH through a price comparison site.

Get electric underblankets with overnight settings and use them on beds of adults and older children, these cost pennies to run. Then turn bedroom heating down to frost protect or off completely. Look at any insulation improvements you can make - ceiling void, cavity wall, new windows, blackout linings on curtains or blinds. Heating absolutely should not be on 24/7 only when needed or you are paying to heat the street! Turn the thermostat to 18-20C and wear an extra layer of clothing.

Other than that your big energy guzzlers are a power shower (everyone start having timed showers/ water off when soaping up/ strip wash sometimes/ ladies use leave in conditioner), laundry on higher temperatures (don't have to wash everything after one wear, turn temp down) and tumble dryer (rotary airers or lines outside).

LED lights are useless unless you spend a small fortune on them, you can get energy saving halogen lamps if that is what you mean (MR16/ GU10). Either switch from 50W to 35W or purchase brands like Philips Masterline ES or Osram Decostar ES. Consider installing PIR sensors in some areas or 'sanctioning' household members for leaving lights on. But TBH it's not likely lighting or gadgets that is the main issue, it's anything that produces large amounts of heat or hot water.