Gas bill, please can someone help me!!!

lucy_b

closed wrote: »

take a reading, put the heating on for 1 hour, take a reading

if it's gone up by about 20kwh (1.77m3) or less, the meters probably fine, and you need to look at usage (hours on), thermostat settings,
and insulation

electricity usage is high too, what bulbs have you got, what are you heating or chilling

it changed from 9332765 to 9334029, includes all the numbers on the meter and heating on for 1 hour, no hot water used etc.

Soleil_lune

lucy_b wrote: »

Hi I am really in need of some help!!

I live in an old house, 3 bedrooms and have a gas combi boiler. We have no other gas appliances, no cooker fire etc, just the boiler.

I live with my husband and 3 children. We have paid 170 a month for 2 years and last October we had a deficit and Scottish power asked us to increase our monthly payments to 250.00. We could not afford this but they would only budge 10 pound-still too high for us- so rightly or wrongly I deleted the Direct Debit and have paid 170 a month every month via internet banking. I presumed the bill would even out over the summer as speaking to family and friends we do pay a lot.


However we now have a bill which shows we now owe 1100 pounds. I have had a million discussions with scottish power over this and looking back through bills our consumption for gas is over 43000 a year. Very high. The average UK household uses 20500 (i got this info from offgem) We have an old boiler, not sure how old maybe nearly 10/11 years (its Vokera 28) but can this really consume 43000 of gas a year??

Lucy:money:

Wow, that is a MASSIVE bill! Makes you wonder if (once people have a zero balance) it may be better to go with a prepayment meter. These amounts sound like the energy companies are ripping people off big style - especially reading the post from the poster who said that her bill was £250 for 6 weeks!

closed

if thats 9332.765 - 9334.029 ( 4 black and 3 red numbers? ) http://www.britishgas.co.uk/business/manage-account/how-to-read-meter.html

1.264m3 1st hour = about 14.22kwh = about right for a 20-28 kwh boiler

subsequent hours should use less, trv should be set so no room ever gets too hot, once each room is comfortable temp the rad should go cold (apart from one or two non trvs left open to protect pump)

also means you've used 581m3 in the last 157 days, or 3.7m3 pr 42kwh per day, compared to 1576 in the previous winters 87 days - 18.11m3/day 204kwh/day

bob_bank_spanker

Soleil_lune wrote: »

Wow, that is a MASSIVE bill! Makes you wonder if (once people have a zero balance) it may be better to go with a prepayment meter. These amounts sound like the energy companies are ripping people off big style - especially reading the post from the poster who said that her bill was £250 for 6 weeks!

Is this for real?

As has been stated in previous threads started by you, PPM's are no more expensive than suppliers standard tariff.

However, standard tariff is the most expensive tariff suppliers have. By switching to a PPM you are guaranteeing yourself the worst possible tariff.

How do you possibly know energy companies are ripping people off? People could have big bills because they have got into debt? £250 for 6 weeks is quite normal, possibly even on the low side for winter.

What is for sure is that if you save money with a PPM, it's only because you are using less energy. Which you could do anyway, without shooting yourself in the foot.